If an organization is built like a rainforest ecosystem, then it will have already built it internal elasticity to withstand even unforeseen events, including a board of directors firing the CEO and the rest of the C-suite.

This is exactly what happened at one of my previous companies when the board of a clinical medical company asked me to step in as interim CEO and stop the doctors and nurses from walking out the door in a mass exodus. My job was to restore bonds of trust between leadership and staff that allow ecosystems to thrive.

Doctors and nurses are highly employable, so with the uncertainty of losing the executive in one fell swoop, there was little stopping them. As a senior director who helps support and manage the HR departments of over 50 clinics, I was ideally placed to help because our immediate problem was retaining our people.

I told everyone how important they were to the clinic and the community they served. In turn, I asked the board to step aside while I rebuilt these relationships. Throughout this nine-month process, I was acutely aware of our interdependence. Ecosystems are built on teams that rely on each other, and this is a powerful analogy for effective change management. After all, there is no such thing as a shed in the rainforest.

Connected: 3 ways businesses are staying ahead of regulatory changes in 2024

Who are you? The ocean or the forest?

At my current company, we recently introduced the ecosystem idea with a video presentation on the relationship between our departments at our all-hands meeting — and it was a real hit. our marketing team even used the analogy from the outside to show the different touch points in the customer journey and how they are mutually supportive.

People were really excited to recognize their departments as embodying the qualities of the land (HR), the ocean (Technology), the fields (Marketing) and the mountains (Enterprise Sales). There was much laughter as Customer Support saw themselves portrayed as the jungle, with the chaos of never knowing what will come next with the calls they receive.

We really wanted to drive home the point that to thrive, each individual needs to work together, connect with others and build lasting connections. Equally, cultivating this interdependence can build resilience. If you look at a rainforest, it continues to thrive even when it is depleted because it is always being rebuilt from within. Similarly, as a company grows, departments may expand, but seeing ourselves as interdependent allows us to collectively address an ecosystem's biggest disruptor—change.

The “why” behind change management

Nothing happens in isolation within an ecosystem. When a department needs to make a significant change, we get all the key players in the room to understand how it will affect all the other departments. If it's a heavy lift for that department, we look to other members of the ecosystem to support that change.

HR's role as a stakeholder is to ensure that the “why” behind the change is explained. I've seen change management fail when this doesn't happen. While our verticals, strategic plan, and quarterly goals may be well established, people still need to know how their actions lead to desired business outcomes—otherwise, they feel disconnected from the ecosystem.

We provide software solutions in the wellness space and close coordination between Marketing, Technology, Sales, Support and HR is needed to deliver real value to customers. If our “why” will help us solopreneurs to mid-market and enterprise companies, the people in the field will buy in fully when they realize that customers can take their advice as gospel. That positive motivation then flows throughout the ecosystem.

Connected: How AI ecosystems are transforming the future of business

Evaluation of best practices

Once HR has figured out the “why” of the change, you should ask if more resources, staff, and training are required before you execute. However, ecosystems are teeming with life and HR does not necessarily need to look outside the company. We partnered with LinkedIn's AI solution to synthesize a person's experience, education, goals and job description to uncover our “hidden workforce.” Often, we find there is someone already within the ecosystem with the skill set we need.

Next, you need to compare best practices. This falls into three categories:

• If you've managed this type of change well before, document it and then aim to refine the process to make it even better.
• If you have failed in the past, find out what went wrong and do a root analysis so you don't fall into the same trap. (For example, just because you once spent $1 million on marketing and brought in 10,000 new customers doesn't mean that spending $2 million will double your profit.)
• If this is a completely new change, compare it to other organizations that have made it before.

Remember, make sure you have all the right actors involved in the comparison. Just as fires, droughts, and logging can destroy an ecosystem, external pressures can also expose any disconnect between departments and functions. All components must work together harmoniously for the ecosystem to use change to its advantage.

Connected: Why are you so resistant to change – and how to overcome it

Adapting and thriving together

There are two types of change management: the change we can plan and control, and the change we need to make quickly, sometimes in response to a crisis. When the board fired the C-suite in my previous role, I realized that even desperate situations can be salvaged and prevention is a much better approach.

The ecosystem is a good analogy for keeping teams connected and fostering a culture of community where no one operates in isolation.

As our representative from Customer Experience (which symbolizes the underground layer in our ecosystem) said in the video: “We depend heavily on our Customer Success, Marketing, Engineering and all key stakeholders to continuously improve our solutions through an iterative and iterative approach user-centered.” When everyone is aware of their impact, organizations are best suited to adapt to changes in their thriving ecosystem.