I had the great pleasure recently to work closely with the mighty team at the Australian Farm Institute (AFI), a host of ARLF and many others in Canberra during ‘Ag Week’. This included an AFI roundtable, ARLF workshop and book-ended by an ARLF mentoring summit and the National Farmers’ Federation Members Council – a busy week!
The theme for our collective work was ‘walk the talk’ – in other words we were not interested in a talk-fest but to start taking action in relation to the many challenges (threats and opportunities) facing the sector. Just like we have done in recent times in relation to regional creative industries, regional connectivity, energy transition and many more, the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) is well placed to hold space and facilitate conversations in relation to the complex challenges facing rural, regional and remote Australia. There are few more important sectors to regional Australia than agriculture.
At the time of writing, the full outcomes from the week were not available however I can share some thoughts on the week and the implications.
Some challenges seem to hang around
Whether it’s agriculture or indeed any other sector, some challenges seem to be eerily similar to those of ten or twenty years ago. While we all had a laugh about it in one respect, we perhaps should not be surprised. For agriculture, issues like attracting new people into the industry, water reform and social licence are complex challenges. As such they require adaptive approaches with healthy licks of alignment and at times, collaboration. In the meantime, the sector more broadly continues to largely apply technical fixes to these adaptive challenges – this will only have limited success in facing complexity.
While the Australian agriculture sector is having great success in many ways, participants at the Roundtable and Workshop reflected on the sectors shortcomings when it comes to making progress on complex challenges. If some of these have been around for 20 years and longer then how do we make progress? While the effort will take a village rather than any individual or organisation, the ARLF is playing a role in both growth in leadership practice across the sector and new approaches to collective action.
Stop, collaborate and listen
While we can thank Vanilla Ice for this truly terrible song, there is a grain of truth in the approach needed in tackling complex challenges. Increasingly in our work we are incorporating in our program design, concepts, processes and tools focused on alignment, navigating change, collaboration and moving to advocacy. Australian agriculture provides countless opportunities for people to convene both socially and around critical issues and opportunities, so why are people across the sector bemoaning a lack of progress on some fronts?
The reasons are many and yet what became clear during Ag Week, was that the inability to move beyond cooperation to collaboration was holding the sector back from realising its full potential.
Move to a collective action
There is much evidence globally that complex challenges require a different approach to make progress. There is a whole body of work here but let me reflect on a few relevant points.
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- Mindset – a critical part of leadership maturity is a focus on a changing mindset. One that moves away from assumptions, is open to different perspectives and both sees and contributes to something larger than self. These shifts are underway in agriculture and rural communities more broadly and yet there is more work to do.
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- Move away from collective blindness – agriculture, like any other sector or community of interest is susceptible to collective blindness (where everybody thinks the same) and as referenced in the work of Matthew Syed, Perspective Blindness where we become oblivious to our blind spots. What forums and conversations is the sector having to avoid reinforcing this blindness?
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- Letting go of power – there is also much evidence to support the idea that it is very difficult to make progress on complex challenges unless those involved are prepared to let go of the tight hold they have on their individual stake and in some way transfer power to others for a greater good. Where are we in Australian agriculture and can we relax the grip on our stakes?
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- Collaboration – I put to the participants in Canberra that in Australian agriculture, we talk about collaboration all the time but seldom get past cooperation. Sometimes cooperation is all that is needed but tackling complex challenges requires the creation of something more/new than the sum of individual interests. To do this requires a focus on and resourcing of collaboration across the sector. There were some real examples raised but they seem precious few in an industry approaching $100 billion of farm gate value and yet faced with a myriad of complex challenges. Is the sector ready to take on this approach?
Identifying key challenges and opportunities
To continue these key conversations and help us guide meaningful action in the Ag sector, we need your insights. The ARLF is conducting a survey to gather perspectives on the critical challenges and opportunities facing Australian agriculture today.
Click here to share your thoughts and contribute to shaping the future of Australian agriculture.
This survey is anonymous and results will be discussed in my next column as well as an upcoming episode of our Rural Leadership Unearthed Podcast (which I would encourage you to add to your podcast list if it’s not on there already!).
