Published by Tim Collings
Insights > Better World Leaders
Published May 18, 2021
Listen  77 mins

Recognising ourselves as nature, and learning from plants to open up new pathways to potential & performance…

This conversation is as fascinating as it is free flowing – a diverse dialogue with Technologist turned Plant Intelligence Practitioner, Tigrilla Gardenia.


Tigrilla’s journey flows from the conventional definition of success through shifting patterns of turning into spirituality and rising to purpose by aligning her passions, strengths and connective capability to understand how human growth and evolution is linked to our partnership with the intelligence of another kingdom – that of plants.


Tigrilla grew up in a Cuban family in the US, progressing through university to a successful career in Hi-Tech, including a decade in Software Development with Microsoft and RealNetworks.

She departed the preordained path and via a magnificent series of leaps of faith, landed with a spiritual community in Italy, announcing she would say for a few months. A decade and a Masters in Plant Intelligence later, we find her exploring the many ways we as humans and leaders can make the world better by overcoming plant ‘blindness’, understanding better our role as part of nature and learning how to model the plant kingdom’s tendencies of nurturing sustainable ecosystems as examples for leadership, organisational design and overall embracing a more productive way of being.


The key elements of this conversation are;

  • Ask how can you build positive mental health?
  • Explore what you can gain when you discover community
  • Consider how we bring our the best of human beings and awaken our true potential by recognising that we are part of the environment
  • When we do the right thing by ourselves, we do the right thing by everything, when we remember that we are nature
  • We have to look at our team members, our industries and our systems as what they truly are
  • Recognise that the more efficient response to overcome fear is empathy
  • How to find the flow between curiosity and fear
  • When you quiet the mind and open the senses, you allow collaboration to happen
  • Expanding the senses allows leaders to work with people in new ways
  • How to understand and explore ‘mutualisms’, the mutually beneficial relationships that exist throughout nature
  • How you as a leader can look at the overall system you exist within and decide which types of relationships you need to create
  • That we need to create effective feedback loops to understand when it’s time to change
  • For growth, start by focusing on the individual, looking at awakening and reconnection
  • We can look to models yes, but only after we have looked at values and biases
  • Consider what are your goals, what are your values, and connect these to the overall system. Then review your goals and values. Has anything now changed?

You can reach out to Tigrilla via any of the links below;Website – www.tigrillagardenia.comCommunity space – https://community.tigrillagardenia.com/Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tigrillagardeniaLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tigrillagardenia/Self-paced course, ReConnect with the Plant Kingdom:https://tigrillagardenia.com/reconnect-with-the-plant-kingdom/Discover your Spirit Wild Plant by taking the quiz:https://tigrillagardenia.com/what-s-your-spirit-wild-plant/
Tim’s Spirit Wild Plant is Chickweed!
The episode we mention with Leen Gorrisen, We really need to do better things, not just do things better, can be watched or listened to here – https://4ileadership.com/2020/09/10/we-really-need-to-do-better-things-not-just-do-things-better/

As always, great thanks and appreciation to the team who contributed to bringing Better World Leaders to you;To Brendan Ward for mastering, final production, composition and performance of original music throughout each episode.To Cooper, Pat and the team at RadioHub studios for audio editing, technical support and creative guidance during the episodes that are recorded face-to-face. You can find out about Radio Hub’s services here – https://www.radiohub.com.au/To NokNok Studios for website design, hosting and advice. Find out about NokNok’s awesome services here – https://www.facebook.com/NOKNOKstudios/To Cirasa Design for logo and site graphics – Find our about Cirasa’s inspiring work here
You’ll find audio and video recordings for this episode, as well as links to any specific recommendations or related resources mentioned today in the podcast area of 4ileadership.com/insights