And suddenly you’re a 20 person farm with a diversity of complex income streams and field operations; and there’s no way you can micromanage everything and yet you still want your operation to be efficient, effective, and profitable while making sure everyone on the team feels valued and self actualized.
Doesn’t seem like much to ask, does it?
This is sort of where we’re at with Tourne-Sol.
So what do you do?
On one hand, communication is key. It’s vital that folks have the information they need to do their job and understand what’s going. And folks need to have ways to share what they see and feel and think.
But communication is not enough.
Communication can go on and on. Communication can meander and bifurcate.
Somewhere in that process you need to know how to make decisions.
- And who has the power to decide?
- How much does a decider need to ask for everyone’s opinion?
- How much do they need to consider everyone’s opinion?
- Who can veto a decision?
- How can this all happen in a timely manner while getting plants in the ground before the rain, and harvests out of the ground in time for CSA, and reorganising the seed warehouse before seed sales season begins, and all the other things that need to be done?
These are some of the questions Tourne-Sol navigates as we try to work as a team while also getting the job done.
Enter Holacracy.
Holacracy is a governance model that aims to distribute power and decision making throughout an organisation.
In recent months, we’ve been exploring Holacracy at Tourne-Sol and have decided to give it a try.
It’s too early for me to say anything practical about how Holacracy has changed our organisation but it has definitely given us a new language to talk about old challenges.
Should you think about Holacracy?
I don’t know yet.
Is this for small farms, or just big farms? Don’t know that either.
But if you’ve been thinking about how to make better decisions in a group of people, you might like reading Holacracy by Brian J. Robertson.
This book is where I started exploring the ideas.
And so Holacracy is this week’s Farmer Book Club pick.
The #farmerbookclub isn’t a book club in the traditional sense.
There’s no book that you’re assigned and expected to come back and discuss. We don’t gather in a virtual living room with the beverages of our choice.
I’m simply sharing some farming books that you might want to read. I’d love to hear what you think of these books. If you do read them, come back some time and post your reflections or send me a DM!!
My next free online workshop is on Thursday February 17 at 2pm Eastern …
