Mark C. Crowley
The Profound Lesson
Plants Teach Us About Leading People I’ve come to trust that books show up in my life for a reason. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been in a bookstore when some internal radar system seemed to guide me down the aisles until a knowing voice insisted that I “buy that one.” The great mystery of this process is that the books I’ve ended up with have always proved to be transformational in some way. But a few weeks ago, I thought my inner guidance had gone on the fritz. I was staring at a book called, “What A Plant Knows: A Field Guide To The Senses” and 16 RuralLeaderMagazine.com
thought for certain it couldn’t be meant for me. But the “voice” had a way of persuading me that it was. It seemed to be fully aware that I was no botanist, had taken “Biology For Non-majors” in college, and specifically came into Barnes and Noble to find something leadership related. Yet just as all other times in the past, I quickly discovered I’d ended up with the right book at the right time. And long before I’d read the final pages, it became quite clear that a profound lesson on leadership was indeed embedded in its pages.
Here’s a summary of what I learned. According to author, Dr. Daniel Chamovitz, human beings have much more in common with sunflowers and oak trees than we ever may have realized. Extensive genetic research proves that plants have parallel abilities to sense and respond to their environments. Without a brain or central nervous system to guide them, plants have a remarkable protoplasmic intelligence that informs them when they are flourishing, and when they’re under threat. Like all living things, they react positively
