Trees Don't Talk, but Forests Have a Story to Tell
Mitch Lieberman
VP Product (Fuel CX) at Fuel iX, a TELUS Digital Company, former Humana & Fidelity
I am a fan of the New York Times Podcast The Daily. The Sunday edition was a fun listen that connected a few dots that friends in the industry have likely already connected. The Topic: 'The Social Life of Forests'. This is through the work of Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard.
"Ms. Simard discovered that underground fungal threads link nearly every tree in a forest. Seedlings severed from this network are more likely to die; chemical alarm signals to warn of danger can be passed between trees; and a dying tree can sometimes pass on a share of its carbon to neighbors."
The basis, which I found fascinating (in an 'Avatar' sorta way) is something called a Mycorrhizal network (link) - These are underground networks, facilitated by long branching filament type fungi, that connect individual plants together (they even transfer nutrients). A bit geeky, but pretty cool, no?
"By analogy to the many roles intermediated by the World Wide Web in human communities, the many roles that mycorrhizal networks appear to play in woodland have earned them a colloquial nickname: the Wood Wide Web."
This is broader than a Linkedin 'Post' - but not sure it is a full-on Blog Post either. I am going to tag a few folks whom I think might appreciate it in the story telling and communityr arena. Cheers.
I enjoyed this story as well, and appreciate how thoughts of those underground networks you highlight, or the more obvious swaths of above-ground mixes of trees, resonate when thinking of our human networks. This week's substantial blanket of new-fallen snow in the US Northeast (I'm in New Hampshire) transformed the woods and the activity within, but did not change those fundamentals. That interplay between the long-horizon development of ties and extreme challenge offers perspective on how we cope, and where we turn for strength, as individuals and organizations, when faced with a challenge of our own.
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Webio Ltd
4 年Related, I love this book https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/embed?asin=B06XKH957H&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_ZC01FbDBSW33B
Product Management & Marketing Executive
4 年Thank for sharing! I definitely want to read the full story. Maybe an angle for a blog post... Senior leadership has difficulty allocating resources without having some metrics that relate to the bottom line. Through this research is there a way to develop a “health of the community” metric where a positive number correlates to the strength of ‘growth and resilience’ of the community and a negative number correlates to ‘contraction and decay’? Happy to discuss!
I am passionate about designing community-centric organizations that reward the best in people by connecting, energizing, and empowering them.
4 年Mitch Lieberman I learned about this a couple of years ago and what is so interesting to me is how good a metaphor it is for great community management - which goes virtually unseen by the untrained eye but plays a vital role in enabling the network, which helps all individuals in it thrive. As organizations, we are tragically myopic and unsophisticated about understanding second-degree/indirect influences and science is showing over and over how important they are to success.
Co-Founder of asynco.org | Building distributed communities that transform work
4 年Gosh, there is just so much we can learn all from nature, Mitch, it's just mind-blowing! IF ONLY we would start listening with more intent and pay closer attention to what she keeps teaching us, my goodness, we would all be in a much better state! Many thanks for the shout-out on that short write-up! Since you are interested in the topic, here are some of my favourite readings on the topic from the last few weeks / months, shared below in chronological order: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/dying-trees-can-send-food-to-neighbors-of-different-species/?amp https://www.npr.org/2017/01/13/509350471/how-do-trees-collaborate?t=1607439270261 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48257315 https://medium.com/gentlyserious/trees-can-show-us-how-41a507cb5abd https://www.faena.com/aleph/lessons-on-authenticity-from-the-trees Like I said, IF ONLY we would pay more attention and learn how we are all part of the same (and only!) ecosystem we've got in our lives ... ????