“Tell me I’ll forget…Show me I’ll remember…include me and I’ll understand”
It has felt like a dark and long January, but even now the days are lengthening. There are some strange things happening: daffodils are blooming, people are cutting grass, vegetables are growing, birds are singing, but in January this is a little disconcerting….
Nobody tells you when you start out that it is a difficult slog to run a business. The process of farming is relatively easy in comparison. The hardest and most important part is the management of the people. The people we have in our business are amazing, they are dedicated hardworking, believe in what we do and are there day in day out working phenomenally hard.
Inside a business processes have to be rationalised, there has to be a standard way to do things otherwise chaos will reign, and the end will not be pretty.
So, you work as a collective, as a team, and yet every single person is unique has different dreams, needs and aspirations, and that can be difficult to align with trying to get things done.
It doesn’t take much to set things down the wrong path. With vegetables you always know where you stand, with people not so.
To understand the complex environment that a business like ours operates in is difficult. We are small but not very small, we are 35 employees now, we are big but not big enough to have dedicated support staff. We are operating in a field where the backdrop is the devaluation of fresh food, it is used as a loss leader and not without some serious environmental repercussions. But it sets an expectation for food prices. Margins are low. We are in a niche market. We are growers, producers, packers, administrators, transporters, delivery people and much more. We do it all, everything from seed, to home delivery.
Outwardly we are promoting a world of calm and togetherness, on the inside well it can be a different story.
It can be the same with people, you see a little a glimpse of what is going on. In work which can be repetitive and tough, if the people are not on board well you are fighting a losing battle. Same as you our customers, we must meet and exceed your expectations or there wont be too many more of these blog posts!
All successful or not so successful relationships at least in my little experience come down to honest communication and the way you communicate, it isn’t even so much what but the way it’s done and its hard to get it right.
And as an old wise Chinese proverb goes:
“Tell me I’ll forget…Show me I’ll remember…include me and I’ll understand”
I have felt at times overwhelmed by the support of people who work in our business, people who have shared the pains of our growth which has been and continues to be tough, the fact that they are still with us is a testament to their character.
And you our customers who have stuck with us week in week out, we the people here at Green Earth Organics appreciate it, Thank you.
Kenneth
PS: I am excited or I am allowing myself to feel a little excitement, we have totally reworked our packing system, we are moving into our new organic fields, we have a seriously good experienced team. We are comfortable and in our new eco packing shed. We have sorted the compostable packaging.
I don’t want to tempt fate, but just maybe we are going to a have a great year, time will tell…
