It's an unusually windy day in Nashville today. I can tell because the huge trees in the woods behind my house are blowing around like crazy. It's interesting to observe them, though, in light of their size and flexibility. After all, these trees are huge. They tower over my house yet when it's really windy like today, they bend and flex and don't break. They've been doing that for several decades now.
When we think about flexibility in business it's easy to think that small companies are more likely to be flexible but I wonder if flexibility has less to do with size and more to do with how you grow. These trees behind my house didn't stay small and flexible. They grew huge. That's what trees do. They grow. They don't stay small just to remain flexible. Isn't that what we hope for our businesses too?
The wind, then, is like changes in the market or technology. One of the big reasons companies are having a hard time right now with social media isn't their size, but their lack of flexibility. They may be strong companies with what they've always done, but they're far too rigid to flex when the winds of business change blow. For all the importance placed on business growth, it seems there's far too little discussion about business flexibility, and on this windy day in Nashville, I'm reminded not to lose site of the need and importance of flexibility.
If there's anything we can learn from the trees it is this: Grow strong and grow flexible. The winds will come from every direction. Sometimes they'll be stronger than others, but when you're both strong and flexible, you're going to be able to keep on growing long after the winds have passed.