In this series, the team each offer a big-picture strategy for food & fibre.
Two very different people asked me the same question recently: What should I do with my life now?
One was nearing retirement after a successful career. The other a mum considering her newfound freedom after the toddler years.
Both conversations bogged down quickly. This was complex stuff, after all – a matter of trawling through life experiences to weigh up the countless options open to them. So we tried another approach.
Forget about “what” the right choice is. Let’s consider “how” you’ll choose instead.
That reframe was electric. In minutes they had the outline of a plan. For the retiree, that included professional coaching, a national road-trip to reconnect with admired friends and a deliberate step out of the comfort-zone – in this case immersion in Te Ao Māori.
When Einstein said “we can’t solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them”, I’m pretty sure this was what he was talking about. Stepping back to come at the problem differently. To consider how, not what.
Maybe I’m just on the lookout for examples of how, not what – but I keep seeing them everywhere.
In Atomic Habits, author James Clear offers some confronting advice. Ignore goal-setting and focus on building better everyday habits and systems. Having had SMART goals drilled into me since childhood, I nearly choked on my Weetbix when I read that. But on reflection, the argument holds up.
Daily systems – like going to the gym, eating right, reading more etcetera – are what actually move us forward, not the New Year’s resolution. Any farmer will tell you the same – get the inputs right and the outputs will fix themselves. Save your pennies, and the pounds will save themselves. Work on the business, not in it.
I saw”how, not what” in the Sinai desert on my Nuffield global experience. Living in some of the toughest conditions on earth, the people of the Neot Samadar rural community were running a thriving business stretching across hospitality, tourism, renewable energy, horticulture, education and branded health products.
When I asked to see their business plan, they said they didn’t have one. Their culture – the “how” – is the engine of their business success.
Individuals are encouraged to explore new diversifications, with their ideas reviewed through a long consensus decision-making process with the whole 400-plus person community. Leadership roles change regularly to give emerging members opportunities to grow. Time together as a group is prioritised above anything that happens on farm. In this system, their business success happened almost by accident.
Back here in the New Zealand food and fibre sector, we have a new goal. It’s a good one too. To double the value of our exports in the next 10 years.
The leadership system tasked with achieving that goal is now 34 years old. The dust had barely settled on the rubble of the Berlin Wall when the Commodity Levies Act was signed.
Back in 1990, we went through a system-change – part of a series of deeply painful reforms, but in this case, worth it. That change set up the sector bodies that enabled three decades of production gains and growth. The success we enjoy today is a direct result of that decision to change the system.
But more production won’t get us to a doubling of export value. No chance. Instead, we’ll need to do new things. Like building a shared data exchange so producers only have to input data once. Or a verifiable national food story that makes NZ food and fibre products genuinely stand out to global consumers. Or a workforce system that improves the retention rate of new staff – at least up to the national average. Or a sector-wide pathway to find and invest in great talent and future leaders. Or a land-use change pathway to help producers diversify and stay viable as markets and our climate changes.
I’m not convinced that our current leadership structure, despite being staffed by some phenomenal Kiwis, can overcome its inbuilt silos and develop these kinds of sector-wide future systems.
So I’m in support of KPMG and AGMARDT’s proposal for The Common Ground, a collaboration platform where our 150-plus industry-good organisations can pool resources and people around our mega challenges and opportunities.
A disclaimer here: I’m deeply biased. I provided comms support on this project. But I took the job because I believe this kind of work – to build better systems – is what will ultimately enable a doubling of export value in the constrained, complicated world we find ourselves in.
To quote Clear, “We don’t rise to our goals. We fall to our systems.” If we’re not prepared to have a serious conversation about system-change in this sector, then our grand goal is meaningless.
