Why do others struggle or fail?

Why do some leaders get stuck, in financial crises, technological change, process problems, or [especially] the management of people, while others seem to flow around these obstacles like a mountain stream around its bed of boulders?

How is this a recipe for sustainability, and what opportunity does this concept hold for leaders?

Despite the far-too-common examples of mechanistic, lifeless, control-oriented and short-term-focused businesses, and probably an equal number of people in charge of them, organizations are truly organic in nature.

They have personalities; they live and breathe, in many ways, as a single organism. They also live and die. My experience shows that the personality of an organization is a reflection of the top leader´s view of the world, and his or her place in it.

Leaders who manage the most successful organizations realize that their company´s most significant value is not their products or services, but the people who make them possible.

They realize that the productivity and profitability required to maintain competitive advantage also come from a focus on people, and not on the measures themselves.

They realize that to sustain long-term success means finding a way to deal with, if not thrive upon, the inevitable crises and changes along the way, whether they be economic, technological, political, or human. Success is not about what Wall Street says at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

As a coach, my value to leaders comes from guiding them to see a new "model" for how they might view their business landscape, for it is only with new ways of seeing that we may adopt new ways of behaving.

Conversely, continuing to make decisions from the same viewpoint leads inevitably to the same kind of results. If you want true change, you first need to change the way you see.

I have a personal passion for nature. It is probably no surprise that I look to the world of nature for "lessons" for how we might live our lives -- personally or professionally. Nature offers perhaps the best model available to us for creating a truly sustainable organization.

If we could pattern our organizations after our natural world, the resultant energy would offer just the sustainability and success we truly want. While many can believe this intellectually, it takes seeing it clearly, perhaps for the first time, before the old control-based view of the world can be released.

Here are some of the "lessons" nature offers us. As you consider each, begin to envision how your business would operate if this were one of your business "rules." A sampling of nature´s lessons:

Connectedness: Every occurrence in nature affects something else; nothing happens in isolation.

Rhythm: Cycles are an integral part of nature: birth and death, dearth and abundance, ebb and flow. Nature doesn't attempt to fight off this natural rhythm in the name of control.

Balance: Nature thrives on both order and chaos. Constant change creates constant balance. Balance cannot come from "either/or," but only from "both."

Acceptance: Nature "just is." It has no agenda to control. Everything has both value and beauty. Water changes the shape of all it touches – without competing with it.

Openness: There are no boundaries in nature, no walls. Nothing is inaccessible to anything else. There are borders, such as between sea and land, but even here we find constant change and a rich variety of life.

Simplicity: No energy is wasted in nature; it always takes the "least energy" path. The result is elegant simplicity.

Nature has had over four billion years of experience (not a bad resume). The rules haven´t changed once. The results are in constant flux, and what we experience during our lifetime is just the current state of this ultimate sustainable system.

What if your organization followed a similar set of rules?

What if your business and your people could foster the same environment of dignity and integrity that make up the world of nature? It has been said that humans have a single basic desire in life -- to make a difference.

What if you, as a leader, could help people make a difference in their lives, and in yours, by allowing nature to guide your mission?