Many years ago, while resting under pine trees after a trek in Himachal with my young children, I asked them a simple question:
"Do these fresh leaves look like the babies of the tree?"
The answer was an immediate "Yes."
Then I asked another question.
"If the leaves are the babies, what happens in autumn when the tree sheds them and they eventually become manure for the same tree? Do living beings consume their own babies?"
That started an interesting discussion.
We looked for the "brain" of the tree.
Was it in the leaves? No, because the leaves come and go.
Was it in the branches? No, because a branch can be cut and the tree survives.
Was it in the trunk? We even found a tree with a largely hollow trunk that was still alive.
Eventually, we arrived at the roots.
Cut the roots, and the tree dies.
That realization stayed with me for years and changed the way I looked at organizations.
Nature's oldest and most successful organizations—the forests—do not place their intelligence at the top. Their strength, stability, and survival come from what lies beneath the surface.
It made me wonder:
Should leadership always sit at the top of a pyramid, or should its real role be to strengthen the roots?
What do you think?