Trees and humans are more alike than we imagine. They breathe, adapt, heal from wounds, and communicate through intricate fungal networks that pass nutrients, warnings, and support across the forest floor. Some trees “remember” drought and respond better the next time, others release calming scents that ease the human body, slowing the pulse and softening stress. Deep in their roots and rings, they carry memories of seasons and storms, just as people carry stories in generations.
As we mark World Tree Day on 21 November, we are reminded that leadership mirrors this quiet intelligence. A thriving community, like a thriving forest, depends on connection, care, and continuity. At BLESS Indonesia, we root our work in this shared harmony, cultivating clarity and courage so that change can take root, heal, and grow strong enough to shelter others.
Why Harmony Slips and Why It Matters
Many initiatives begin with strong enthusiasm and momentum, but sustaining them requires steady attention, bigger purposes, and smoother handovers. As schedules fill and targets accelerate, the focus on long-term outcomes can gradually fade. People then begin to feel the weight of constantly starting over. One team moves from one project to the next, but each demands renewed energy and commitment. Over time, the cycle of repeated beginnings turns initial excitement into fatigue, reminding us that genuine progress depends not only on launching ideas, but on nurturing them long enough for impact to grow.
Across Indonesia and the wider region, leaders describe a similar reality. Complex challenges rarely sit neatly within a single office or organization; instead, they live within ecosystems that stretch across villages, ministries, sectors, markets, and the informal spaces in between. Issues that dominate today’s agenda, such as climate resilience, inclusive livelihoods, and community well-being now depend on collaboration that can move fluidly across these boundaries. When those connections are strong, the work becomes more adaptive and resilient. But when they weaken, information slips into silos, feedback loses its way, and trust grows thinner. And without trust, even the most promising efforts struggle to take root.
BLESS Indonesia approaches this reality through kebersamaan and gotong royong (collective effort with shared dignity). Harmony matters because it aligns clarity with care. It enables steady progress in contexts where change requires patience, reciprocity, and locally guided wisdom. From that ground, sustainable change becomes possible. From this need, BLESS has listed a practical, nature-rooted framework to guide leaders in sustaining change across seasons.
A Framework for Harmony-Centered Leadership
BLESS works with a clear belief: leadership grows stronger when connection, clarity, and care move together. Like a forest where trees share nutrients through hidden networks, harmony-driven leadership allows insight and trust to move across teams, partners, and communities. When the roots are healthy, the canopy thrives and so does the ecosystem around it.
This approach is grounded in emotional intelligence and resilient presence. Guided by Goleman’s emotional intelligence and the CORE resilience framework, we center four essentials: connection, optimism, regulation, and energy. These capacities help leaders hold complexity with steadiness and shape environments where clarity, care, and collaboration can thrive. From this grounding, the seven principles below offer a way for harmony to be practiced through daily leadership.
Below are seven principles that make this practice attainable:
1) Rooted Purpose, Shared Language
Sustainable change requires deep roots. Clear purpose and shared vocabulary keep teams aligned even during pressure or transition. Values like rukun and Bhinneka reflect a unity that welcomes difference. When meaning and direction are articulated in collective language, decisions stay coherent, and teams move with greater confidence.
2) Distributed Canopy, Collective Intelligence
A thriving forest canopy distributes access to light so many forms of life can grow. Similarly, leadership must distribute voice and responsibility. Research highlighted by the World Economic Forum shows that collective intelligence outperforms individual decision-making in most complex scenarios, reaching up to 87 percent in some studies. In practice, this means inviting diverse perspectives early and giving people real roles in both design and delivery. Many crowns, one forest.
3) Rhythms and Rituals that Hold the Grove
Without rhythm, work drifts. Teams need predictable cycles that maintain direction and prevent information loss, weekly learning huddles, monthly cross-site reviews, and seasonal forums with community partners. These rhythms serve as anchors. They reduce the energy spent on coordination and create shared habits that make progress easier to maintain.
4) Rings of Measure, Stories of Place
Like the rings inside a tree trunk, organizations need ways to read their own seasons. Track stewardship-based indicators that reflect care for people and planet, such as youth participation, women’s agency in decision-making, soil health, livelihood diversification, or community-led monitoring. Pair these numbers with brief field stories. Data provides the map, stories reveal the terrain.
5) Learning Roots, Safe-to-Adapt Culture
Healthy roots adjust to shifting soil and unpredictable rain. Teams also need the freedom to adapt without fear. Build short learning loops. A clear hypothesis, a small experiment, feedback that returns quickly. Encourage honesty delivered with respect. Psychological safety allows risks to surface early and enables adaptation that protects momentum.
6) Mycorrhizae of Partnership, Beyond Project Boundaries
Beneath the forest floor, mycorrhizal networks connect trees, sharing nutrients and strengthening resilience. Leadership can replicate this through partnerships that extend beyond project boundaries. Map the ecosystem. Build bridges across government, private sector, local communities, youth groups, and faith-based organizations. Long-term relationships often become the quiet infrastructure that allows change to last.
7) Compassionate Accountability
Harmony needs structure. Clear roles, decision rights, and escalation pathways help teams move with calm and confidence. Feedback should be direct yet respectful. Behavior, impact, next step. Accountability grounded in compassion protects dignity while ensuring the work stays on course. Trust grows when practice consistently matches promise.
Planting What Endures
The forest teaches steady patience and a spirit of reciprocity. Roots hold the soil during heavy rain. Canopies share light so young growth can rise. Leadership that sustains change grows from the same wisdom as it honors people and places, listens to elders and youth, and remembers that every lasting result begins with a seed and a daily habit of tending.
BLESS Indonesia carries this posture into each partnership. We choose practices that keep connection alive, purpose clear, and learning continuous, allowing communities to thrive through many cycles. Like a resilient forest, harmony grows when each part of the system is supported to flourish.
As we look ahead, may we continue to nurture leadership that protects, restores, and strengthens the ecosystems we belong to. There is an old Indonesian saying that goes, “Alam takambang jadi guru,” nature is the teacher that is always present. The forest invites us to keep learning, keep tending, and keep building what will endure.
