It’s fall so I am pruning my garden. It’s amazing to look underneath the nice healthy leaves and branches on top and see just how much dead stuff is underneath. It satisfies me to cut away the parts of each plant that are no longer healthy, to know that I am improving the flow of energy in the plant so that all the energy can go into the healthy new growth come spring.

It strikes me that what I try to do in organizations can also be considered “pruning”. When I come into an organization, chances are that relationships and communication channels and ways of doing things have already been established…but they aren’t working the way the organization needs them to work. Less of the energy and momentum of the organization is getting to the parts of the organization that need it, that will provide the growth for the business going forward. It’s easy for me, as an outsider, to sense where the “flow” is getting blocked.

The big difference is that my plants don’t argue when I suggest they might be healthier if I take that old dead limb off. My clients do. It seems people are reluctant to re-look at the decisions they have made and the processes they have set up to see if they are still working. They seem reluctant to “cut away” the protective layers they have built between people or parts of the organization, layers that were built because of tensions or an inability for the parties to work together well.They seem to see it as failure or a waste of time to dismantle a piece of the business that is no longer healthy.

I find this is particularly true now, when people are facing so much loss or threat of loss. They seem to cling to the things they still have, the structures and processes and habits they are used to…without looking honestly about whether those “old” structures are providing the outcome they want.

As a leader, you may need to model that “trimming” is a positive move. By this I don’t mean cutting people, though I admit there are plenty of places where it seems people are reluctant to admit there are employees in roles that don’t match their strengths. I am referring to taking the risk to ask “does this meeting work?” or “do we really want to deal with each other this way?” or even “am I still the right leader for the company?”

A friend of mine once said “remember, in order for new things to grow, old things need to be taken apart”. Take a look around and see where the life had been blocked in your life or relationship or organization — and have the courage to “trim” those places and rebuild.