How do plants grow?
Question # 1 How well do you prepare the environment?
Farmers and gardeners know you cannot make a plant grow. The plant grows itself. What you do is provide the conditions for growth. And great farmers know what the conditions are and bad ones don’t.
Sources http://youtu.be/aT_121H3kLY http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2012/06/04/you-cannot-make-a-plant-grow-you-can-provide-the-conditions-for-growth/
The innovation plant needs good soil. This means that the environment needs to be carefully considered.
http://innovateonpurpose.blogspot.com/2011/05/staking-out-innovation-success.html
Prepare the ground for planting. This task includes removing obstacles that will interfere with growth, as well enriching the fertility of the soil.
http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2010/01/post.shtml
Preparation gives you a chance to really figure out what you’re doing before you really start.
http://www.happenchance.net/8-lessons-in-creative-work-i-learned-from-my-garden/
Question # 2 Where do you plant?
As with gardens, it’s best to design creation spaces minimally
at the outset and then let them create a life of their own, layering in additional design elements over time.
https://hbr.org/2009/04/three-elements-you-need-for-su
An important feature of an ecosystem is the interconnection
and interdependency of each part in the ecosystem and the ability to add specific qualities to the whole.
http://www.cld.academy/a-garden-metaphor-for-leadership-development/
Question # 3 What technologies do you use to help plants grow?
I suggest that a company be viewed not as a member of a single industry but as part of a business ecosystem
that crosses a variety of industries.
http://d2mtr37y39tpbu.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DUP_1048-Business-ecosystems-come-of-age_MASTER_FINAL.pdf
Just as a gardener needs to put in place the canes, cloches and trellises to support the new seedlings, so you need to ensure there is useful technology to support learning.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/knowledge-manager-gardener-organic-metaphor-nick-milton
Question # 4 How quickly do you remove weeds that block growth?
To avoid developing a culture in which people do not help each other, remove internal competition incentives.
http://www.nickmilton.com/2010/05/pouring-weedkiller-on-km-garden.html
Complexity is like a weed in the garden that can always creep back in. Do not let the weeds grow.
https://hbr.org/2013/05/seven-strategies-for-simplifyi.html
Question # 5 What kind of fertilizer do you use?
The job of the company leader is changing fast: You have to think of yourself not as a designer but as a gardener - seeding,
nurturing, inspiring, cultivating ideas.
Source Jeff Bezos, Amazon. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-do-you-want-the-good-news-first.html
A garden needs fertilizer to grow. So do people.
http://www.happenchance.net/8-lessons-in-creative-work-i-learned-from-my-garden/
Question # 6 How often do you rotate plants?
Many farmers follow the practice of crop rotation, planting a series of dissimilar crops in sequential seasons. This practice helps to diversify risk but has also been shown to improve crop yield.
http://mashable.com/2011/07/25/social-media-contest-how-to/
How do you avoid routine in your life?
Question # 7
How do you help plants to continue to shine?
Touching is like watering the plants. It’s something you do preventatively to keep your relationship healthy.
https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mind-meaning/the-power-of-touch/
Plants and fungi use chemicals to make themselves attractive to one another. Hyphae, the branching structure of fungi, are chemically irritable, responsible and excitable. This ability to interpret the chemical emissions of others allows fungi to negotiate complex trading relationships with trees.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4669391332 Pages 41 – 44.
We’re all familiar with ecosystems in the natural world. The word refers to a localized community of living organisms interacting with each other and their particular environment of air, water, mineral soil, and other elements. These organisms influence each other and their terrain. They compete and collaborate, share and create resources, and co-evolve.
http://d2mtr37y39tpbu.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DUP_1048-Business-ecosystems-come-of-age_MASTER_FINAL.pdf
Some of the plants in your garden will thrive. Learn from these, find out the secrets of their success, and seek to reproduce these elsewhere.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/knowledge-manager-gardener-organic-metaphor-nick-milton
As the flower appears, a gardener has to take care of it - in a way that will permit it to express its nature, its best possibilities.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/innovation/cultivating_innovation_an_interview_with_the_ceo_of_a_leading_italian_design_firm
Transplant the healthiest of the thinned out plants to new, roomier locations.
http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2010/01/post.shtml
What is the difference between “I like you” and “I love you”?
Beautifully answered by Budda: “When you like a flower, you just pluck it. When you love a flower you water it daily.
https://twitter.com/jhagel/status/641243384867328000