Apart from being home to the startups, Facebook and Google another place, which stands out for the valley, are the giant redwood trees. These Redwood trees have survived for ages, the giant sequoias can live for 3000 years, one of the biggest of these species is General Sherman, a giant sequoia in the Sequoia national park, it is 275 feet (84 M) tall, has a 102 Feet (31 M) circumference and weighs 1.2 Million Kilograms.
To give a pen picture, the General is just 30 feet short of the Statue of Liberty and its circumference is one and half times that of a cricket pitch, it has been standing there for 200 years and it takes it only to the middle age. It has withstood floods, fires, and earthquakes and still stands flourishing and tall.
What are the organizational lessons this gentle giant hold for us, sharing a few
Listen & Mentor
By conventional wisdom most of us would imagine that the roots of such a tall tree would go deep, I was amazed to know that the roots are only five to six feet but stretch up to hundred feet from the trunk, another mechanism these trees have created which are the capillaries which create a bond with the water molecules and pump hundreds of gallons of water to the top most branches, for the organization these roots are the DSRs working in a tier 3 Market and making thirty five calls or the last workman on the line checking and ticking a quality parameter . The capillaries are the middle managers, as a leadership team have we created listening mechanisms, beyond the annual employee surveys, is the right information reaching us? These long roots get intertwined and help the trees to survive the adversities of nature; this intertwining is the biggest opportunity that exists in most of the organizations. Take a minute to ponder on these questions in your organization how is the head office working with the regions, how much time senior managers are spending mentoring, coaching and developing young talent? How well are sales and marketing working together, how is the HR function perceived by the employees?
Make your Own Rain
Another thing, which has helped the sequoia survive, is the ability to make their own rain out of fog! Northern California’s Pacific coast often gets a daily fog, this ability of using their height and the local advantage has helped the Sequoias grow. While working with one of the largest Telecom majors in India, we analyzed around eight hundred stores and the stores that were found to be excelling were the ones where the Store Manager was making his own rain, he was empowered and also rewarded for putting new practices in the Store. Many leaves in this organization knew that getting water was not just the job of the roots.
Potential
Those of you who think that General Sherman is the tallest Sequoia, you are mistaken the honor for that goes to another beautiful sequoia Hyperion which reaches 379.7 feet (115.7 M), but hold your breath this 2000 year old tree (our friend General Sherman), every year adds enough wood to make another 60 Foot / 18 Feet tall tree. So the next time you regional sales manager talks of market demand slowing down, or the plant head speaks of capacity constraints do share this story
Dealing with Loss
In the winter of 2006, the General lost a large branch, the fallen branch not only broke the fence but created a crater, this loss is the natural defense mechanism for the tree and over time helps it become stronger and survive, the S5 and the Note 8 debacle helped Samsung become better, if we are not seeing many failures or setbacks, my question would be am I trying new things enough? Does my team feel safe with failing?
Adept at surviving fires
Though not immune to fire, they can survive fire because of the bark and the thick resins, what are some of the practices, DNA that organizations can develop to build this, for me focus on internal nurturing and developing of talent at Asian Paints and learning from failures and bouncing back quickly at Samsung are two such examples. How do we continuously evolve, how do we make our people and hence the organization resilient, how can we sense and deal with the fires better?
Growth Rate
The side of the tree carries a fact sheet on the General Sherman, which reads that this is the largest living thing on earth, and it owes this not to its age (Many sequoias are older), but to it’s very rapid growth rate, so I close the article with an Inquiry, does your organization have a growth mindset, does it look beyond the age, the success and honestly ask itself, like this general Sherman, what can I do today, what can I develop to add another 60 Foot / 18 M tall tree.
The Power of And
The last line of the description reads “Today it remains not only the world’s largest living thing, but also one of the fastest growing “, so in the next annual strategy planning meeting, keep an hour of zero technology, zero PPT discussion, sitting in a circle, in tune with nature on how can we bring some of this wisdom to our plans, our people, our profit and our purpose, how can we harness the power of And.
I look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Please feel free to write to us at connect@transphorm.in
Paritosh Shukla
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