Sowing seeds of insight

I have been spending a lot of time sowing seeds in the garden over the past few months (when the pollen count is not too high), and I began to think that there were parallels to working with clients to help them gain new insights and thus move towards making changes.

Clearing out the debris to make space for new seeds

There is often a lot of storytelling and offloading that needs to occur first, and attempting to sow new seeds of insight before this has occurred makes it much less likely that the “seeds” will germinate. We also need to fertilise the soil with rapport building and nurturing a relationship of trust and caring.

Germination rates and growth

In the garden some seeds never germinate, no matter how carefully we tend them, and this can be the same with some clients. I remember those who seem to stay stuck forever in offloading mode, talking about the same issues over and over again, and seemingly not moving forward to process them.

Some seeds emerge strongly, whilst others are more delicate and tiny, and all need their own ideal temperature to germinate. With clients I would liken the right “temperature” to the right context and readiness to begin to consider new perspectives and/ or work on growing. With some clients new insight emerge strongly, once they “germinate”, whilst with others we may not notice this until the new insight begins to grow in size and become more visible.

First and second order change

Some new insights are like the annuals – they bloom brightly for a time and then fade and die. I would liken these to first order change in clients. Change occurs initially but is not sustained, and is usually about short term behaviour change.

Others are like perennials, where the plants continue to grow and strengthen. These are like second order change where a new insight causes such a major change in attitude that it may be irreversible. This often occurs in the “light-bulb” moments.

Patience is needed

All of these processes take time and thus a great deal of patience is needed. We need to try not to give up when we can see no evidence of “germination”. My Carob seeds took two months to germinate and I nearly threw them out beforehand (especially as they were out of date according to the seed packet).

But we also need to be mindful of when to offer less nurturing and when to let plants survive on their own in their own environment. The same applies to our clients.