What Can Nature Teach Us About Business?
By Andrew Levine − August 24, 2010
We created the Opportunity Community as a means of taking ordinary business networking to the next level. Beyond transactional networking to an organic process that creates community and invites extraordinary conversations. Here’s an example of a question we posed at our most recent August 9th gathering: ” What does Nature have to teach us about business and life? “ We created an event in the historic and inspiring Wave Hill Gardens, only 25 minutes north of New York City. We wanted to get members of this newly formed community to a place where they couldn’t help but slow down, look and really pay attention. Wave Hill is breathtakingly perfect in just that way.
Our series of intimate conversations were built around a guided tour of the gardens given by Riverdale resident, Mark Monchek, a longtime visitor to the gardens who brings a wealth of knowledge about Wave Hill and a passion for every square foot of the grounds. We also invited our community to settle into the evening’s pace with some breath exercises and stretches and we used the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and Mary Oliver to stir the imagination. Click here to see the full program from the event.
On a wordless walking tour we created connections to the magnificent Copper Beach trees on the grounds, the sequestered bee hives that house some of the garden’s most efficient workers, and the open ended vistas that include panoramic views of the Hudson River. We reflected on the qualities inherent in natural landscapes as well as man-made environments like Wave Hill and found connections to the work we do in the world. We talked about what it means to go from awkwardness to grace, and the importance of simply ‘looking’ and paying attention’. The group of eighteen participants broke up into small groups to pursue their conversations and reassembled in a stunning natural amphitheater to share their reflections with each other.
Many of us know that grounding ourselves in the natural world puts us in touch with the visionary, the creative, the inspired side of ourselves. Yet, we forget to move into those landscapes on a frequent basis. This was a night to remember that and to do it as part of a new kind of business community.
