Change = Wind + Wheat?

As I stood at the back of my family’s farm this past week cleaning out the blueberry patch from an onslaught of weeds, I could hear the wind whip through the open pasture of freshly sprouted wheat. 

I walked out of the blueberry patch and sat down on the ground, watched and pondered the wind.  I noticed how the wind seemed to dance through the blades of young green wheat blades.  I then thought about what this beautiful display from nature has to do with organizations and change.

If you haven’t ever looked at a wheat field, the seeds are all planted in rows either horizontally or vertically across the fields, in roughly the same distances between seeds.  We could think of the field as the man-made effort here to create a structure.  In the organization, the seed planting and rows could be thought of the as the formal organization that is planned through the reporting structures and the individuals we select to fill those positions.

With the application of sun, rain and nutrients, we see these seeds develop into wheat sprouts.  With organizations, we see that same thing happen with our staff.  If we provide the right ingredients to staff, we too can see staff develop.  When organizations consciously work to adapt their cultures to educate and mentor staff, develop skill programs and leadership opportunities – we can nurture those seeds within organizations.

Then comes the wind….                       

So an interesting thing happens when you introduce wind into the wheat field.  You’ll notice that the wind is not even across the field. Some of the wheat field doesn’t move at all, while the piece next to that blade is blowing.  Sometimes, the wind looks like it’s blowing certain patches of the wheat blades in a certain way that is different than the majority of the field.  And of course, the wind speed changes and gusts come up, which can force certain parts of the field to violently shake.

The wind is really the environment when we think about organizations.  It adds an element of instability and unpredictability that organizations cannot control from occurring.  Or to use another term, we are bounded in our ability to understand or rationalize this “wind” from occurring.

What struck me though as I watched this all unfolding me was that the wind blade had very little it could do in response to the wind.  It’s only mechanism to survive these wind gusts and sustained winds was simply to “bend”. 

We call “bending” different things in the world of organizations. We call it organizational learning, innovation, and adaptation.  But it’s all just “bending”.  As wheat gets taller, it loses its ability to bend and if the wind blows too hard, entire patches of the field can snap the heads off of wheat.  The younger plants have the advantage that they can bend at a tremendous amount but they will not yield a harvest at this stage.

From an organization’s perspective, we find that as organizations start off (start-ups), we tend to be highly nimble and can bend quickly to adapt to winds of industry.  However, as the organization matures, they tend to get entrenched and have a harder time to bend and change. 

As an organization tending to your own wheat field, we must learn to be excellent “benders”.  We must design our cultures, staffing, structure, and innovation programs to be levers that we can use to bend when the wind comes.  It is indeed that ability to bend that allows organizations to anticipate changes in the industry and to develop novel products and services that delight customers.  And yet, not bend too much where the wheat stalk breaks.

Back to that field of wheat….  If you haven’t had time to just sit down and marvel at a field with wind blowing through it, I would highly encourage it; its nature’s leadership development program. 

Dr. Devin Jopp is CEO of Future Focus Leadership, a consulting firm that transforms organizations through customized workshops and consulting services on corporate strategy, governance optimization, innovation incubation and organizational development services.   More information available at www.futurefocusleadership.com.  Contact us at 202-731-7126 or [email protected].