This article is part of a series on the the parallel between the 12 operational principles of permaculture and conditions for sustainable transformations of organizational systems. If you are a professional changemaker, committed to promoting a better society, these principles and insights should help you maximize your impact and inner serenity.
Principle 1 -
Understand the soil in order to sow the right seeds
💡 Explanation of the permaculture operating principle
"In vegetable permaculture, it is recommended when arriving on a plot of land, not to undertake anything there for a whole year but to observe, during the 4 seasons. (...) Observe, observe, observe therefore to, then, enter into a relationship with what is there.”
-Marine Simon. Everything is going round in circles on this earth, we are the only ones to ignore it.
🔍 Illustration of the principle applied to a mission of transformation
When I started my transformation mission in Japan back in 2016, I spent my first days, weeks, and months observing the activities and interviewing members of this operational entity.
This seems obvious but such a preliminary analysis is often avoided or skipped because of:
our internal pressure to demonstrate our added value as soon as possible,
the management’s ambition to get things done quickly,
the employees’ eagerness to understand what we are actually going to do.
What does “observing & interacting” mean in concrete terms?
Two of us were in charge of what we called the “Evolution mission” for a business unit comprised of over 5,000 employees.
We took several months to take stock of the situation and expectations through more than a hundred qualitative individual interviews, dozens of field visits, and collaborative workshops, with a representative sample of business team members.
At every moment, I forced myself to put my ideas aside. I spent my time listening, fully and without judgment, to the members of the system in place. It was time to make room for what they wanted and needed to say, allowing time for detours.
Here are all the harvests of this seemingly "non-productive" time:
Clarity of the strengths, needs and blockages in the ecosystem.
Identification of potential allies and sources of resistance.
Reassured interlocutors resulting from demonstrating respect, curiosity, humility and openness.
Beginning of mutual trust emerging from the creation of deep moments of connection between the interviewees and interviewer.
There is no doubt that this time of interaction without interference prevented me from labeling blindly and losing time later. This is one of my best memories.
🐝 Tips to get moving
If you're starting a new assignment:
Try to identify different representatives of your ecosystem that you might meet, just like a journalist, without preconceived ideas.
If you cannot allocate official time, suggest coffee or lunch.
It is best to focus on qualitative discussions first. Quantitative surveys can then be useful to confirm impressions, underline trends, and reassure with figures.
It is the human beings who will tell you what seeds to sow and in which place.
As our team coaching teacher, Michele Darmouni reminded us "Everything is in the beginning."
“ The beginning is half of everything”
If your mission is already underway, don’t worry! You can offer to meet ecosystem members to discuss and better understand their experiences. It's never too late to start!
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Hello everyone, I am Nina cambadélis, an independent coach and facilitator, specializing in sustainability and organizational transformation. I am also a changemaker working for the leader of environmental services.
What I like to do through my activities is to inspire professionals to rethink the business and make them proud to contribute, in their own way, to a more sustainable, human, and nature-friendly world.
If you wish to be supported to:
Become the changemaker you want for the world you expect
Find and assert your leadership or promote the emergence of new leadership styles
Integrate sustainability, purpose-driven initiatives at the heart of your organization
Accelerate your ecosystem's engagement to create systemic change
Make an impact while preserving energy and well-being
Here is a link to an exploration call and a form to further elaborate on your ambition and challenges: English