From The Forest to the Team – Giving Structure to Ecosystems in Business

Introduction

Many fields are saturated with buzzwords - synergy, integration, and disruptor. These words sound nice and mean something, but they are often too abstract to be acted on.

One of those words used in many industries be it the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors or for-profit enterprises, is ecosystem. Teams, firms, and coalitions will use this word as a way to demonstrate that there are many actors and pieces to a given situation or problem. In general, it highlights that the work we are engaged in is complex and bigger than just us. As a result, addressing the challenge requires significant energy, resources, and collaboration.

But what characteristics does an ecosystem have?

At Viabosque, we work with leaders and teams to strengthen their productivity, resilience, and impact. We do this by leveraging nature-inspired references so leaders and teams can create meaningful change and sustainably perform at high levels. Given Viabosque’s influence from the natural world, we wanted to explore the characteristics of an effective ecosystem as a way to define what it means and help you and your team apply it to your own organization.

Naming Characteristics of an Ecosystem

Natural ecosystems have many characteristics. We’ve decided to focus on these six as they highlight the foundation, movement, and outcomes in an ecosystem.

This framework has helped teams, coalitions, and enterprises begin to shift the abstract concept of “ecosystem” into a formal and concrete discovery and design of complex realities.

Six key characteristics of ecosystems.

• Goals

• Results

• Actors

• Relationships

• Boundaries

• Conditions

These can be further grouped into three pairs:

• Outcomes

• Actions

• Parameters

Outcomes	Actions	Parameters
Goals & Results	Actors & Relationships	Boundaries & Conditions

Each of these have their own definitions and are informed by how natural ecosystems exist and develop.

Defining the Characteristics of an Ecosystem

First, let's look at the definitions of each of the characteristics:

• Goals - The desired result of the ecosystem; the vision and desired outcome for the network. In the natural world, the goal of an ecosystem is typically to be hospitable and balanced so that life can flourish and thrive.

• Results – The actual reality of the ecosystem; the current outcomes of the ecosystem and how closely they align to its desired goals, as well as how it manages shocks and stressors to the ecosystem. In the natural world, the results may fall somewhere between balanced, regenerative and resilient on one end of the spectrum, or out of balance, depleted/consumptive and broken.

• Actors – Numerous and diverse players, each holding a key role(s) in their part of the ecosystem. In the natural world, we break this down into keystone/engineers, consumers, producers, flagship, and indicator actors.

  • Engineers help create and build the ecosystem; they have high influence on how the ecosystem is structured and operates.

  • Consumers use the resources of the ecosystem (consumers do not necessarily deplete the ecosystem, but rather utilize resources).

  • Producers provide net contributions to the ecosystem.

  • Flagship actors help spread the message of the ecosystem to an external audience and perhaps new players.

  • Indicator actors help demonstrate what is happening within the ecosystem.

• Relationships – These can be bi- or multi-lateral relationships and describe how two or more actors interact with one another. These symbiotic relationships can lean towards mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, and/or competition.

• Boundaries – The geographic, physical, and/or species-based edges of an ecosystem that help determine where one zone or space begins and another ends. Equally important here are the transition zones adjacent to these boundaries.

• Conditions – The circumstances that set the groundwork. These either aid or hinder the likelihood that the goals are achieved, as well as the probability that actors can continue their relationships. In the natural world, conditions influence the likelihood that life can exist and/or thrive.

Ecosystem Characteristics in Business

When we work with leaders and teams, we offer these reference points to then discover existing ecosystem structures and design the future, desired ecosystem. Regarding the goals and results, we look at both what the current reality is and what is envisioned. This can occur with quite specific and measurable criteria and/or it can be influenced by other measures and narratives that are or would be true for the desired work.

From the actors and relationships perspective, a productive exercise is to literally map out the key parties in the ecosystem, the roles they play or potentially could play, and the relationships they have between them. With the help of Kumu, we can visualize these relationships and the meaning of each party’s position, to better strategize and design the actions necessary to build the ecosystem. You can see a sample map of connections here.

When we look at boundaries, we are aiming to define the physical, digital, and cultural borders that may exist for a team or entity. This could include the market and/or geographic footprint, it can include the digital workspaces and/or literacy of actors, and/or it could include cultural aspects such as language, norms, and beliefs. All of these help identify who we are trying to support and engage. Equally important here, is knowing when and where a transition zone may begin so the ecosystem architects are clear on how to engage with and/or integrate with efforts occurring on the periphery of their ecosystem.

Finally, when exploring the conditions of an ecosystem, we look to identify the existing or desired policies, economic factors, narratives, and other “external” forces that may influence an ecosystem. While it may seem that because these forces are external, the ecosystem engineers will not be able to have much influence on them, the purpose of ecosystem building is precisely to be able to influence these conditions so that they are more favorable to the ecosystem’s goals and at the very least, identify how to adapt to and/or mitigate them.

Questions to Consider

While there are many ways to discover and design these components for your team and work, we offer a few initial questions to catalyze your own efforts.

The first question is: What ecosystem are you working on? These tend to be issues that are complex, for example, access to affordable housing, sustainable economic development, representative regional government, market share adjustments, infrastructure redevelopment, climate change resilience, responsible and effective technology, etc. They can also be more internally facing to your entity or organization, for example, professional and leadership development, employee retention, product innovation, customer satisfaction, etc.

Once you have named the ecosystem of importance to you, next you can explore these questions in your team?

• Goal: Who or what does this ecosystem serve? Who benefits from the ecosystem as it is currently designed? Who should or could benefit from it in the future? What is the goal of this particular ecosystem currently? What is the desired future goal of this ecosystem?

• Result: What currently occurs in this ecosystem? What results would signal a new ecosystem is functioning?

• Actors: Who are the actors? What role do they each play? What internal systems or processes do they currently use? How do they try to grow or change? How do they protect themselves? Who are the engineers?

• Relationships: How do actors interact? Where are the cooperative or symbiotic relationships? Which relationships deplete resources and/or energy? What are the bilateral relationships? What are the multi-lateral relationships? What weaving or connecting may be necessary?

• Boundaries: What are the geographic boundaries of the ecosystem? What are the cultural boundaries of the ecosystem? What are the digital boundaries of the ecosystem?

• Conditions: What is needed to help the ecosystem achieve its goal? What nourishes the ecosystem? What hinders the ecosystem? What are the feedback loops of the ecosystem that help it adjust? What policies and/or paradigms support or hinder this ecosystem?

Examples to Note

Finally, we offer an example of the natural world and the business world, through an ecosystem lens.

In 2023 and 2024, Viabosque worked with a group of organizations in South Florida that was interested in strengthening the small business ecosystem in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. While this work continues to evolve, the work in 2023 and 2024 defined the current ecosystem and explored potential designs for a future ecosystem that would better serve small business owners. The goal was for business owners to be better equipped to scale their businesses and do so at a sustainable and predictable pace. One thing that arose as the group explored possible characteristics of the local ecosystem is that some actors may play roles that may not initially have seemed obvious.

For example, Catalyst Miami, one of the conveners of the engagement, is a nonprofit committed to serving families and communities through economic and health services, leadership development, and advocacy efforts. While on the surface they may not have seemed like a traditional keystone engineer in a small business ecosystem, their deep community connection, strong track record with partners, and eagerness to engage in innovative and meaningful efforts, along with its history exploring community-driven economic development programs, positioned it well to serve as a keystone in the work.

The same was true of The Allappattah Collaborative CDC, a place-based community development corporation that has significant programming and influence in their neighborhood. And also, due to excellent leadership and staffing, has worked to support and develop key efforts at the county level that has had ripple effects beyond their neighborhood. All this is to say, it can be helpful exercise to test the assumptions of the roles we think organization should play, and compare that to what they could play.

The table below offers an illustrative example of the South Florida work through the ecosystem characteristics, and compares it to a natural ecosystem. A full ecosystem map or scan will include more information (as it did when the work was completed in South Florida in 2023 and 2024 - a presentation of which, including maps, can be viewed here).

Ecosystem Type	Goals	Results	Actors	Relationships	Boundaries	Conditions
Brief Description	Desired result of the ecosystem	The actual result of the ecosystem	Composed of diverse and numerous actors	Bi- and multi-lateral relationships	The geographic, physical, or species-based edges of an ecosystem	The circumstances that set the groundwork, and either aid or hinder, the likelihood that the goals are achieved.
Boreal Forest	-Maintain cold-adapted species communities -Support seasonal resource cycles -Preserve permafrost carbon storage	-Increasing fire frequency -Permafrost thaw releasing stored carbon -Changes in wildlife migration patterns -Shifts in tree line latitude	- Keystone: Gray Wolf, White Spruce - Producers: Black Spruce, White Spruce, Paper Birch - Consumers: Moose, Snowshoe Hare, Lynx - Flagship: Woodland Caribou - Indicator: Lichens (air quality), Woodpeckers (forest health)	- Predator-Prey Cycle: Lynx-Hare population dynamics - Mutualism: Mycorrhizal fungi with tree roots - Competition: Spruce and birch for limited growing season - Parasitism: Dwarf Mistletoe on conifers	- Geographic: 50-70°N latitude - Elevation: Sea level to ~2000ft - Transition zones: Tundra to north, temperate forest to south - Size: Approximately 15 million square kilometers globally	- Short growing season - Long, cold winters - Permafrost presence - Climate change impacts
Small business development in South Florida	- Cultivate a climate-resilient environment for Miami-Dade County that values marginalized and underserved small business owners as community pillars.	- Current: limited access to capital; stressed and stretched business owners; lack of operational capacity; difficult to navigate technical assistance landscape - Desired: Greater access to capital; business owners able to focus on long-term sustainability; scaling businesses and growing payrolls; self-navigation of consistent and manageable technical assistance system	- Keystone: Catalyst Miami, Miami Foundation, Florida International University, Prospera, The Allapattah Collaborative CDC, and others  - Producers: The Allapattah Collaborative CDC, Ten North Community Fund, United Way, banks, and others - Consumers/Utilizers: Small business owners - Flagship: Small businesses, economic chambers, academic institutions, CRAs - Indicator: small businesses, small business incubators	Mutualism: - Keystones partner with producers - Producers provide services and resources to consumers - Consumers participate in Flagship efforts -Indicators' actions influence Producers and vice versa	- South Florida - Business with under 100 employees - Annual revenue of $2M or less	- Particular policies dictating small business regulations - Local, state, and federal small business investment and subsidy programs