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Ari Weinzweig on Mother Trees ...

Philosopher Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is power.” Deep knowledge, it seems reasonable to say then, would be wisdom. “Mother Trees” bring knowledge and wisdom that can be accessed by everyone in our organization. In fact, a few hours before the dinner on May 7, Joan will be teaching a class for Zingerman’s staff who would like to come and learn from her. 

At the start of Finding the Mother Tree, Simard says,

This is not a book about how we can save the trees.

This is a book about how the trees might save us.

Following Simard’s insightful lead, we too might do well to look more closely at how the words and wisdom of our organizational “Mother Trees” can help us to reground and see things in more effectively holistic ways. If you have a few minutes, you might reflect on who the “Mother Trees” are in your ecosystem, how you have learned from them, and how you can continue to learn from them for many years to come. Wisdom, cultural insight, and the long-term health of our organizations might well depend on them. Let me know what you learn!

The people I’m thinking of as organizational “Mother Trees” here at Zingerman’s have been such positive influences on what we have done over the years. Like Joan Nathan, it’s hard to imagine the Zingerman’s Community without their influence. In Joan’s case, it’s with food and cooking. With Peter Block (who I was honored to have interview me last week in Cincinnati at a book event at 50 West Brewing Company), it’s philosophy and learning to lead without relying on power and authority. With Wendell Berry, it’s about understanding old-school agriculture, traditional ways of life in rural communities, and developing more holistic and more helpful ways to see the world. Grace Lee Boggs teaches me how to push for positive change, honor the humanity of everyone we meet, and stick with what we believe in even if others around us have not. There are others as well, but you get the idea. All of these people, these “Mother Trees,” have a presence that contributes to the quality of the work we do. And all of them, quietly, without drama, inform and inspire. As Suzanne Simard says:

It’s not always about becoming bigger and better in a traditional or a visible way that we might measure as wealth, for example, or power. You know, the most powerful parts of our social systems can be the elder that has aged and is guiding younger people, or guiding their culture. And yet, they can be almost invisible in the hierarchy of our social system.

The “Mother Trees” in our organizational ecosystems do just that. Their impact is almost invisible to an average onlooker, but their impact is, ultimately holistically, enormous. Suzanne Simard summed up all this in a 2017 journal article about Mother Trees, in which, she writes, 

Elders fill a special role in any community, having earned the respect of the tribe for their life-long wisdom, knowledge, and teaching. They help link individuals to the broader community as a whole, and connect the past with the future. Not all old individuals are elders, nor are all elders old. In my family, grandmothers and grandfathers usually filled the role of elders … connecting the family through the ages. 

…

I have taken to calling these elders “Mother Trees” because they appear to be nurturing their young. Mother Trees thus connect the forest through space and time, just like elders connect human families across generations.

As I’ve said, this strikes me as very much the role that Joan and the others I’ve listed above have played here over the years. In the spirit of which, Zingerman’s would be a different organization without her and without the wisdom from all these other wonderful “Mother Trees.” Their wisdom, I’m confident, will continue to inform what we do for decades to come. Thankfully for me and so many others, most of them record their thoughts in the form of books and articles. It’s a lovely coincidence I suppose that their deeply rooted philosophies and perspectives will be kept alive on paper—from trees—for centuries to come.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said in an interview the other day,

Think about the people we want as our leaders, and just look at that as sort of a template … Humility … Empathy … Resilience … Accountability, kindness, compassion, and ambition for something larger than themselves not for themselves. Those are the leaders that have led us. And that means the citizens respect those kinds of leaders.