2010

At the start of 2010 you might be thinking about trying to change some of the ways your organisation or team is structured or how it works. One of your choices is how fast to try and do this.

Flicking through a gardening magazine this weekend, I spotted adverts from four separate companies for instant hedges. Rather than going for small plants and waiting a few years for them to grow, you can now buy fully-grown hedges 4, 6 or even 12 feet high. The most hi-tech solutions involve delivering the hedges in sophisticated troughs that are placed straight into the ground. So you can go from bare ground in the morning to something that look like Hampton Court maze in the afternoon. This has a lot of appeal – if you have the money and are prepared to take the risk that the final outcome will be just as you want it to be.

The alternative is to take your time. Do things more slowly. Plant things small and see how they take – do they grow and flourish straight away or do they need more light and feeding? As it all takes shape in front of you, you still have the chance to move things around. It’s a more experimental approach – the final outcome emerges over time.

But this way probably asks more of you as an individual. You need perseverance (because some plants will die or need a lot of care) and you need patience (it takes 5-10 times longer than instant hedging). You also need to be positive about what you’re doing – who can create a beautiful garden over a number of years without having lots of passion and enjoyment along the way?