Organizational Gardening
Summer sales season in Utah is well underway. I’ve gotten many knocks on my door in the last month or so trying to sell me this or that. Culturally, we have a joke about the “Sales Bros” that are almost as distinctive as our Mormon missionaries. These guys, with their wide brim hats, polos, and company lanyards, are smooth talkers and often have fancy tech. The most famous of these bros will try to sell you pest control. I get this. Pest control sounds like an easy business model. It operates off the assumption that most family homes have a simple backyard. It is probably composed of mostly lawn, with a play place and a gathering place. Promising a family that you’ll get rid of the pests that make those places uncomfortable (wasps, spiders, and rodents) seems like an easy sell. When these guys knock on my door, however, they get a fun lesson in understanding ecosystems.
Don’t worry, I usually warn them and give them an opportunity to walk away first. I tell them that I take great pride in my own pest control. It’s when the guy won’t listen and really wants to close the deal that invite him to take a walk in my garden with me. Our conversation goes a little something like this:
“One year I did pay for pest control. It’s true that I wasn’t dealing with wasps that year, however, I had more grasshoppers eating my garden than I ever had before. I found out that wasps are omnivores – and are known to hunt grasshoppers.”
“Really?! I had no idea”
“Crazy, right? It was then that I began making more effort to understand the ecosystem in my yard.”
I then usually do a little quiz by finding a bug and asking them to identify it. Rarely are they able to identify it correctly. The harm with many of these systemic insecticides it that as much as the sales bro promises me, they target more than just those basic pests and can often cause me more problems than they help.
I see organizational health like I do a garden. Obviously, we don’t want a yard or organization that is dying. However, assuming that all yards/orgs are the same and that they have just a basic functional structure is not enough. True, functional gets the job done, but can simply functioning be considered flourishing?
To illustrate, my yard has those functional pieces—a lawn, a playground, a seating area—however, the best part of my yard is the garden beds. These garden beds are my pride and joy. It is here that I’ve learned the beauty of diversity. I’ve learned how to layer colors, textures, and heights. I’ve learned what plants can thrive in the harsh conditions of the mountain desert. I’ve learned how to create a structure to allow for growth as living in my growing zone means that I need to provide supplemental water to my garden. However, I’ve also learned that no plan is perfect enough to account for a plant that behaves differently than the plant tag said it would. It means that I’ve also learned to be flexible enough to adapt when a plant surprises me. I’ve learned to spot treat problems such as pests and disease. I’ve also learned how to attract natural predators of those pests and disease by enhancing the environment. I do use chemicals in my yard, but I do so sparingly and as a last resort. I’ve learned that I can’t leave it all to mother nature (otherwise, I’d have dried grass and sagebrush as my garden!) Instead, I must work alongside her. It’s a culture-- a network of growing, living things.
Imagine operating an organization that way. It may look something like this: Having a plan and creating a backbone of structure while also tending to the possibilities that the living things present to you. Trying to place people in positions that match their strengths and help them thrive. Feeding their needs and encouraging their growth. Learning how to watch for dangers that threaten the entire garden as well as tending to the struggles of individual plants that may need some special attention. Learning how to attract the relationships that will naturally help the organization thrive. Learning how to adapt when natural events create chaos in your space. It means instead of seeing your organization as a systematic structure, you’re seeing it as an ecosystem. One that adapts, grows, is interdependent, provides function AND can add beauty to the world. That sounds like flourishing to me.
As we look at our organizations, I challenge you to not boil them down to only their most scalable parts. Those parts do matter and add value to revenue goals, however, they are not all that the organization is capable of. Let’s avoid immediately reaching for systematic treatments that sanitize the potential diversity in the organization. True, they may target what you think your issues are, but they can also invite bigger problems down the road (much like targeting the hornets in my yard encouraged a grasshopper infestation.) Instead, I encourage you to learn how to spot treat your problems. I hope that you will encourage natural flourishing by getting to know your people, tending to their growth potential, and encouraging your ecosystem to thrive.
The fundamentals of gardening are the same across the world, but no two gardens are exactly same. I think that is a beautiful thing.
Thanks for reading with me today. I hope you find some joy in tending to the growing things around you today.