Take a break - find your mushroom!

Nature is often my go-to for inspiration to recharge and re-ground and get me out of the business for a while to reflect.?I took this photo while on holiday clearing logs and preparing for winter in my garden in France where I am lucky enough to be on the home stretch of a long renovation project.

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Our house is in an ancient valley that has remained relatively untouched for generations, where the land has been tended since Roman times and the vineyards and organic orchards are passed down from family to family.?

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Every stone in the walls of the ancient houses and buildings have been placed by the rough worn hands of farmers who grew hemp to make rope for ships in La Rochelle, and then later, and until now, to grow grapes for brandy and wine.?

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To this day the whole region is protected for its produce and even its brand -?Cognac, Bordeaux and Saint-émilion which are exported all over the world.

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Huge v-shaped flocks of cranes fly down the valley at this time of year heralding the coming of autumn.?It is a sight and sound that truly lifts the soul.?It reminded me to revisit the classic Ken Blanchard management book “Gungho!” with its stories of the spirit of the squirrel, the way of the beaver and the gift of the goose.??

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There is a natural rhythm and order to the day, the month, the seasons and the years and yet … there is chaos too, because of the ever changing and unpredictable climate and weather. Somehow in the world of mushroom order and chaos co-exist helping the environment adapt, change and evolve.??

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Order and chaos are equally important, very much like in business

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We’ve been coming here for 6 years now and yet it’s the first year I’ve discovered … well … Mushrooms … things that I traditionally stuff in an omelette and think little about … but what a wonderful new world I have discovered!?I’ve got four different types of mushroom in my backyard that I never knew existed until now!?

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If you haven’t watched “Fantastic Fungi” on Netflix- it’s food for the soul and fascinating.?Magic Mushrooms were public enemy number one in the USA back in the 60s (think Woodstock!)?They were seen as a very real threat to the political landscape.?Today with new research funding we are uncovering a whole new world of pollution eating fungi and new medical discoveries to treat Alzheimer’s and depression, and there’s even treatments being discovered that could save bee colonies - both subjects close to my heart.

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There are also so many interesting and important human and business parallels for our business world.

We can learn a lot from watching the way mycelium build communication networks??

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It got me thinking …?

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What if we humans could learn a thing or two from mushrooms around how the business of the future could be organised? Could the mycelium approach work rather than the traditional command and control hierarchies we’ve relied upon until now???What could that do for our multi-generational people? What could that do for business??

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These questions and the inspiration I get from nature remind me to “look up” once in a while, take a break and do different things that ground us ... for me it’s nature.?It’s so easy to beaver away everyday building, “GSD” for the future that we can so lose our whole selves and perspectives and forget the bigger things in life that give us the fuel and inspiration we need to renew and keep going.?

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So take a break and go find your mushroom and tell me what you find or think!