The Nature of Business

Lessons on leadership from Mother Earth

“Nature’s a badass,” says Tabitha Scott, “It’s been evolving for more than 4 billion years.”

Big business as we know has only been around a few centuries, and it can learn a lot from nature, says Scott, the author of “Powering Change: The Hidden Resource to Unleash Potential, Productivity, and Profits” and executive sustainability officer at Gilbane.

So as businesses debate internally whether to keep quiet about their sustainability initiatives or worry about regulatory consequences for greenwashing, they’re missing out on the bigger picture of nature’s relationship to business.

“I think there’s a different conversation that needs to happen,” she told BOSS.

Growth Cycle

Everything in nature follows the same basic growth cycle: birth, growth, maturity, and decline. Businesses, whether they realize it or not, follow the same pattern. To avoid the final stage, death, organizations would do well to recognize which stage they’re in and make the most of it. They need to focus on planning for the next phase and making the leap to the new curve, so they don’t miss their chance.

In “Powering Change,” Scott lays out a growth cycle grid with actionable steps for each phase.

“If you know what part your company is in that growth cycle, then it says, ‘These are the types of leaders you need. These are the types of things you should be doing right now, and here’s what you should be thinking for your road map to the next step ahead.”

There are no exceptions to this cycle, in nature or business, she says. So the path to success is honest reflection and recognition of where your company stands.

“There are so many things that companies can learn from looking at nature,” said Scott, who grew up on a farm in Kentucky. “Mycellium networks, for example, are so much more sophisticated than our most advanced generative AI systems.

“There is no waste. They don’t need to be plugged into a utility grid, they generate energy naturally and get the messages where they need to go. Every part is nourished or communicated to and connected. You don’t see the disconnection that you see in our corporate environments today.”

Taking cues from nature, leaders can make their companies more innovative and adaptive.

‘Stop Chasing Change’

While there’s no escaping the basic growth cycle, nature and business also face constant change. To stay afloat, organizations need to look to the messages of nature and flow with the changes.

“Stop chasing change,” Scott advises. “You’re never going to catch it because it keeps getting faster and faster.”

Instead, leaders need to assess where they and their companies are along the growth curve. Figure out where the strengths lie and what you and the company do best. With that self-knowledge, they can work to align themselves in the current market according to where they fit best. Using that as their North Star, they can then adapt to whatever external changes may arise.

“You keep the pulse of what the context is today and adapt to that constantly,” she said. “The more you can align with what the context at hand is, the better you can perform a change.”

That way they’re the ones creating a wave of change that they can surf the top of rather drowning in.

The way nature generates its own energy, leaders, and organizations need to focus on what energizes them.

“When you get put into a role that drains you rather than energizes you, it’s going to cause burnout,” she said.

Manage energy correctly, and you avoid imbalance and burnout. That extends to introducing new ideas. If you introduce them in a way that seems like a radical departure from your organization’s alignment, you’ll face pushback. But if you can articulate how the change leads the organization in the direction its people want to go, it will accelerate adaptation to that idea and implementation of the vision.

Language of the Dollar

A major external change surrounds attitudes toward ESG and sustainability. After businesses proudly touted their accomplishments and goals a few years ago, many are now turning to “greenhushing” after backlash from certain consumers that don’t want to hear about climate change and will even boycott products that are promoted as green. This greenhushing is especially noticeable during a presidential election year when one major candidate has made climate and sustainability a cornerstone of his policy and the other scoffs at the concept of ESG.

Businesses need to do a better job of translating their sustainability and ESG efforts into “the language of the dollar,” Scott says.

“In the past, companies have not focused on the business outcomes, they have focused on altruism and only 8% of people are naturally altruistic,” she said.

Demonstrating how sustainability practices can add value to companies through things like renewable energy and energy efficiency, lowering operational costs, and providing investment opportunities is more likely to get consumers and shareholders on board than a focus on the polarizing aspects.

“Sustainability just means being around for a long time adding value. In our language, we focus on polarities, and if you want to create positive change, if you want to power real change in the real world, you have to focus on those things that everybody wants: earning enough to feed their families, having healthy food and clean air.”

“View nature not as something that’s being forced down your throat that you have to save, but something that can provide you a road map and that we all rely on for healthy lives.”