#515 pruning

Over the weekend, I spent some time outside cutting all the hostas and trimming back all the bushes in front of my house.  In anticipation of our city's Free Waste Day, we filled five lawn and garden bags with all the remnants of summer.  If I look just at the yard, the bareness makes me question my motives.  But if I look in the bags, I see the dead leaves and branches that were best removed.

Often with gardening, the focus is on planting and growing, but pruning plays an equally as important role.  Cutting things back often allows new plants to emerge with vigor.  Come springtime everything will be fresh and able to bloom with much more space and intentionality.  There is room for the new with the old out of the way.  

I think this analogy applies in organizations as well.  Often we focus on adding and tending to what we have planted without regard to cutting back some of the initiatives.  Maybe you  would be well served to have a metaphorical Free Waste Day in your organization and see what you can toss into the bag.  Maybe it is cleaning out a storeroom, purging old files, re-evaluating a program or revisiting an out-of-date process.  Surely there is something that warrants some pruning.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com

@leadershipdots
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