You must be reading this with a smug attitude thinking, of course I don't knowingly break laws. Yes, yes, we all know you always drive the speed limit and never jaywalk.

But I'm not talking about the laws in our judicial system. I'm talking about the laws of nature and your business practices. Not only is the natural world and the business world woven together quite tightly but the rules for survival are the same in both.*

For starters, you have to recognize your business for what it is: a system. Now we can look at the role diversity plays in the survival of a system.

Diversity.

What it is.  My dog-eared copy of The Dictionary of Ecology and Environmental Sciences defines diversity as
the number of different species, and their relative abundance in an area. Diversification is an increase in variety.

What it does. Diversity gives a system options and options  strengthen its adaptability. It can also improve the overall productivity of the system. In other words, a diverse system is a healthy one.

This is why the natural pattern life wants to follow is one of increasing diversity. Strip a system of its diversity and manipulate it into a highly specific niche and you get a hyper-efficient system with extremely high productivity that's always at the brink of collapse.

Scientists use diversity as an indicator of the relative health of an ecosystem (called a diversity index). This same logic can be applied to other systems, including your business.

Some basic examples of diversity:

• in nature. Pandas have a very specialized diet. If they don't have bamboo leaves, they starve. Raccoons on the other hand, have a very diverse diet. As omnivores they will eat just about anything. If one food source dries up they switch to another. Raccoons have been very successful at surviving in a wide range of habitats. Pandas...not at all.

• in a community. For years, Kodak was Rochester's largest employer. Much of the Rochester community depended on Kodak's prosperity. Since Kodak's downturn, Rochester is relying on the collective efforts of a diverse range of small business entrepreneurs to slowly improve its economic viability. 

• in a farm. Think of a dairy farm tapping its stand of maple trees to provide supplemental income. Or a crop farm planting Christmas trees on land too acidic for wheat. These practices bolster the productivity already in place.

• in your business. Incorporate diversity into your business practices to improve its ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances or to strengthen current strategies. Even specialized businesses should have diverse practices at different levels. Are you dependent on one or two revenue sources? What about lead generation? Marketing strategies? Advertising?

Ask yourself, is your business a highly efficient monoculture one step away from disaster or a diversified system capable of long-term survival? Is your business a raccoon or a panda?

In the next issue, I will provide two specific examples of how you can improve lead generation and advertising capacity by increasing your communication diversity.


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