Reflections 6 June

On my mind this week.

I've been thinking about growth this week, or more precisely, the nature of it. Everything in nature has a natural growth rate, and whilst we can alter it, faster growth means a shorter life. I think the same applies to our organisations. 

Trees in slow-growth forests live far longer, are much more robust and much more connected to the land they grow on and their surrounding environment, whilst trees grown as cash crops grow and get harvested without gaining or contributing much to what's around them. There is a significant fallacy about replanting forests as though it's an "oops, sorry" reaction to chopping down ancient woodland. It's about more far than the trees.

To extend the metaphor, we have become so obsessed with growth that we treat our businesses and children as cash crops. We focus on measuring growth whilst paying little attention to what is being grown. We celebrate Unicorn businesses and cut short our children's opportunities to play and explore their …