Once upon a time, in the heart of the Whispering Woods, there was a magical forest teeming with life, where a fairy named Zee and a dwarf named Ooh lived. Zee and Ooh were friends, even though they were quite different. Zee, the clever and sprightly fairy, had always been full of ideas and mischief, always on the move, learning and exploring. Ooh, the sturdy dwarf builder, was grounded and methodical and preferred a quiet life, building things.

They had one thing in common: They both wanted the best for their forest, now and in the future.

And,  they were in a hurry.

A big meeting of their own forest communities was about to take place. The "Forest Board", with representatives from all their communities, needed to decide what to do next.

The Whispering Woods was a place of magic and wonder, but it was also a place that required careful management to ensure its safety and prosperity. Both Ooh and Zee were appointed leaders of their communities for the first time, and they were looking forward to taking their seats at the "table".

Zee and Ooh decided to walk together to ensure they arrived at the described location and on time. On the way to the meeting, they decided to take a look at a big development site, which Ooh mentioned proudly. During their journey through the forest, they wanted to enjoy the sounds and smells of the forest and just walk and talk.

However, before they could get to their destination, they discovered troubling news: the forest was facing significant challenges, including a surge in unfamiliar workers at various building sites and concerns that the highly protected Deep Green Section—a sanctuary for rare flora and fauna—might have already been compromised.

Ooh and Zee were very surprised by the number of different travellers coming from every direction and crossing their path impatiently. Some of them seemed quite busy. "Who are all these creatures?" Zee and Ooh wondered. As they went further and deeper into the forest, it was the same everywhere and all the time —lots of strangers. "How did our forest grow in such a short time? Do they all work here somewhere?"

After passing several crossings on their journey, they met several groups of dwarfs at different building sites. They were all very busy. "Would you mind? We are building here. You need to cross this forest section quickly and not interrupt our work."

Ooh was very proud to see such a big development site with a lot of dwarfs in different coloured clothing. "This must be an international co-forest project building a better, healthier forest," he thought.

Zee was wondering, "Who are all these dwarfs, and what exactly are they doing here? Do you know about this?"

Ooh was sure, "They are here, it seems okay to me. They are working, see? It must be in our interest."

Zee was puzzled, "How can you tell? You should verify that their access to the building site is legitimate and that they are only rebuilding the official forest routes. Didn't you mention, that we need to build and have oversight at the same time? Think of our deep green section; only a few of us should be allowed in there."

Ooh fully agreed, "Yes, of course, our deep green forest is strictly forbidden. But how can we tell what, where and why? There are a lot of building sites already. It seems to be working, why should we even check? They were all entrusted with this work."

Zee started to take some notes as they walked further and thought, "No one should be trusted by default, whether they are inside or outside the forest, even if they are builders."

As they moved deeper into the forest, they met several different dwarfs, always very busy building at each new development site. Now even Ooh got sceptical, "There are too many building sites. We lost control. We need to verify who all these creatures are. We need more transparency. There seems to be a plan to rebuild our forest structure? I never heard of it." He also started to take notes on everything they were experiencing and thought, "We also need to assume that a breach could happen and someone could access a section without proper authorization." But he was afraid to say it aloud to Zee.

Zee encouraged Ooh as if hearing his thoughts, "As soon as you know who all these workers are, we can better ensure that they only have access to the resources needed to perform their tasks. This would minimize all these risks for our forest.

Let's mention this to Roo." Roo was a big Ent, who was responsible for Risk Management of the Forest. Roo had known Zee and Ooh since their days at the Forest Academy. "Good thinking, Zee," replied Ooh. Roo had been a mentor figure, teaching them about balance and foresight—how every action had consequences that rippled through the ecosystem.

At last, Zee and Ooh came to a deep forest section, not known to everyone.

There was a leaflet explaining the agenda for the meeting on the nearest tree.

They were on time and ready to start. But the agenda was already full of topics from each community representative:

• Eal: Caring for Old Trees - How can we share old wisdom and use it better?
• Ooh: Builders - How to improve the work and the access to all building sites
• Roo: Risk Management - How to establish risk management at the building sites and how to mitigate current risks in the "deep green" section
• Sae: Safety & Security - How can all creatures feel safer in the future?
• Tea: Water - How to ensure there is enough water all year round and how to establish an automatic water flow in the future?
• Une: Unity - How to ensure all employees and guests work according to their abilities and chances
• Zee: Innovation - New ideas from other forests and how they become healthier as a community

A small elf called Une approached O and Z nervously, "Just a moment. This will not work at all, I am afraid! There is no time to discuss all these topics in our meeting. There is not enough time. As each board member presented their agenda, it became clear that many of their concerns overlapped and intertwined. The challenges facing the forest required a holistic approach. We need to move forward and integrate all these issues into our Strategy Agenda for 2025.

But, what shall we do now?

You are the new ones here, any ideas?"

"Hm, let's see…" - said Ooh and Zee together.

"Oh, I know: Let's put all the letters of the community representatives together, and it will be our name for the new strategy, with everyone on board," suggested Z. In this way, every Forest Community and every Representative will be considered with each and every topic!

"Look," said Ooh, "the letters are: E, O, R, S, T, U, Z. But wait: There are two topics from the communities R and Z, so these letters need to be used twice."

"Great idea, let's see" - said Une eagerly and approached the speakers corner and addressed the attendees.

Une explained to all communities representatives, that there is a change on the agenda. All went quiet and listened, then nodded and gave some thumbs up to Une.

Zee was very pleased and said, "The answer to our plan for 2025 would be: E, O, R, R, S, T, U, Z, Z - but better be:

"Zero Trust.'"

"Now, let's enjoy the meeting and start discussing at least one topic. The new Strategy for 2025 is settled now: Zero Trust. And we could even safe sometime today - chuckled Une. There were even more thumbs up from the attendees.

And now, finally, Une (the small elf), Zee (the fairy) and Ooh (the dwarf) were very pleased with themselves. From now on, everything seemed to be quite simple.

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