Progressive Pathways Consulting

A follow up on the MEF conference.

Those of you who attended the MEF conference on 29 April 2026, were the first people to ever hear me speak publicly about the Lombok Creeper and its connection to the organizations we work in. A few of you came up to me that day and told me that you especially appreciated having the distinction made between the trellis and the vine.

The trellis and the vine

The trellis, if you recall from my talk, is the structure that holds everything together, from processes, systems, documentation, governance frameworks, compliance requirements and administrative infrastructure that makes it possible for a business to function. Gardening taught me that without a proper trellis, my Lombok creeper couldn’t grow properly. The analogy fits the corporate world. Without a trellis, no organization grows properly.

The trellis is vital to the survival of the organization.

The vine in this metaphor is the plant and the flowers. It is living and breathing. Even thinking. The vine symbolizes life and growth. Those who work within an organization are the vine.

The vine is equally vital to the survival of the organization.

The reminder to you from our time together was to ensure that you never forget that you are the vine.

The missing piece to the puzzle

There is one aspect to the trellis and the vine that I didn’t get to share with you at the conference. It is an important one.

We learnt that while you may be the gatekeepers of the trellis because your work revolves around building, maintaining, and refining the trellis, you are not the trellis. You are the vine that needs to be supported by the trellis.

However, we cannot run from the fact that you hold a specialized understanding of the trellis that others in your organization do not possess.

The question that arises is what can you do to help support the vine as you build, maintain, and refine the trellis?

Collaborate.

The practicality of collaboration

Collaboration here involves you getting input from your colleagues on how the trellis can be better.

You are still the one with specialized knowledge of the trellis, and not all suggestions can be applied. But there may be ideas that come forward which can make a huge difference to how the trellis works.

In one of the organizations that I worked in, the claims process was a real nightmare. There were a couple of reasons for it. The first was that it was based on an SAP system which most of us were simply not familiar with. The second was that for people like me who were always out at the client’s offices delivering training, knowledge-sharing or coaching sessions, access to the system was even more troublesome because there was the complication of remote access. It slowed everything down and sometimes caused inordinate delays getting claims.

One of the youngest members of the finance team, who is one of the most efficient people I know, came around to those of us who were facing challenges to understand what our issues were. Once she understood the problem, she created a small process for all of us who were always out of the office to aid our claims submissions.

It was a simple step that was easy for us to take. It made sense to us. And she became the person that most of us named as ‘most helpful colleague’ in our reviews for the year.

What this young lady did was, she remembered that she was part of the vine and was moved by the difficulties some of her colleagues were facing. She became creative and refined things so that the trellis served her colleagues, instead of crushing them.

The glue of kindness

That little step brought lots of joy to all of us!

This former colleague of mine showed a level of kindness that was extraordinary. It stemmed from having high emotional intelligence.

She understood the difficulties she and the finance team faced when there were delays in claims submissions. She also recognized that the rest of us weren’t trying to be difficult, but were facing a genuine issue. She showed humility instead of judgment here. She then showed creativity. The step was something only someone with her knowledge of the trellis could have come up with. The result was wonderful collegiality.

Your challenge

I leave you with a challenge: how creative can you get in using the glue of kindness as you build, maintain and refine the trellis in your workplace?

Thank you for letting me share with you the work that I am most passionate about, which is the heart of my upcoming book, A Cup of Kindness.