Something that I didn’t learn early enough in life was psychology. It was not taught in school or college.
When I was in my late 20s, Jeannie and I were attending one of many dairy conferences that we both grew to enjoy because we met some of the most successful dairymen in North America and were introduced to psychology used with both cattle and people. At most weeklong conferences, a psychologist was one of the early morning speakers. This was likely planned because people are most attentive early in the morning. Nobody signed up for a dairy conference and expected to listen to a psychologist.
In Sunday school, we were taught to “treat others as you would want to be treated.” In The Valley, we meet everyone with “g’day, how are you?” Whether it’s your wife or an employee who has been with you for only a short time, never forget their birthday. And there is always time off for family problems.
There are hundreds of books written about psychology, but one of the least expensive and best is All I really need to know, I learned in kindergarten, and that’s where it should begin, too. Simple advice like don’t hit people, don’t take things that are not yours, share, clean up your own mess, and flush are just a few of the basics.
Why are our prisons overloaded? I recently talked to an old friend who has been a prison guard for 30 years. He recently moved to another prison farther from home because the one where he had been working for 30 years became extremely overcrowded (about 2X), and that elevated the stress on both the guards and prisoners. When a small prison cell with two beds now has two extra prisoners sleeping on the floor, tension and disputes get out of hand.
I never could understand why a prison that included a “prison farm” that produced milk, vegetables, eggs and meat for the prison, was so successful at using prisoners to help with the farm work. I talked to many inspectors who had visited that farm and were very impressed with the quality of care and involvement that the prisoners gave the animals, the way that the prisoners learned to work together and successfully do other farm work. Prisoners would improve their attitude in prison just so they might get a chance to work on the farm. Most of those prisoners never even had a cat or dog at home and grew very fond of working with the animals. When that prison was closed along with the prison farm, the prisoners were all dumped into another already overloaded prison to save money, but the rehab that the farm provided was gone.
So, what do employer recruitment teams look for in a future employee? I once had the pleasure of transporting executives from companies such as RBC, BoM, John Deere, Agco, and Canada Packers, who were all financial supporters of Canadian 4-H, from the airport to a hotel in downtown Montreal, for the AGM of Canadian 4-H. This half hour drive gave us time to chat. Every one of those top executives volunteered information about why they would be involved with 4-H. Each one of them told me that future employees with a 4-H background would make better employees than most university graduates. They learn to work with chickens, sheep, dairy, beef, and how to work together and dance together, and how to stand up in front of people and speak on a variety of subjects. Maybe that’s why some local 4-H clubs have as many as one hundred members.
I recently read in a parenting magazine that kids with tasks to earn a little money – be it making their bed, loading the dishwasher, taking out the garbage, hoeing the garden, doing a weekly milking shift on a dairy farm, working in a store, or raising and showing a market lamb or steer – grow up to appreciate the value of money and make better workmates and leaders.
Not everyone can be a doctor, NHL superstar, executive at IBM, or a teacher, but everyone needs to get along with their family, co-workers, banker, minister, or get the oil or tires changed on the car. There is a reason that Canada geese fly in a V-formation: it can be up to as much as 70 per cent more efficient to work together, compared to flying alone.
Before you start anything, building a picnic table, taking a trip, or starting a million-dollar project, you should have a plan. It starts in your head, then a scrap of paper, and maybe a blueprint. An agricultural engineer once said, “it’s easier and cheaper to tear up plans on paper than it is to make changes after the cement is poured!” We often just get what we planned for.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
