A couple of weeks ago, a monstrous oak tree – estimated to have lived around 150 years – ripped free of the ground near where I live in Virginia and crashed down. My local paper, The News-Gazette, reported the reason it fell: “An enormous oak tree at Boxerwood Gardens toppled on Feb. 16 due to high winds and saturated soil.”
The oak was mighty and gnarled from age, but its roots weren’t capable of keeping it upright during a windstorm. The packed soil had turned to mud, and a fierce gale took care of the rest.
Roots hold a plant upright, absorb energy and water from the soil, and crucially provide that fuel to the rest of the plant’s topside. In that same vein, any of our achievements – whether that’s a bed of tulips or launching a new product – are anchored in strong routines, and months if not years of effort. Dreams are built starting with the foundation.
What’s the foundation for your current dream? Maybe you’re a chef working on a new dish. In terms of our root analogy, serving the final plated meal is when the flowers you’re growing finally bloom. The culmination of long work. But what are the roots that laid the groundwork for this moment? What ecosystem fuels and holds it upright?
There’s the technical skills your team practices every day, the standard of communication that lets a junior chef give their input, and the “family” meals you bond over before service begins. The dish of your dreams begins with examining your day-to-day ecosystem.
Looking at your own routines – are deadlines usually met? Does your team genuinely show up to meetings? From our LinkedIn newsletter this week – can you talk about mistakes without pointing fingers? Are you giving kudos and acknowledging successes?
Maybe the answer to all four is no. And that’s okay! Because these ecosystems can change, and as leaders we’re in a position to listen, to try new things and cut what doesn’t work. Most plants require regular adjustment while they grow. But the first step is remembering that what you don’t see holds up what you do.
I’ll leave you with this quote from that News-Gazette article: “Despite its fall, the Great Oak will continue to provide for the ecosystem, offering a new habitat for wildlife.”
Change is inevitable – sometimes exciting, sometimes downright terrifying – but it is also transformative. When a tree falls, it opens up the canopy and brings sunlight to the smaller plants below. Mushrooms break down the old wood, providing a food source for all manner of bugs and beetles. Eventually, the nutrients stored in the tree return to the soil, where another plant’s root system will begin the cycle anew.
Change is an opportunity, if you know how to take advantage of it.
All best,
Whitney
P.S. Thank you to Etta King, on our team, for sharing this article with us!
