This post is part of the “Leadership Ecosystems” series, exploring how nature’s patterns can transform our approach to leadership.
A forest tells a story that unfolds over centuries. What appears as a static woodland is actually a dynamic community in constant, patient evolution. Unlike the immediate responsiveness of coral reefs or the seasonal migrations of savanna species, forests teach us about development that spans generations – from pioneer saplings emerging in clearings to the complex, interdependent networks of old-growth ecosystems.
In our quarterly-focused business world where leaders often measure success in days or weeks, what might we learn from systems that measure change in decades or centuries? How can forest succession – the predictable yet complex process through which forests develop over time – inform a more patient, layered approach to organizational leadership?
Pioneer Species to Climax Communities: The Stages of Development
Walk into a recently disturbed area – perhaps a cleared field or a location recovering from wildfire – and you’ll find the first stage of forest succession. Fast-growing, sun-loving “pioneer species” quickly colonize the open ground. These plants – often grasses, shrubs, and trees like birch, aspen, or pine – aren’t playing the long game. They grow quickly, disperse seeds widely, and prepare the soil for what’s to come.
This offers our first leadership insight: different phases of organizational development require different dominant traits and capabilities. In early-stage startups or new initiatives, you need pioneer species – people comfortable with uncertainty, capable of rapid growth, and able to thrive in unstructured environments with full exposure.
A young forest doesn’t remain dominated by pioneers forever. As these early species modify the environment – creating shade, changing soil chemistry, reducing temperature extremes – they create conditions favorable for different species. Gradually, longer-lived, shade-tolerant trees emerge beneath the pioneers. Over decades, these “climax species” – oak, maple, redwood – slowly grow taller, eventually forming the mature forest canopy.
Organizations similarly evolve through successional stages:
- Pioneer stage: Characterized by rapid growth, experimentation, flexible roles, and direct leadership
- Intermediate stage: Development of systems, specialization of functions, and emergence of middle management
- Mature stage: Complex interdependencies, established culture, and multi-layered leadership structures
The key leadership lesson? Recognize which stage your organization is in, and understand that what helped you succeed in a previous stage may hinder you in the next. The very traits that make pioneer species successful (fast growth, direct sun exposure) prevent them from thriving in later forest stages.
Too often, organizations try to maintain their pioneer-stage characteristics (extreme flexibility, founder-centric decision making) long after they’ve entered intermediate or mature stages. Alternatively, they attempt to impose mature-forest structures (heavy process, multiple approval layers) on pioneer-stage initiatives.
Nurse Logs: How Decline Creates Opportunities for New Growth
Perhaps most fascinating in forest ecosystems is how even decline and death become sources of renewal. In old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, fallen trees – “nurse logs” – host entirely new communities of life. As they decompose, these massive logs become nurseries for seedlings, fungi, and countless microorganisms. Their decay creates the precise conditions needed for new growth.
This powerful metaphor challenges how we think about organizational decline. When products, processes, or even entire divisions reach the end of their lifecycle, do we view them merely as failures to be discarded? Or do we recognize them as potential nurse logs – sources of valuable nutrients, lessons, and growth opportunities?
The nurse log concept suggests several leadership practices:
- Conducting thorough retrospectives when sunsetting products or services
- Creating explicit knowledge transfer processes when experienced team members depart
- Repurposing elements of discontinued projects rather than completely starting over
- Celebrating “honorable failures” that contribute learning to the organization
This ecological wisdom counters our cultural bias toward constant newness and disruption. As management thinker Peter Drucker noted: “The most effective way to manage change is to create it.” But perhaps the most sustainable way to create change is to harvest nutrients from what came before.
The Wood Wide Web: Mycorrhizal Networks as Knowledge Systems
For decades, we viewed trees as individual competitors, fighting for light, water, and nutrients. Recent research has dramatically changed this understanding. Beneath the forest floor exists what scientists now call the “Wood Wide Web” – vast networks of fungal connections (mycorrhizae) linking trees in complex communication systems.
Through these mycorrhizal networks, trees share resources, transmit warning signals about threats, and even appear to support neighboring trees in need. A remarkable study by ecologist Suzanne Simard showed that older “mother trees” recognize and preferentially support their seedling offspring through these underground networks.
As an organizational metaphor, mycorrhizal networks represent the often invisible but crucial knowledge transfer systems that allow information to flow between disparate parts of an organization:
- Informal mentoring relationships
- Communities of practice that cross formal reporting lines
- Knowledge management systems that preserve institutional wisdom
- Cultural traditions that transmit values across generations of employees
Leaders attuned to forest wisdom actively cultivate these connective networks rather than focusing exclusively on formal hierarchies. They recognize that the organization’s most valuable insights often travel through these informal pathways rather than official channels.
Disturbance Regimes: The Role of Creative Destruction
Forests experience periodic disturbances – fire, wind, floods, insect outbreaks – that temporarily disrupt the ecosystem. While seemingly destructive, these events are often essential for long-term forest health. They clear accumulated deadwood, release nutrients, create openings for new growth, and in some cases trigger necessary regeneration processes (certain pine species, for example, require fire to open their cones and release seeds).
The frequency, intensity, and scale of these disruptions constitute a forest’s “disturbance regime.” Each forest type has evolved with its characteristic pattern of disruption – from the frequent, low-intensity ground fires of ponderosa pine forests to the catastrophic but infrequent stand-replacing fires of lodgepole pine forests.
This offers profound insight for organizational leaders: healthy systems require appropriate disturbances at the right frequency and scale. Without occasional disruption, systems accumulate deadwood – outdated processes, unnecessary meetings, vestigial roles, entrenched thinking patterns.
Consider the contrasting approaches to organizational “disturbance regimes”:
- Low-frequency, high-intensity disruption: Major reorganizations every few years, creating maximum turbulence
- High-frequency, low-intensity disruption: Regular small experiments, process improvements, and team rotations that maintain adaptability without massive upheaval
Just as different forest types evolved with different disturbance patterns, organizations might benefit from intentionally designing appropriate disruption cycles – regular innovation sprints, periodic process reviews, or sabbatical rotations that introduce fresh thinking without massive upheaval.
Forest Edges and Ecotones: Innovation at the Boundaries
Some of the richest biodiversity in forests occurs not in their centers but at their edges – the transitional zones (ecotones) where forest meets meadow, wetland, or stream. These boundary regions combine elements of multiple ecosystems, creating unique habitats where specialized species thrive.
In organizational terms, innovation similarly flourishes at boundaries – where disciplines, departments, industries, or cultures intersect. The most valuable insights often emerge not from deep within siloed expertise but from the creative friction of different perspectives.
Leaders who understand this principle:
- Create physical and virtual spaces where different specialties can intermingle
- Build diverse teams that bring together varied experiences and cognitive styles
- Establish partnerships and alliances that cross organizational boundaries
- Encourage “boundary spanners” – individuals who move comfortably between different domains
Rather than trying to eliminate boundaries (which often results in homogeneity), forest-minded leaders maintain healthy “edges” where different ways of thinking can productively collide.
Canopy Layers: Leadership Development and Succession
Mature forests feature distinct vertical layers – from the forest floor to the understory, midstory, and canopy. Each layer represents a different phase of growth and plays a specific role in the ecosystem. Young saplings grow patiently in the understory, sometimes waiting decades for a gap in the canopy before they can reach their full potential.
This stratification provides a powerful model for leadership development and succession planning:
- Forest Floor: New talent entering the organization, learning fundamentals
- Understory: Developing leaders gaining experience, building skills, waiting for opportunities
- Midstory: Experienced leaders managing teams and significant initiatives
- Canopy: Senior leaders with organizational-level responsibility and vision
In healthy forests, each layer gets appropriate light and resources for its developmental stage. Similarly, effective organizations create development paths that provide appropriate challenges, support, and visibility at each career stage.
The forest canopy model also challenges our heroic conceptions of leadership. The tallest trees may be most visible, but they depend entirely on the layers below them. Their success reflects not just individual achievement but the health of the entire system.
Forest Succession Leadership in Practice
So what might Forest Succession Leadership look like in practice? Here are some approaches to consider:
- Extend your time horizons
Move beyond quarterly thinking to consider 5-10 year developmental arcs. What foundations are you laying today that may not bear fruit for years? - Match leadership approaches to developmental stages
Recognize whether your team or organization is in pioneer, intermediate, or mature stage, and adjust your leadership approach accordingly. - Design intentional disturbance regimes
Create regular, appropriate cycles of renewal and creative destruction rather than allowing stagnation or experiencing unpredictable upheaval. - Cultivate mycorrhizal networks
Invest in the invisible connections that allow knowledge and resources to flow throughout your organization. - Value nurse logs
Create processes to harvest wisdom from initiatives and individuals at the end of their lifecycle.
The Paradox of Forest Leadership
Forests embody beautiful paradoxes that challenge conventional management thinking:
- They are simultaneously stable and constantly changing
- They achieve efficiency through redundancy and diversity, not standardization
- They grow stronger through periodic disruption and decay
- They balance competition and cooperation at every level
- They achieve direction without centralized control
Perhaps most importantly, forests remind us that leadership is less about controlling outcomes than about nurturing the conditions for life to flourish across generations. The most magnificent forests we see today exist because someone – whether a far-sighted forester or simply a squirrel burying acorns – took actions whose full benefits they would never personally witness.
In our next post of this series, we’ll explore Tide Pool Leadership – examining what these remarkable ecosystems at the edge of sea and land can teach us about resilience, adaptation, and the importance of boundaries.
What aspects of forest ecosystems resonate with your leadership experience? Where do you see opportunities to apply these principles in your organization? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
