What is your Pruning Practice?

As we are now in the middle of autumn, and most of the trees have lost their leaves, I can actually ‘see the wood from the trees’ in my garden. I have a much clearer picture of what needs to be pruned back to allow more space for new growth, or where there is dead wood that is no longer serving a purpose.

Now I know that pruning in the garden doesn’t happen once a year, it really depends on the plants I have at any one time. However, autumn is the time when I can take a more strategic look at what needs attention so I can plan for next year and decide what areas I want to change and what I want to create.

Through this process my garden becomes an ever-evolving space and I’ve learned over the years which plants love their position and thrive and which positions in the garden need a certain type of plant.

It’s been more a process of trial and error than strategic planning and when I’ve neglected it it’s required a lot more work from me to get it back to be ‘fit for purpose’.

And the relevance to business is what I hear you ask?

How often do you as a leader take time out to look at your business or your team to reflect on what is no longer adding value?

Is it:

Monthly,

Quarterly,

Annually, or

Never?

Proactive Change

Many organisations and teams plan ahead. Usually this is around what activities are required to deliver your targets. Rarely is it about stopping things because they no longer add value.

I know of few organisations that change proactively, and as a consequence there is a mismatch between what is happening internally and the pace of change externally. The result is that when something does need to change it requires some form of change programme that takes more time, more resources and often a degree of pain.

Consider for a moment how different this would be if somehow we’d manage to evolve with the environment? What if we had a regular pruning practice?

Here are the benefits I see and the action you can take

Regular review of what’s working to achieve your goals

Consider:

• What is thriving and what do you need to do to maintain this? Does it need feeding? Regular pruning?
• What needs support to grow and flourish? Do you need to add some structure or additional resource to help it on its way?
• What needs digging up or pruning to allow space for something of greater value to grow?

An opportunity to consider what’s missing

Ask yourself:

• Where are you lacking creativity?
• Where is there under performance?
• Is there a clear path laid out?
• Do you have the right skill set available?

Weeding

A weed is anything that you no longer want. From an organisational perspective what behaviours are you noticing that do not support the culture you are wanting? What systems or processes are no longer delivering what you need? What teams or individuals are no longer performing?

A time for some self-reflection

Having considered all of the above some questions you may want to ask yourself are:

• What am I doing that is supporting this?
• What am I creating?
• What am I tolerating?
• What do I want to be new/different?

As a leader what action do you need to take to start a regular pruning practice?

I love to hear your thoughts so feel free to email me at: dawn@aurora4success.co.uk.

“Today may be the enemy of your tomorrows.”

Dr. Henry Cloud