Spring Awakening: Assessing Your Leadership Skills for Change and Transformation, 2040’s Ideas and Innovations Newsletter, Issue 110

Issue 110, May 25, 2023

It’s Spring and we are coming up on a major holiday weekend where we hope for good weather and time outdoors with family and friends. At 2040 we’re feeling optimistic and seeking opportunities for renewal (even escape) as we see the landscape around us come to life once again. In fact, we recently came to the realization that organizations seeking to change, and transform could easily be compared to a natural landscape and garden. In this regard, organizational leaders can become master gardeners. Sound like a stretch? Think about it. Gardens represent a belief there is a future filled with promise. That there is regeneration and rejuvenation as well as fresh opportunities. In a garden, change and ongoing transformation occur as the months pass.

Like most things in life, honing a skill is an iterative learning experience just like a gardener who experiments and refines. And a skilled master gardener can step back and envision how to fill that canvas with a range of colors to create order out of chaos, identify natural resources, nurture a diverse group of plants and flowers, and help orchestrate all the parts of the garden to create an inter-dependent whole.

In Paul Schrader’s new film Master Gardener, actor Joel Edgerton as the master gardener speaks poetically of gardening and its philosophy of rebirth and nourishment as he views Grace Gardens as a fragile refuge that he must sustain and maintain. And to do this, he is mentor, manager, collaborator, teacher, and inspiration to a team of gardeners.

Gardening as a metaphor for organizational culture isn’t anything new. The 18th century landscape architect William Kent said, “Garden as though you will live forever.” Contemporary gardener Janet Kilburn Phillips states “There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.” And further back, a Greek proverb says “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” That last one could be an organization’s mantra for longevity and relevance.

If we haven’t lost you yet, a master gardener isn’t simply a designation for someone who is good at gardening, but rather a specific title achieved through skill, hard work, and a passion for people (Gardening).

Are you seeing the parallels between a master gardener and leadership, and the garden as the organization? To take it a step further, gardens are co-dependent on the gardener. A successful garden is the result of cooperation among people, plants, bacteria, wildlife and more. Like an organization, it is a living and breathing ecosystem reliant and inter-dependent upon its parts and relationships. And a thriving garden is cared for and tended as an organization should be, nurturing individuals and teams and creating its culture of shared purpose and yes, its future.

As we consider the metaphor, let’s turn our attention to the individuals and teams a leader must tend to and learn what opportunities for success are trending.

Job Satisfaction

As Quartz recently reported, new data from the Conference Board shows that job satisfaction among US workers is at a three-decade high. As we come out of the pandemic, the era of silent quitting, struggles with work/life balance and anxiety resulting from the unfamiliar, this year’s survey of 1,680 respondents found that 62.3% of US workers are satisfied with their jobs, marking an uptick from 60.2% last year and 56.8% in 2020 — and a 36-year high. That said there is a satisfaction gap with women less content than men (60.1% to 64% for men). Even with flex time, women still bear the brunt of responsibilities at home, from childcare and housework to managing domestic life. The demand for work-life balance rests deeply in the female workforce as does pay parity. These continue to be major issues that society must address as we continue to evolve, change, and become more aware.

What do the most successful organizations bring to the table to ensure individuals are satisfied with their jobs? They offer adequate sick days, family leave and vacation policies that align with raising a family. These are the tangible signs of a great organization that achieves excellence in three areas: people, product, and purpose. As we have written, transformation, pivots and outright change are foundationally dependent on the human factor aligned to a shared purpose. If you get this wrong, all else will surely fail.

So, a great organization also gives the workforce the opportunity to grow and learn. It engenders respect and is built on a culture of trust, awareness, and fairness. And these mandates are wrapped in shared purpose with a clear understanding of how each person plays a role in that purpose, contributes…and is appreciated.

This is possible when the organization rewards honesty, excellence, and mutual respect while mitigating individual ambitions that attempt to overtake the success of the whole (think: persistent, choking weeds). So, take a pause and consider how your own organizational culture operates. What are your standards? Do you stand by your ethics? Do you have a shared purpose? Does leadership inspire? Does leadership communicate and ensure those comprising the workforce are part of the system and its goals?

Do you have a thriving garden with empathetic master gardeners? Continue on to read the full article>