Co-thriving: Lessons from a Forest
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| Trees connected beneath the surface — a reminder that strength often comes from unseen relationships |
An example was recently given that within the diverse ecosystems of the Amazon rainforest there are certain hyper-dominant tree species that are hugely successful. They make up nearly half of the rainforest after fending off competition.
This example was used in the context of companies that build cumulative advantage over a period of time. By leveraging these advantages, they win over competition and grow larger and more powerful, eventually eliminating competitors.
However, recent research on plant ecosystems reveals a fascinating level of co-thriving between them, rather than competition.
A tree’s most important means of staying connected to other trees is a “wood-wide web” of soil fungi that links vegetation in an intimate network. This network allows the sharing of an enormous amount of information and resources.
It appears that nutrient exchange and helping neighbours in times of need is the rule, even equalising differences in available resources between them. This has led researchers to conclude that forests behave like super-organisms, with interconnections much like those in ant colonies.
Trees also warn each other using chemical signals sent through fungal networks around their root tips, signals that operate regardless of the weather.
A tree can be only as strong as the forest that surrounds it.
When trees grow together, nutrients and water can be optimally distributed among them so that each tree can grow into the best tree it can be.
Their well-being depends on their community, and when the supposedly feeble trees disappear, the others lose as well. When that happens, the forest is no longer a single, closed unit.
Hot sun and swirling winds can now penetrate to the forest floor and disrupt the moist, cool climate.
Even strong trees fall sick many times over the course of their lives. When this happens, they depend on their weaker neighbours for support.
If those neighbours are no longer there, then what would once have been a harmless insect attack may be enough to seal the fate even of giants.
An organism or organisation that is too greedy and takes too much without giving anything in return eventually destroys what it needs for its own survival.
The average tree grows its branches outward until it encounters the branch tips of a neighbouring tree of similar height. It does not grow wider because the air and better light in that space are already taken.
Instead, it reinforces the branches it has extended, giving the impression that there is a shoving match taking place high above the ground.
But a pair of true companions behave differently. From the outset they avoid growing thick branches toward each other.
They do not want to take anything away from one another, and so they develop sturdy branches only at the outer edges of their crowns.
Such partners are often so tightly connected at the roots that sometimes they even die together.
The lesson for businesses is therefore not just about co-existing, but about co-thriving.
No company exists in a vacuum; each is part of an ecosystem.
Large trees cannot sustain themselves without the support of an ecosystem of life forms of many sizes. In the same way, large companies cannot sustain themselves without an ecosystem of smaller companies around them.
By reducing or destroying diversity, our world becomes less able to adapt.
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