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Plant Growth as a Metaphor for Employee Growth

*Originally published on the blog for the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (GTAC-ATD) in 2016. 

I start with the disclaimer that I am not a botanist. I never had pets growing up, so my mom’s house plants were like my pets. I helped water them when I was younger until I was promoted to helping my dad with mowing the lawn. I eventually learned more about flowers and landscaping when working in city maintenance for a couple of summers.

With that said, how are employees like plants? What can we learn from plant growth and apply to employee talent development?

Simply put: like plants, employees need proper resources and a good environment in order to survive and grow.

Most house plants need water, sunlight, and heat to grow. With proper amounts of these resources, these plants can grow from small seeds into big, tall plants. In many cases, house plants need to be moved to bigger pots in order to continue living. That is, their roots continue to grow and need more space in order to continue establishing a strong foundation.

When plants lack proper resources, they cannot survive. Flowers and leaves lose their color and fall down. Without a replenishment of these resources, plants cannot grow back. They are lost. They are gone.

On the flip side, too much of a resource can also be detrimental. For plants, too much water can lead to the rotting of roots and the ruining of soil. Despite trying to help the plants grow, a gardener supplying too much water can actually cause a plant’s death.

Employees are not too much different. Employees are certainly capable of surviving, thriving, and growing. In order to do so, they need the proper tools and resources in order to perform their jobs. They need training, feedback, and support in order to gain understanding of expectations and establish productive actions and proper behaviors. Each employee needs to establish a strong foundation as a member of the organization in order to become fully engaged, effective, and efficient.

When lacking proper resources, employees are not able to carry out their jobs. Instead of getting work done, they become frustrated. If workplace safety is compromised, employees can get injured. Without feedback, employees develop bad habits, including focusing on non-productive actions and improper behaviors. In some cases, employees may advance to a certain level and then get stuck; without enough space to continue growing, their morale erodes and they need a change of scenery.

On the flip side, too much training time can take away from the time needed to perform live, real-time work. Too much supervision and not enough independence can make employees completely dependent on their supervisors. As they stop using their own critical thinking abilities and wait for manager approvals, less work gets done. For those who are already doing the job well and feel suffocated by excess supervision, they get frustrated. Feeling a lack of trust is present, some may even resort to insubordination in order to make a point that too much supervision is ruining the environment.   

Other environmental and cultural factors such as thermostat settings, availability of parking, functionality of restroom facilities, open door policies, suggestion boxes, and acknowledgement of paid time off can make or break a work environment for the employees. Employees should have some level of comfort at the workplace. They should be able to provide feedback and speak up when something can be improved or is simply broken. They need breaks and they need time off. They need to be able to attend to their lives outside of work; their work is a part of their lives—not the other way around.  

No matter how talented or how resilient they are, employees without the right resources or environment will either fail or leave the organization.  


As such, talent development and organizational development remain key components to employee success—and, in turn, organizational success. Like plants, employees need to be given the right resources and environment in order to succeed. It is only in giving employees what they need that an organization can truly flourish. 


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