Dubai, UAE | Tuesday, June 3, 2026
As I continue exploring stakeholder agency, I have found that ikebana offers an unexpectedly elegant lens through which to examine organisational life. For the first five articles in this series, I am focusing on one principle at a time: shin (真) or shushi (主枝), the subject representing aspiration; soe (副) or fukushi (副枝), the object that creates relational balance; hikae (控) or kyakushi (客枝), the grounding element; ma (間), the purposeful space between forms; and kaki (花器), the vessel that holds the arrangement.
This week, I turn to soe (副) or fukushi (副枝). If shin asks how organisations create the conditions for individuals to flourish in their own form, the object or Fukushi invites a different question altogether: what kind of leadership enables individuality to contribute meaningfully without overpowering it?
You would not be surprised to find an ikebana arrangement in the office of one of Japan's most respected CEOs. During a recent session, Harue Oki shared that, in many of her conversations with leaders of Japan's largest multinational corporations, ikebana is valued not merely as an art form, but as a discipline that cultivates observation, patience, judgement, and balance.
For these leaders, the practice offers an opportunity to reflect on the weight of leadership and the difficult decisions that often accompany it, from restructuring organisations to shaping their future direction. I was not surprised.
That day, we were working with a delphinium as the subject and a matthiola as the object.
As I arranged the delphinium, I found myself making a series of difficult decisions. To create balance, I needed to remove some of its flowers. Yet I also had a responsibility to preserve the qualities that made the stem distinctive. Once cut, there was no going back. Cara Nazari, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Dubai, concurred. The challenge was not simply one of aesthetics. It was a challenging question of judgement: how much should be altered in pursuit of harmony, and how much should remain untouched to preserve the essence of what made the flower unique?
A few days later, the same article about Jun Imanishi, the Consul General of Japan in Dubai, a Sogetsu ikebana master, arrived from two very different professional perspectives: Ali Itani of Arab News Japan and Arab News en Français, and Jonathan Hirasawa Ashton of KROHNE and LexDesk 360. Together, these reflections reinforced a question that sits at the heart of both ikebana and leadership: how do we create harmony without diminishing difference?
The Old Story: Thrasybulus and the Temptation to Straighten
My husband, Jonathan Hirasawa Ashton, who holds an MA (Hons) in Classical Civilisation, reminded me of an ancient Greek story, which in turn reminded me of how old this instinct truly is. In The Histories, Thrasybulus of Miletus advises Periander of Corinth on how to preserve power, not through argument, but by silently cutting down the tallest stalks in a grain field (Herodotus, trans. 2021, 5.92) as they walked. The metaphor is intentionally stark and thankfully far removed from modern organisational life. Yet it captures something recognisable about the temptation to manage uncertainty by reducing difference.
Few leaders would consciously identify with such an image. Yet softer organisational equivalents can emerge almost unintentionally: a preference for predictability over distinctiveness, cohesion over productive difference, and standardisation over individual expression. The issue is not that organisations should operate without shared norms. They cannot. Shared values, behaviours, and expectations provide the structure through which collective action becomes possible.
From a stakeholder agency perspective, the concern is whether individuals retain the capacity to exercise judgement, contribute authentically, and act meaningfully within those structures (Bandura, 2001; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). For leaders, however, the challenge is different. Once entrusted with responsibility for the whole, they must balance competing obligations: preserving coherence while enabling individuality, creating alignment while avoiding conformity, and supporting collective goals without diminishing the agency of those they lead.
Especially in these days where “might-is-right” seems to be in order, standardisation is often easier than stewarding individuality. Common norms simplify coordination. Alignment can feel efficient, particularly in organisations under pressure to scale, perform, and move quickly.
If I am honest, having led people myself, I have wrestled with that very tension. Leading diverse individuals is inherently more demanding than managing uniformity.
Stewardship theory offers a useful lens here because it reframes leadership not as control over others, but as responsibility for the long-term flourishing of the collective and those within it (Davis et al., 1997; Hernandez, 2012). The question is therefore not whether organisations should pursue alignment, but how. How can leaders support growth without imposing conformity? And how can they steward the whole while preserving the agency of its individual parts?
Stewardship Beyond Control
One of the unexpected gifts of studying ikebana has been the opportunity to share the practice with Cara Nazari. Beyond the flowers themselves, our sessions often become conversations about leadership, organisations, and the challenges that accompany both. It was through one of these discussions that I began reflecting more deeply on the relationship between agency and stewardship.
The leaders who had the greatest impact on my development were not those who sought to produce sameness, but those who recognised differentiated strengths and helped channel them towards shared outcomes. Leadership, in this sense, becomes less about control and more about creating the conditions through which agency can be exercised constructively.
This intuition is supported by theory. Stakeholder theory reminds us that organisations operate within webs of reciprocal relationships (Freeman, 1984), while agency theory highlights the capacity of individuals to interpret, initiate, and influence outcomes (Bandura, 2001; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). Yet recognising agency is only part of the equation. Stewardship theory shifts attention to the responsibilities of leaders. Rather than controlling behaviour, stewards create conditions that enable individuals and organisations to flourish over time (Davis et al., 1997; Hernandez, 2012).
Through my experience with the American Chamber of Commerce in Dubai, I have observed how this operates in practice. Across committees working within the same institutional framework, markedly different leadership styles and priorities have emerged. Cara has deliberately protected that diversity. As she has often observed: “this does not come easily.” It requires trust, judgement, and an understanding of where boundaries should be established and where space should be left for others to exercise their own leadership.
Stewardship and the Human-Centered Leadership
This distinction feels particularly relevant within the context of Industry 5.0. Unlike previous industrial paradigms that prioritised efficiency, optimisation, and scale, Industry 5.0 places greater emphasis on human-centredness, resilience, and sustainability (European Commission, 2021). The objective is not simply to improve organisational performance, but to create systems in which people, technology, and society can flourish together.
This is where the metaphor of fukushi (副枝) becomes particularly useful. The object does not determine the direction of the subject, nor does it seek to become the subject. Instead, it creates the relational conditions through which the subject can develop its own form. In organisational life, stewardship performs a similar function. Leaders cannot manufacture talent, purpose, or motivation. They can, however, create environments in which these qualities are more likely to emerge and flourish.
From this perspective, leadership becomes less about directing outcomes and more about cultivating conditions. The question shifts from "How do we get people to perform?" to "How do we create the conditions in which people can contribute at their best?" It is a subtle distinction, but one that sits at the heart of both stewardship theory and the human-centred aspirations of Industry 5.0 (European Commission, 2021).
Returning to the Arrangement
Returning to the arrangement, I found myself thinking less about the flowers themselves and more about the roles they played. The delphinium served as the subject. Traditionally associated with aspiration, encouragement, and reaching towards possibility, it represented the individual whose potential, contribution, and agency the organisation hopes to nurture.
The matthiola served as the object, or fukushi (副枝). Traditionally associated with devotion, commitment, and enduring support, it offered one expression of stewardship. Yet the flower itself was not the point. In my previous reflection on shin, the object was an English garden rose. Had the rose occupied the role of fukushi in this arrangement, the relationship with the delphinium would have been different. The balance, character, and energy of the composition would have changed. The stewardship would have looked different.
What remained unchanged was the function of the object itself. Its role was not to diminish the subject, nor to compete with it, but to create the conditions through which the qualities of the subject could be fully expressed and appreciated. Together, subject and object co-created the harmony of the arrangement.
Next: Hikae (控) or Kyakushi (客枝), the People
Reflecting on this, I realise that some of the most meaningful examples of stewardship in practice have not come from leadership frameworks alone, but from observing leaders who create space for others to lead differently from themselves.
Through my career but also at the American Chamber of Commerce in Dubai, I have seen how leaders operating within the same institutional framework can develop remarkably different approaches to stewardship.
Yet even this relationship exists within a wider system. The subject and the object do not stand alone. They are influenced by the vessel that contains them, the surrounding elements, and the spaces between them. That observation leads naturally to the next principle in ikebana: hikae (控) or kyakushi (客枝). If shin explored individual agency and soe explored stewardship, which turns our attention to the wider ecology of contribution. What role do relationships, networks, and communities play in grounding aspiration and sustaining harmony over time? My next article will explore this concept.
I hope you enjoy reading on.
References
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1
Davis, J. H., Schoorman, F. D., & Donaldson, L. (1997). Toward a stewardship theory of management. Academy of Management Review, 22(1), 20–47. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1997.9707180258
Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103(4), 962–1023. https://doi.org/10.1086/231294
European Commission. (2021). Industry 5.0: Towards a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry. Publications Office of the European Union.
Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Pitman.
Herodotus. (2021). The Histories (T. Holland, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
Hernandez, M. (2012). Toward an understanding of the psychology of stewardship. Academy of Management Review, 37(2), 172–193. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.0363
NB. This is my second arrangement, which combines delphinium and matthiola, two flowers whose symbolism speaks naturally to the theme of relationship and support. The delphinium creates the vertical movement of the composition, drawing the eye upward and evoking aspiration, possibility, and growth. At its centre, the matthiola provides colour, fragrance, and presence. Traditionally associated with loyalty, enduring affection, and lasting bonds, it grounds the arrangement and gives it emotional depth. Together, they do not compete for attention, but creates the conditions through which the whole composition can flourish. In organisations, as in ikebana, progress is rarely the result of aspiration alone. It emerges through the relationships that enable individuals to rise.