Calm overwhelms me when surrounded by nature. No matter what daily stress I face, stepping into my garden lifts all tension, exhales away worry. Walking among the cypress, inhaling the scent of eucalyptus not only eases the strain of life’s pressures but envelopes me with serenity. Even on the foggiest days, I’m wrapped in peacefulness.
While gardening, all my senses ignite as I touch and smell—and see the brush strokes of Mother Nature’s artistry painted across the landscape; the wind and sun blanching my skin, engrossed in the interconnectedness of nature’s pure elements. One must be present as Nature makes herself known—alive to us if we partake in what she offers.
I had been gardening for at least 15 years when my father passed away. My father and I had been very close and I was devastated. It was September 17, 2006, and I felt as if my heart had been severed and half-buried with my dad.
Prior to this time, I had an approximate half-acre of landscaped garden enclosed in a stucco-walled perimeter around my home, managed nicely with some help. But now I needed to redirect my sadness toward something positive. I decided to take a half-acre of my property that was unkempt—full of woody pepper trees and cast aside lawn debris—and design a garden for my dad. I turned my pain into a goal that both honored my father and filled a void with a different love by creating a place of solace and natural beauty.
From Nature to Business
At the time of my father’s death, gardening was not the only thing occupying my energy. I led NakIVHealth, delivering business consultancy to healthcare providers, namely physicians and hospitals. I taught graduate Organizational Theory, Leadership and Organizational Analysis, for over a decade at the University of San Francisco. I had earned two master degrees and a doctorate degree, developed three businesses, including Emergency Specialist Corporation, and had been an Emergency Department nurse for 16 years prior to this time.
As I thrust into the design of my garden, from hardscape to clearing and prepping the land, I uncovered the parallels between building a business and building a garden. But it wasn’t until the moments when I was completely immersed in gardening, without the distraction of unnatural noise, that the epiphanies emerged without provocation. What became clear to me was that much of what we need to know about the interrelationships within a business can be learned from nature. In the quiet solitude of my garden, I recognized that similarities between theories I had espoused as a consultant and educator seemed drawn from the natural world. For example, while extricating the dense layers of mint vines, the pervasiveness of weeds and my efforts to eradicate them reminded me of the competing forces in the workplace and the competition for resources and sustainability. Some days I felt as if I walked into a war zone when entering my garden and I was reminded of Kurt Lewin’s theory of competing forces.[i] Lewin’s Force Field Analysis (FFA)[1][ii] explains the driving and restraining forces that move us toward and away from reaching our goals. Firsthand, I came to appreciate the significance of Porter’s Model of Five Forces[iii]—understanding the critical need to scan and assess one’s competitive forces.
Competition for resources in nature is no different than competing for resources and market share in business. Michael Porter’s Model of Five Forces, [iv] a tool I introduced to graduate students analyzing organizations, is pertinent when studying both established and emerging companies. The Model demonstrates the importance of scanning external forces for the power of buyers and suppliers, as the threat of substitution is ever present. This tool is useful at every stage of the business cycle[v]. Knowledge of one’s garden and its environment is critical to success, just as in business.
As you read this book and see the similarities between nature and business presented in the following pages, you will be invited to reflect on your business and your life. I will be presenting a variety of tools you’re encouraged to utilize both personally and professionally for analysis and reflection. I have used all these strategies in my consulting practice over the years, and taught these approaches to graduate students of Organizational Theory for over 17 years. By methodically implementing these principles, organizations and individuals have successfully achieved their goals after long periods of inertia, improved efficiencies, identified gaps and moved to where they wanted to be, maximized resources effectively, and accelerated their growth and development.
