When deciding whether I should attend a conference I consider two things: who will be there and what I might learn.
As a farm owner managing multiple areas of the business, you don’t have time to waste. Like me, you are looking for a return on time spent. So, when you receive an invitation to an event, you probably ask yourself, “If I go, will I learn something or meet someone that will help me get closer to my farm goals?”
Farmers who have a growth mindset are always trying to improve, exploring ways to adapt their thinking and processes. This mindset means you’re never fully satisfied with your current state. You always want more and you’re constantly working towards your new ideal (a.k.a. the vision you have for your farm). Conferences can provide an opportunity to reflect on how you’re doing things compared to others. Ideas from others can also motivate behaviour change resulting in new (improved) habits.
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In the interest of encouraging a growth mindset, and to highlight how conferences can be a great way to connect with and learn from others in the industry, here are my top five unconventional ideas that I picked up at past conferences:
Don’t dismiss differing perspectives
At the 2023 National Outstanding Young Farmers competition, Alberta’s regional winners, Greg and Sarah Stamp, recounted their story of farm succession. Here’s why their story was different: it was the daughter-in-law, Sarah, city born and raised with a background in psychology, who worked with her father-in-law to create the farm’s succession plan.
Every succession plan needs a “driver,” a family member who can move the planning process forward. This family had two leaders from two generations with different perspectives and with two valuable backgrounds when it comes to planning succession of a farm family business (i.e., farm management and psychology). The reason this collaboration worked was because they identified and shared common values and goals, which helped them create a path for how they would work through the process. It’s also an advantage to have someone see your farm from the outside in (the daughter-in-law’s perspective).
Learning is easy, implementation is hard — but not impossible
At one conference I attended, the presenter clicked over to a slide that said, “Learning is easy, implementation is hard” — and then moved on to the next slide without offering any advice for how to take action about the hard part.
If applying knowledge is the hardest part of the equation, then let’s focus on the “how.” Luckily, there’s a simple framework designed to help with implementation. Mark Verwey, partner at BDO Canada, taught an FCC Young Farmers’ Summit group (in which I participated) about how to implement a new habit using “prompts.” His particular challenge was keeping up with email, so he told us about how he created a new habit using a regular prompt. Every morning, he dedicated 30 minutes of focused time to read and sort through his inbox (habit) during his first coffee (the prompt) of the day.
Don’t fight to control what you can’t
Working harder is not going to lead you to a breakthrough, only to burnout. I truly believe that aiming for balance is the key to a healthy mind, business and family, but we don’t need or maybe even want a perfect balance, because we always need something to strive for. So, look at your “circle of control” and focus on the things you can control, not on what you can’t.
Don’t wait until you have all the information
After my husband and I attended the UnCommon Farms conference last year, I asked him what his biggest takeaway was. He replied with a quote that one of the presenters used, attributed to George Patton, a Second World War U.S. army general: “A good plan violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”
The essence of this quote is not to waste time trying to be perfect. All entrepreneurs struggle with perfectionism, which can lead to procrastination. Will you ever have all the information you need to make the “perfect” decision or develop the perfect plan? Can you ever be 100 per cent certain? No, but you can develop a business or transition plan that is a “living” document, that is, it changes as you progress and learn more.
Business coach Dan Sullivan, co-founder and president of Strategic Coach, has a concept he calls the 80% Approach. This method stipulates that entrepreneurs should get the first 80 per cent of the job done as quickly as possible. The key is to think of achieving 80 per cent as perfection rather than 100 per cent and to focus on this 80 per cent goal 80 per cent of the time. If you feel like you’ve thought too long or too hard about a decision, use this approach to respect your own time, to set deadlines and boundaries for yourself.
Listen and learn from others’ stories about overcoming obstacles
Arguably the most valuable part of conferences is who we meet and the stories they tell that resonate with us. You can often learn more from good storytelling than facts and figures on a PowerPoint presentation. Take the time to think about the personal experiences people share with you and ask yourself, “Would that work for my business? Why? And how?”
When I think about all the farm families I’ve met or coached, I always come back to the stories they’ve told me about the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. Because sometimes, answers can come from simply listening to others’ stories and, most importantly, by listening to yourself. CG
