Lessons from wild garlic

I was walking in the woods with a friend the other day and the ground was densely covered with wild garlic.  As I have another friend who is very partial to this, I noted its location and recollected that it could be difficult to find, and yet here it was growing abundantly.  It occurred to me that if you provide the right conditions, in this case moist, loamy & slightly  acidic soil, then things thrive. 

What, may you ask, does this teach us?  Well it got me thinking that in companies, if you want certain behaviours or values to thrive, then you have to provide the right conditions and culture for them to grow.  So many times the bosses will decide that they want x, y or z to happen but they fail to follow through with building an environment that encourages this.  Building a culture is a subtle and complex art but crucial to make Change root strongly.  Like so many other things, it starts at the top and requires modelling by the leaders.

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.”  Shakespeare

“A garden requires patient labour and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfil good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.”   Liberty Hyde Bailey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 at 15:02 and is filed under Business Change, Hints, Tips & Techniques, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.