A lifeless plant gets a new life 

A row of plants about 8 feet high stood by the side of the road leading to my office in the big paperboard mill where I worked.  These plants were looking life less instead of showing off their dense green leaves and plenty of yellow flowers and relieve the eyes from looking at the drab concrete buildings, steel structures, and roads.

The plants looked drab most of the year with woody stems and hardly any fresh leaves. In the flowering season, beautiful yellow flowers would be seen but as soon as that short season was over, the plants were an eyesore rather than a relief. This was despite regularly watering them. Watching them daily, many times a day, on my way to and from my office room was a pain.

As an experiment, I told my people in the civil maintenance department who maintained these plants, to prune only one of these plants drastically, leaving just a foot of the trunk from the ground. This was done promptly. I was worried about whether I destroyed the plant and created a bigger eye sore. I watched them eagerly every day, for the results of the experiment.

After about 2 weeks, small green shoots were coming out of the trunk. I was relieved that at least the plant was not dead. Every day the number of vigorously growing shoots increased dramatically. In a few weeks, there were hundreds of fast-growing shoots. In about 3 months, hundreds of shoots with fresh green tender leaves had grown 3 feet high. This born-again plant was a feast for the eyes.

We repeated the process with all the other plants with similar happy results. This dramatic and unexpected transformation of otherwise lifeless plants, set me thinking …

Reflections

Those plants were looking lifeless and as good as dead. I was in half a mind to uproot them and plant new ones in their place. They looked as though they had no energy to grow new branches and leaves. But then what happened after the drastic pruning?

A giant reservoir of energy was unleashed when the plant was pruned drastically. That energy was so huge and readily available that it quickly initiated hundreds of new shoots and sustained their vigorous growth to several feet. The plant did not need any extra inputs for its rebirth. It didn't need water, fertilizer, insecticide, or attention. It had all its requirements in abundance.

Can this be true for individuals, teams, and organizations?  Can the drastic stoppage of the routine, ritualistic, dull, and meaningless daily routines unleash the giant dormant powers in them? 

Could it be that their lifeless performance is due to a block of their powerful energies by life-killing doubts, fears, and meaningless activities? Can getting rid of these energy blocks unleash the hidden energies? Would that give birth to lively new thoughts, plans, and activities, like those seen in the born-again plants? 

This great transformation may emerge without any additional rewards. The transformation itself would be a fantastic reward.

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