Stewarding the Ecology of Teams

We had some flooding on our farm over the weekend. We've worked hard on water management over the past two years, but this weekend’s heavy rainfall overwhelmed the systems we put in place. Ditches filled, and water sat in places that are usually dry.

As we walked the land, making notes of how to tackle this problem, I noticed that some plants adapted to well-drained soils were suddenly sitting in standing water. Mark asked, “Will they be ok?” I wasn’t sure. These plants weren’t made for these conditions. If it’s short-term, maybe they’ll take some damage and bounce back — but looking at the forecast, I’m not optimistic.

Flooding 2025

We may lose them. I can evaluate if that was the correct plant for this location. Do I need to change the conditions through better water management? Do I need to change the plant to something that can handle occasional floods?

But, if I replant the same species in the same spot without adjusting the conditions (without addressing the reason they failed to thrive) that’s not resilience. That’s negligence.

Our role as stewards is to create the conditions for life to thrive. We choose what to plant with intention, and we pay attention to how things are doing. When something struggles, we examine the soil. The light. The water. The system.

Shouldn’t we approach our teams the same way? If things aren’t going well, it’s not always a hiring problem. Sometimes it’s a habitat problem.

What if we stopped thinking of ourselves as leaders of organizations, and started thinking of ourselves as stewards of organizational ecosystems?

What would we notice?

What would we shift?

What could flourish?

If you want to dig into this check out: Leadership as Stewardship: A Systems Reflection Tool

Keep growing,

Kristen