23 Mar Week 5 in our biome series: Lessons from the Rainforest
Week 5 in our biome series: Lessons from the Rainforest
Large learning systems often feel a little like rainforests.
Dense, layered and full of life.
When you close your eyes in a rainforest, sound folds around you in patterned waves. The rustling of leaves high overhead. Water gushing in the distance. A slithering and swaying nearby. Cackling and cawing in the canopy as the locals gossip about a strange upright creature who is clearly not noticing the anaconda circling ever closer.
The rainforest is thick with life. Layers upon layers of vegetation, vines clinging to branches and roots. It is complex and, on the surface, chaotic. Sticky and humid. It smells of earthen moss, sour fruit and fragrant orchids all at once.
At first glance, it looks chaotic. It isn’t. The rainforest survives because it’s organised.
The canopy filters light. The forest floor adapts to shade. Roots interlock. Nutrients cycle rapidly. Every layer depends on the others. Remove one, and the effects ripple outward fast.
Anyone who manages a large learning system will recognise the similar patterns. Universities with multiple faculties. Corporate L&D teams supporting several business units. Different departments experimenting with new tools. There is growth everywhere and in all directions. New programmes, new platforms, new tools or new ways of using tools innovatively. New integrations that are layered into existing systems. Someone somewhere discovered a new plugin that promises to solve a problem nobody quite remembers having.
From the outside, it looks vibrant, and yes, even a bit chaotic at times. But abundance without discipline can destabilise the system quickly.
In the rainforest, if the canopy is stripped away, the forest floor dries out. If new species are introduced without careful preparation and planning, the entire ecosystem can shift. If nutrient cycles are disrupted, growth slows – sometimes very abruptly.
The same is true in large learning ecosystems.
Too many integrations without oversight create instability. Too many admin roles without clarity create duplication, and more than a few bruised toes!
When a learning ecosystem grows quickly without governance, small technical shortcuts pile up in the background. Eventually the system becomes confusing, and the data stops behaving in predictable ways.
Most systems don’t become complicated overnight – they grow that way, one reasonable decision at a time.
Abundance is not the same as health.
Complex ecosystems need coordination, clear decision rights, and discipline around how tools are added, maintained and eventually retired. And someone who actually knows who is responsible for every layer of the system.
The rainforest teaches us that growth, especially in large enterprise learning systems, must be held within a deliberately designed and carefully maintained structure. Without it, abundance becomes overload.
So in your own learning ecosystem, as complexity increases, it’s worth asking a few simple questions.
Who is responsible for the health of each layer?
And how do those layers stay in balance?
By Dr Isabel Tarling