I see little value in wasting energy on the errors of the past (there's multiple posts on my approach to waste to come), we will continue to evolve as will our knowledge, as will the planet around us. George Bernard Shaw wrote "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing" The Doctors Dilema 1913, for to me mistakes provide a wonderful platform for learning.
Both Louise and Dan celebrated what we have achieved with our increased knowledge and called for us to do more of it...just to do it better.
Louise celebrated the humble but much maligned "wonderloaf" tasteless mass produced whit bread found almost ubiquitously in supermarkets across the planet. But what an achievement to have mass produced safe calories on such a scale. She reminded us that we live in an age where only 5% of the population produce the worlds food.with those statistics it is little wonder most are disconnected from its source.
All while us hippy yuppy generation are busy talking local and small scale and a return to doing things by hand. Yikes I agree we must have collectively forgotten what it was like in centuries past for most of our peasant ancestors. No time for blog writing back then!
Louise uses the term regional not local...bigger and more mechanised than the peasants we were but not so big we become disconnected and we loose sight of the impact we are having on our world.
Dan Barber spoke of his friend Miguel in southern Spain who works on a fish farm that doesn't feed its animals, measures success on the health of its predators and is a water filtration plant leaving a positive impact on the environment. All though what I believe epitomises Louise's concept of better science. An ecosystem so perfectly in tune that we all benefit. And as Dan points out it tastes great too. When asked how he got into fish, Miguel is quoted as saying "I know nothing about fish, what I know about is relationships".
So it got me thinking about the concept of smarter science both within the ecosystems of a business and more broadly. Building an ecosystem that is positively contributing to the world in such a way that it is greater than the sum of its parts is what I will continue to dedicate my career too and is a beautiful way to summarise my approach to leadership.
For those who wish to be similarly inspired:
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