Lessons from Nature- Part 2

“If we look to the natural world we can discern patterns and principles that help us understand and influence organizations so that we can connect people in positive change.” (Hum, 59).

At first glance, it may not be obvious to associate change and management within an organization as having any connection with nature.  Yet, if we take a closer look at the natural world and its biological systems, there are many lessons to be learned about how human organizations can adapt to and manage change.

Throughout the course of my career working with many different organizations, the most profound lesson I have incorporated in my work is the importance of connectivity.  In both our personal and professional lives, we seek to create connections and relationships.  Animals in their natural environment also pursue this, choosing to live in packs and work together to accomplish a common goal. This interdependence is a key to organizational success in both nature and in the office. Like populations of geese or a pride of lions, organizations where team members understand that they need to rely and lean on each other are far more successful than those that maintain complete independence.

So, the next time you go on a hike or hit the beach on vacation, make sure to take a look around you and try to identify how some of the connections observed in nature organically occur in the most purposeful and efficient parts of your own organization. 

Jury Duty and Connectivity

Do you cringe when you receive a jury summons in your mailbox?  At first glance, jury duty is a burden, both inconvenient and costly.  Not only do you have to rearrange your schedule, but it is usually not a very efficient process once you arrive.  It is easy to get frustrated with our forced role in this bureaucratic system.

Yet, despite the periodic inconveniences inherent in our system, I am proud to be a part of it. In fact, as I sit here in a jury room waiting to be called to serve on a trial, I am struck by how this civic duty provides an opportunity for us to connect with many aspects of our community that we take for granted.  Just think of the many ways a community's vibrancy depends on civic engagement and how many people contribute on a regular basis.  We are connected to others in our community through a web of relationships that determine the quality of our lives, our ability to exercise our rights, and even our safety.  Embracing and contributing to the connectivity in our community will help strengthen, encourage, and improve it and, similar to improving connectivity in our workplace, we all benefit when our community hums.

Millions of people around the world dream of living in a society governed by the Rule of Law. Jury duty has been a valuable reminder of how I am grateful to be a part of a system where my interdependence with my neighbors gives me the opportunity to partake in its ongoing success.

Who Rescued Who?

While walking my dog, Elvis, a few days ago, I saw this bumper sticker that resonated with me on multiple levels.  All of my pets over the years have been rescued from local shelters, and in every case I felt that they indeed rescued me from a more self-centered life to one where their needs required my attention regardless of what was on my agenda.  The companionship they’ve provided (along with other unexpected benefits like protection from intruders) is immeasurable.

On another level, the same can be said for friends and colleagues.  Many times they don’t realize that what I get from them is immeasurable.  Sometimes it’s harder to accept help or appreciation than to give it. Those who “rescue” others—especially for a living—need to balance their lives by recognizing and embracing all they receive from others.  I truly feel that my friends and colleagues have rescued me from so many things.  I don’t remember feeling lonely, bored, or unloved. Their constant connection buoys my spirits, even when I’m in a tough patch, which everyone naturally experiences as part of the cycle of life.

Find ways to connect with others.  Take time to say, “thanks.” Smile at people you pass.  Listen to what’s worrying a friend, even if it’s not your worry.  Walk down to the cubicle of that colleague who just emailed you and connect with her face-to-face to increase the likelihood of a positive result.  Find ways to appreciate the many gifts you are given every day.  A practice I have found helps me put my life in perspective and shift gears at night is to relax before bedtime and mentally count all the things I can remember from the day for which I am grateful.  Try it and let me know what happens.  We should all be there to “rescue” one another.

Dr. Abdi's Camp

Many of you know I am a great admirer of Dr. Abdi, and wrote about her as a model of connectivity in my recent book, HUM.

The camp run by Dr. Hawa Abdi and her daughters was attacked. Thousands of Somalis living in peace, with free access to education and medical care, are now threatened. Help Dr. Hawa rebuild and provide security in her community: http://www.vitalvoices.org/news/2013/07/emergency-appeal-dr-hawa-abdi-camp-attacked

Help Explore Rob's Observation about Teams

At the recent launch of my new book, HUM, I invited participants to raise questions they would like to see addressed by me and blog followers in the coming weeks.  One friend, Rob, wrote in a follow up email:

With the best team on which I ever had the privilege to serve, my biggest concern was that I would let my teammates down. There was an inherent understanding that everyone supported a common purpose, as well as each other. However, it seems that is becoming increasingly rare. It seems that over time we value organizations/teams/communities less and less.  The sense of common purpose, community, and mutual responsibility to each other seems to be eroding in favor of individual performance and accomplishment.  In our neighborhoods, we know our neighbors less than previous generations did.  In our professional careers, we move from company to company vs. established careers with a single company.  How do we instill that common purpose to make our organizations "hum" if some partners simply weren't raised in an environment that emphasized shared purpose (or at least not to the same extent as others)?

Boy, Rob, you identify a really deep issue. It does seem that our parents and grandparents lived in a world where relationships lasted a very long time, including those with employers.  My own grandfather was able to raise a family and retire comfortably after 50 years of service with Ford Motor Company. 

One of the reasons I felt driven to write HUM is because we no longer live in that world of long-term relationships in which loyalty and trust develop over time.  Although we still yearn for that feeling of connectivity, we find it missing in our work, social, and personal relationships.  Why should we be loyal to an employer who would let us go without a moment’s thought if they needed to, regardless of how well we had performed for them?  Why should we pick up the pile of mail from the steps of a vacationing neighbor when we don’t even know him?  The world around us discourages connectivity while we continue to naturally crave it. 

Look around your workplace and among those your business touches for “kindred spirits,” then find ways to build connections with and among these individuals.  We have to be intentional about building these connections, not counting on them to develop naturally over long periods of time.  In fact, isn't this why Friday happy hours were invented?

Ideally, trust and respect are modeled by the leaders of an organization or team, creating a connective culture. If that is not the case where you work, then build a support network of people with whom you can feel that sense of mutual trust and loyalty.  Not only will you feel better about your work, but your team’s performance will dramatically improve.

Let’s hear from others about Rob’s observation that organizations don’t inspire long-term loyalty.  What are your thoughts about how to increase connectivity in an increasingly disjunctive world?

Practicing Resiliency and Gratitude

When I came home to my cottage last night, I noticed pine branches littering my driveway, preventing me from being able to enter. Once I made my way up the cottage, I noticed a screen blown out of the porch door and a 40 pound plant moved across the porch. Hmmm.

I turned on a few lights and discovered heavy metal furniture had been tossed right off the deck. Uh-oh. I straightened up the best I could in the dark, looking forward to hearing from my neighbors in the morning about what kind of gust must have come through to create such a mess.

This morning, I awakened to a yard littered with fallen trees—fallen and transported from someone else’s property! (see photo) My neighbors reported that we were the lucky ones. Further down the island, boats had been blown out of the water and crushed into buildings, trees ripped from the ground and hurled through the air--one with such force that it went in one side of a building and out the other. They won't have phone service or power for a while.

That put today’s unplanned cleanup into perspective. Nobody injured. Even my osprey and barn swallow babies all survived. Just a real mess. Something I could handle.

As I was clearing debris, I couldn’t help thinking about how often this happens in organizations. Some unexpected storm blows in, you discover in stages how widespread the damage is--and then you have to put it into perspective, clean it up, and move on. This takes resiliency, and it is essential in these stormy times for both individuals and organizations. My colleague Al Siebert, author of The Survivor Personality, believes that resiliency can’t be taught, but it can be learned. I used today’s cleanup activities as practice in resiliency and gratitude that my damage hadn't been worse.

As you work toward building connectivity and achieving greater purpose and harmony in your organization, don’t forget to practice resiliency and gratitude. They will serve you well the next time an unexpected storm hits. And, hey, if you recognize the lob lolly pine in the photo as yours, contact me to claim it before I get to clearing that section!