Every Monday, I share 1 question for you to contemplate, 1 idea from me, 1 quote from others, and 1 inspiration for us.
This week’s topic is: Structures
This long weekend I spent a lot of time outside enjoying nature and noticing all its patters, colours and structures. Structures show up everywhere in nature – large and small, invisible and visible. Nature uses structures to move, collect or disperse energy and to solve problems, elegantly, efficiently and effectively. When we think about the word “structures”, word such as rigid, organized, controlled, repetitive, fixed and process-focused come to mind. So, what can we learn from nature’s dynamic, self-organizing and ever-evolving structures?
One Question for you
Structures are everywhere and whatever exists has a structure.
Discuss the question here.
One Idea from me
Over the centuries, human beings have developed many types of structures and ways of organizing together:
The way we manage and structure organizations seem increasingly out of date. In the book Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux shares a new model and guide to creating structures inspired by the next stage of human consciousness.
Like nature is capable of building complex structures by processes of self-organization, Frederic introduces the possibility of self-managed organizations where leadership is distributed, structures are emergent and responsive, influence flows to people who have the most experience, interest or passion for a specific task, work is happening in decentralized networks and energy drives the actions of teams and individuals. Self-organization can lead to emergence of new properties, qualities and results.
This week I invite you to reflect on the structures that surround you: in what way can you “liberate” them and what new possibilities can be sparked as a result of experiencing them as living systems?
One Quote from others
“In a forest, there is no master tree that plans and dictates change when rain fails to fall or when the spring comes early. The whole structure and ecosystem react creatively, in the moment.” Frederic Laloux
One Inspiration for us
Today, more and more building structures are inspired by nature. Check out this link and be inspired by 15 examples of nature-inspired architectural designs. My favourite building inspired by nature is the Beijing National Stadium, also called the Bird Nest, which I had the fortune of visiting in 2015.
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