What caring for plants teaches me about Change Management

Sunday is my gardening day. There are quite a few plants in my apartment, most of them travelled with me here from Estonia. Some “locals” have been welcomed, and one of my biggest achievements this year is growing three Saint Paulias from leaves sent by my mom in one of the care packages from home.

This past Sunday, I decided to give it a go and look at my gardening time through my Change Management glasses. Finding this quote from the British horticulturist and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll helped a lot: “A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.”

Environment is key. It is never (just) about the plant. It is about the light, the air, the water, the quality of soil, patience, and maybe even a bit of luck. One of my favorite quotes comes from Alexander den Heijer, a Dutch (Land of the Tulips – a coincidence?) speaker, trainer and consultant: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower”. Whether the flower is a team member or a project, look also at the environment when they do not “bloom”. It is always, always, always a cumulative effect. Learn as much as possible about the ideal conditions for your plant. Does it like sun? Place it on the windowsill. Shade? Move it, or place it in the shade from a sun-loving plant. Your apartment is not sunny enough? Maybe change your choice of plants. What water do you use? Do you filter it? Straight from the tap, and you live in an area with heavy water? Do you have pets that might chew on the leaves? Or that can get jealous of the time you allocate to your plants instead of them? Are your plants toxic for your pets? All these questions have their equivalents in organizational culture, ways of working, team dynamics, individual profiles.

Routines are important. I cannot say I have always been a huge fan of routines. And there were times when I considered them downright boring, rigid, stifling. Over time, I gained a lot of respect for them, and learned about surprising ways in which they can be best of allies. Gardening was one great teacher. Plants require consistency, and sticking to a routine is the best way to give it to them. Finding a routine is one part training your plants, but also requires discipline on your end. My Sunday morning gardening routine actually gives me something nice and steady to look forward to, helps me “reduce the weekend planning”, and it is a fun and rewarding way to mark the passing of time – especially when I spot a new bud or leaf. Organizational routines are equally important. And they are great for Change Management – they provide a steady, comforting, reliable structure, act as pacesetters, and keep the “action mode” on.

All conversations are worth having. All of my plants have names. And I do talk to them – quite a lot. They haven’t replied yet, in case you are wondering… In a study performed by the Royal Horticultural Society (UK's leading gardening charity), researchers discovered that talking to your plants really can help them grow faster. They also found that plants grow faster to the sound of a female voice than to the sound of a male voice. Charles Darwin himself suspected a link between plant growth and vibration. In an informal experiment, he had his son play the bassoon to seedlings, but the results were inconclusive. Fun fact: his great-great-granddaughter, Sarah Darwin, participated in the Royal Horticultural Society’s study, and read from “On the Origin of Species” to her tomato plants. The TV show "Mythbusters" conducted a study on 60 pea plants to see whether they responded differently to compliments and insults. The results were roughly equal, but I choose to see some hopeful difference in “roughly”. Speaking to plants is my way of saying all conversations are worth having. Even those that might feel like a monologue. It is not always about getting a reply – it is about saying what you have to say, speaking your mind, speaking up. Then you get to decide whether “no reply is a reply”. Difficult conversations are worth having. And plants are living proof of that. A research published in the BMC Plant Biology journal reveals that (certain) forms of mechanical stress actually help plants grow. Plants frequently have to deal with mechanical stress, be it caused by rain, wind, animals or even other plants. But plants also respond to more delicate forms of mechanical stress, such as touch. Some responses are obvious, some are more discrete. For some plants, rubbing their leaves triggers a strong, transient immunity to a whole series of fungi and other parasites. Not all friction is bad. Immunity and evolution need a bit of nudge, just like communication needs a bit of “shaking”. Here’s additional support for this statement - if you have a fiddle leaf fig and want it to grow big and tall, you should give the stem a good wiggle every few days, or at least once a week. This mimics the wind and helps your plant develop a stronger root and stem system.

What is your “why”? This is a question that sparks many interesting – and sometimes difficult – conversations. “Why” is a word hugely associated with Simon Sinek, but given the topic of this article, here is a great quote from author and humorist David Hobson: “I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.” Why, what and whom do you grow with your projects, your conversations, within your environment?

If my plants could reply, I really do hope they would quote Alexander den Heijer back to me with: “Never underestimate the importance of finding a place where you can show up as you are, where your whole self is welcome, not just a part of yourself”. And I do hope you get to hear this, in various ways, from the people whose life you touch with yours.