Our ideas are like seeds.  To flourish when we harvest we must not consume them all but turn some back to the earth to be transformed to compost in order to further enrich the soil. Out of one idea grows another …and that also is turned under. The seeds that are finally offered is the result of a patient waiting upon the gift – and it grows in response to the months of patient turning and building of the soil.

Commentary from Robert Frost on poetry and life From Robert Frost A Life Jay Parini

      The Roots of Aliveness    

Most communities are not at a loss for innovative ideas. What they do lack however is a supportive environment – or fertile soil – for these seeds to take root and grow. One enabling metaphor that helps us look at this dynamic is the ecology of a tree.

The outer life of the tree is symbolized by the leaves and branches – tactics, action plans, performance goals, desired outcomes and results.  Sometimes we direct our attention down a little, to the trunk and lower limbs.  Here we look at structures, strategies and processes.  Where we spend the least amount of our time is the ground underneath. Yet it is the re-generative nature of the roots and the soil that give the tree the resilience and the strength to grow – to give the acorn the ability to fully realize its future as a oak tree as it weathers the sudden changes year after year.

Root systems are infinitely alive - inquiring, sensing, absorbing, inventing and changing course in the moment as they feel their way. In their search for connectivity and fertile ground, roots are infinitely improvisational, seeking always for new possibilities for the tree to transform nourishment into new growth. 

   Three Levels of Conversation.

The metaphor of a tree offers a lens for making distinctions between three levels of conversation in transforming communities and organizations.   

Level 1 Technical/Tactical

At the first level the primary question is; “How do we do things differently?” 

Here the primary focus is on action and results. It frames the community as a mechanistic system for which all problems have a corresponding technical expert-driven response. To extend the tree metaphor, Level I conversations take into account only the branches and the leaves. If this level prevails in a community, everything is rushed to market with nothing conserved for the future. As such, Level 1 conversations are highly operational and reactive to changing circumstances.  Because they are focused on the performance of the parts rather than the system as a whole, their emphasis is on efficiency-based thinking, quantitatively driven results and mechanistic expert-driven responses to problems.

Level 2 Strategic/ Transactional.

Here the primary question is; “How do we do different things?” 

It is stepping into the forest and seeing not only the leaves and branches but their connection to the trunk as well. Although Level 2 conversations shift the emphasis from efficiency to effectiveness they don’t necessarily engage the larger meta questions regarding the effectiveness for what and to what end. Their focus is on defining the parts and transactional strategic-based learning. This level of conversation doesn’t necessarily engage the higher order questions that build deep relationships and engage the questions that shift the paradigm we are working within.  For this we need to look to another level of learning that is associated more with a perceptual shift and with deeper levels of engagement.    

Level 3 Re-generative/Transformational 

With regenerative Level 3 conversations the primary question is not on how we do but on how do we see differently.

Here the focus is on the shift from mechanistic thinking to engaging with the community as a complex living system. If the other levels focus on the leaves, branches and trunk, Level 3 conversations examine the soil and the complex root systems underneath. And where trees may appear to stand independent of one another on the surface at the deeper level –root systems are all interconnected.

Re- generativity means to be participative, reciprocal and imaginative. It shifts the focus from reacting in Level 1 and responding in Level 2 to reflecting in Level 3. And the focus of reflection involves considering those things that move beyond preserving the life of the tree in the short term to growing it into a sturdy and fertile oak in the long term.

   Creating Conversations of the Heart

Eighty percent of what determines the health of a tree is the condition of the soil  - the “black magic” – that is beneath the ground. In the context of community this “black magic” is found in the power and stories and places that facilitate the commerce of the creative spirit, in conversations about our gifts and what we aspire to, about when we feel most vital and alive, about our heritage and founding stories, the quality of our ‘commons’ and the leadership we need to meet our present and future challenges. These serve as ‘root’ conversations and as such they create the fertile ground - so frequently passed over in a fast-paced environment. –where the seeds of our future can take root and grow.

This blog is from a forthcoming book The Soul of Place, Transforming Leadership Through Nature, Art and Community- Michael Jones 

References

Michael Jones Artful Leadership, Awakening the Commons of the Imagination

Trafford Publishing, Bloomington, 2006 

Donella H Meadows, Afterword Donald E Gray Places to Intervene in a System San Francisco, Whole Earth Magazine, Winter, 1997

Jay Parini Robert Frost A Life, Owl Books New York Henry Holt and Co, 1999

Bill Reed AIA LEED Shifting Our Mental Model- “ Sustainability to Regeneration Regenesis Group. Boston a paper submitted for the Conference, Rethinking Sustainable Construction. September, 2006