Sustenance

Sustenance can come in many forms, with many degrees of efficacy.  Moe (my lovely bride of 37 years) recently made this point with me, providing some compelling evidence.

In the picture below you see some plants (lettuce, chard, spinach, kale) that she planted in commercial, sterilized potting soil.

In the following picture you see plants from the same seed batch, planted on the same day, and submitted to the same conditions, with one exception - the soil was taken from our compost pile of natural, organic materials. 

While the plants receiving both kinds of nutrients are growing, clearly one set is prospering to a much greater degree.

I offer the following analogy of our own personal and organizational growth.  

Our bodies respond, grow, and heal much more healthily when our intake is of organic, naturally grown produce, meat, and dairy products.  While eating sterile and processed "food-like substances" will appear to affect healthy growth, when compared to an organic diet the difference is obvious.

Now leap to the organizational level with me.  Purchased, contrived, artificial programs/initiatives deployed to affect real organizational health (in one form or another) produce only superficial appearances of wellbeing.  On the other hand, organically designed efforts, authentically developed and deployed by the folks within the organization, offer the "real" nutrition that is likely to result in meaningful, rich, and healthy organizational response.

In summary:  

• Fake nutrition and conditions produce peon results.
• Real, organic nutrition and conditions produce substantive and meaningful results.

Sustenance!  (Hoping my preference is obvious to you.)