A lesson from nature

 As I've been developing my keynote and workshops on adaptability, I've been on a quest to understand what truly helps us thrive in this era of exponential change.

Nature, as always, offers powerful lessons.

Did you know that trees actually get stronger thanks to the wind? It turns out, the wind forces their roots to dig deeper, making them more resilient. In windstorms, tree sways back and forth and some cellular damage takes place in the trunk and in the branches. The tree is being pushed further than it is used to going so it stretches and bends and tears. After the storm and wind passes though, the tree repairs itself, builds stronger cell walls, and becoming even more resilient to withstand the next storm. 

In fact, we have evidence of all this thanks to a very strange experiment carried out in the 1990s in Arizona called Biosphere 2 which tried to create an artificial closed ecological system. In this system, along with many other plants, they planted trees. What is fascinating is that the trees in the Biosphere grew fast and looked healthy, but most would eventually topple over. When the scientists examined the roots and bases of the fallen trees, they came to interesting conclusions. They found that the trees had no exposure to wind in the biosphere and therefore didn’t develop deep roots and “stress wood” which is the stronger and more dense wood that would have stabilized them against the wind in normal conditions which made them too weak to survive, even in their protected environment.

This resonated with me so much. Just like trees, we can use challenges to develop our own strength and resilience. Setbacks are not to be avoided at all costs because they are important opportunities to grow. Resilience does not come from a person’s innate personality or good intentions, it is built as they continuously learn from the changes and challenges they face.

Next time you’re out in nature on a windy day, watch the trees. I find it mesmerizing to see how in their apparent stillness, there is so much movement. A tree actually sways and bends with the wind, “flowing” with the situation around it. It does not reject the wind or fight against it, but rather goes with it, flowing through the stress it causes. While the wind might have the power to upend the tree, more often than not, it strengthens it. A tree that has gone through many storms will be able to withstand many more, for its roots are deep and its “stress wood” is strong. 

The lessons for us are that to grow strong, we need challenges and that strength doesn’t mean being rigid but rather being flexible.

What about you? Are you exposing your tree to enough wind to forge your adaptability and resilience?