Why Separate "Permaculture Work" From "People Work" Was Always a Mistake

Nature doesn't separate ecology from social systems.

Neither should we.

The Problem We're Trying to Solve

Twenty years ago, the permaculture movement had a theory: Teach people ecological design, and they'll create regenerative communities. Give them the tools to read landscapes, understand patterns, design sustainable systems, and the rest will follow. If we just focus on the ecology, other people can fix the rest.

It didn't work.

At the same time, the social change movement had a theory: Get the decision-making right, build strong organizations, develop good leadership, and sustainable outcomes will follow. Fix the human systems, and the planet and humanity will thrive.

That isn't working either.

Because here's what nobody wanted to admit: You can't separate them. You never could.

What I Kept Seeing: The Pattern

Beautiful Designs That Failed

For the first ten years of my permaculture practice, I watched project after project fail—not because the design was wrong, but because the people couldn't work together over time.

Example 1: The Family Farm that didn't

I designed a family farm with a direct market outlet and additional business income from opportunity on the land. The family had a farm manager and the resources to invest. But, everyone was at odds with how to proceed. The design map became an expensive piece of art on the wall...a someday maybe.

Example 2: The Ecovillage That Dissolved

A forming ecovillage hired me for site design. Brilliant plan—water catchment, food production, habitat restoration, cooperative business, beautiful integration. Three years later, the land was sold. Why? Founder syndrome, burnout, no process for shared decision-making. The land design was irrelevant because the organizational design was insufficient.

The pattern was undeniable: Ecological design fails without good decision-making that can be sustained through decades.

The Reverse Problem: Strong Organizations

With No Ecological Grounding

But I also watched the opposite failure.

Nonprofits with solid governance structures—clear roles, smooth meetings, good decision-making—that had completely lost touch with their mission. They were "about" environmental protection or land conservation, but everyone worked inside, in offices, managing abstractions and practicing decision-making in a way that fostered power over rather than relationship. The organization was efficient, but soulless.

Cooperatives with beautiful democratic processes that burned through members because nobody asked: What does it actually mean to tend this work? What does it mean to care for each other? How do we stay connected to why this matters?

I saw organizations that functioned well but had forgotten they were supposed to be part of the change and part of nature, not managing it from the outside.

Humans as Nature

When we design from the deep knowing that humans are nature—when we feel it, not just think it—everything changes.

The Integration Most People Miss

Here's what I eventually understood:

Most people talk about "integrating permaculture" and they go on to start a project with little experience in organizational development as if they're two separate things being brought together. Land work + people work. Ecology + governance.

But that framing is already wrong.

There's a third integration that makes the first two possible: remembering that humans are nature.

When we treat "ecology" and "human systems" as separate domains, we're operating from the disconnection that caused our problems in the first place.

In nature, there is no separation:

A forest is its trees AND its fungi AND its birds AND its soil AND its water AND the humans who walk through it
All one system, all participating in creating the whole
Structure and relationship aren't separate—they're the same thing
The physical and the social aren't divided—they're interwoven

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What Integration Actually Looks Like:

Design Principles That Apply to Everything

Once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it:

Decentralized Authority

In ecosystems: No oak tree is "in charge" of the forest

In organizations: Dynamic Governance distributes authority through consent and circles

Same pattern. One is ecological, one is organizational, but they're both expressions of living systems organizing themselves.

Reciprocal Relationships

In ecosystems: Mycorrhizal networks—trees sharing resources underground

In organizations: Cooperative economics, mutual aid, shared resources

Extractive relationships fail in nature. They fail in organizations too. Regeneration requires reciprocity.

Diversity Creates Resilience

In ecosystems: Polyculture vs. monoculture

In organizations: Diverse teams, diverse perspectives, distributed knowledge

Homogeneous systems are fragile. Whether we're talking about cornfields or corporations.

Feedback Loops and Adaptation

In ecosystems: Constant sensing and adjusting

In organizations: Regular retrospectives, consent process allowing objections, built-in review cycles

Systems that don't adapt die. Nature knows this. Good governance also knows this.

Succession Planning

In ecosystems: Pioneer species → climax forest

In organizations: Leadership transition, avoiding founder syndrome

Long-term thinking isn't optional. We have to design beyond our own lifespans.

Edge Effects and Creative Overlap

In ecosystems: The forest edge where the meadow meets trees—maximum diversity

In organizations: Where different perspectives meet, creativity emerges

The overlap isn't a problem to resolve. It's where the magic happens.

These aren't metaphors.

These are patterns.

Nature has been solving the problems we're struggling with for 3.8 billion years. When we design human systems that mirror natural patterns, they work. When we don't, they fail.

Why Integration Fails (And How to Do It Right)

The Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Adding Governance as an Afterthought

"We have our permaculture design. Now we need some governance." No. You need to design them together from the beginning. The land design shapes who does what. The organizational structure shapes how the land gets tended.

Mistake 2: Treating People Work as "Soft" and Land Work as "Real" Facilitation, conflict resolution, group process—these aren't nice add-ons. They're foundational skills. If you can't navigate human dynamics, your beautiful swales won't get dug. Your guilds won't get planted. Your vision won't get implemented. This is true - even in a partnership project.

Mistake 3: Forgetting the Foundation - Relationship

You can have perfect permaculture design and perfect sociocracy and still fail if there's no relationship—to the land, to each other, to why you're doing this. Integration requires connection.

How to do it right

Start With Observation Whether designing land systems or organizational systems: Observe. Listen. Pay attention before planning. What does the land need? What do the people need? What's actually happening here?

Ask Integration Questions

How does the land design shape governance? (If we're planting a food forest, who tends it? How are decisions made about harvesting?)
How does governance shape land care? (If we burn people out, the land suffers. If we build caretaking culture, the land thrives. Surprise, every organization has a relationship to the land.)
Where is the disconnection? (Are we treating land like a resource? Are we treating people like resources? Both fail.)

Design for Caretaking Whether it's land or organizations: Design for care, not extraction. Design for relationship, not control. Design for the long term, not quarterly returns.

Build Connection Practices Meetings that start with silence. Decisions made while walking on the land. Governance circles that begin with gratitude. Nature connection practices are woven throughout. These aren't extras—they're the foundation that makes everything else work.

Three Types of Integration:

For clarity, here's the three-part integration I bring to our collaboration:

Integration 1: Permaculture Design + Organizational Development Land systems and human systems designed together. Ecological patterns informing governance. Organizational health enables land stewardship.

Integration 2: Technical Skills + Facilitation/People Skills Practitioners who can both design excellent systems AND navigate the human dynamics of implementation. Teaching people to be facilitators, not just technicians.

Integration 3: All of It + Nature Connection The foundation underneath. Presence, attention, and relationship with the living world. The practice that makes everything else possible.

This is what I mean by integration. Not mixing separate things, but recognizing they were never separate.

Why this matters now:

The World Doesn't Need More Fragmentation

We're facing:

Ecological collapse
Organizational dysfunction
Widespread burnout
Disconnection from place and each other
Loss of meaning and purpose

These aren't separate problems requiring separate solutions.

They're all symptoms of the same fragmentation: We forgot we're part of nature. We built systems that extract instead of tend. We prioritized efficiency over relationship. We separated what was always whole.

Regenerative work—whether with land or people or culture—requires reintegration.

Not as a nice idea, but as the foundation of how we design, how we organize, how we live.

Permaculture taught us: Design with nature, not against it.

Now we need to take it all the way: We ARE nature. Our governance systems, our organizations, our work—all of it needs to reflect natural patterns.

When we design from wholeness instead of fragmentation, from relationship instead of extraction, from caretaking instead of control—we create systems that actually work. That regenerate instead of degrade. That feed life instead of consuming it.

This is what integration offers. Not a methodology, but a remembering.

How I Practice This:

In my personal practice:

Daily sit spot (nature connection)

Regular participation in sociocracy circles (organizational practice)

Ongoing design work on my own land (permaculture practice)

Weekly tracking and observation (deepening relationship)

Continuing education in all three domains

I practice integration because it's the only thing I've found that actually works.

In my teaching:

PDCs: We learn design principles AND facilitation skills AND nature connection practices. Students leave able to create excellent designs AND lead the conversations needed to implement them AND stay grounded in relationship with place.

Advanced Program: For practitioners who have design skills but hit the ceiling on people dynamics. Six to 18 months of intensive facilitation training, organizational development skills, nature connection deepening, business development.

In my consulting

Organizational Work: I don't just help nonprofits implement governance structures. I help them reconnect to their mission, build culture of caretaking, design systems that mirror natural patterns.

Integrated Design: When communities or land projects hire me, I design both the land systems and the organizational systems. Because you can't separate them and have either one thrive.

This is the path

For twenty years, I watched the permaculture movement struggle because we didn't address organizational health. I watched mission-driven organizations fail because they lost connection to what they were supposedly protecting. I watched both miss the deeper pattern: we're all nature, and we need to design like it.

Integration isn't optional. It's how thriving systems work.

If you're building something regenerative—a land project, an organization, a community, a life—you need all three: