Close the Door and Think About Your Farm Business
I know, you would much rather spend your time doing versus sitting and thinking. But, if you aren’t consistently thinking about the future of your farm, who is?
“As a leader, your top priority is to think,” says Jack Uldrich, a global futurist and author of 12 books. “No matter how successful your business and no matter how unassailable your business model may seem, every business is on thin ice. So think — and then think twice.”
You’ve probably heard about the benefits an open-door policy creates, but Uldrich also says you need a closed-door policy to think about the future. In his latest book, “Business As Unusual,” he makes these recommendations to business leaders:
- Once a day, close your door and think for 15 minutes about how technology is advancing and how it might be leveraged to incremental improvements to your business today.
- Once a week, close your door and think for an hour about how societal, political, cultural, economic, demo-graphic or technological trends could alter the world of tomorrow.
- Once a year, lock your office door and leave for a “think week” to ruminate about the “day after tomorrow.” What trends should you incorporate into your business?
“Every business leader should regularly conduct a ‘premortem’ on his or her business,” Uldrich says. “A premortem is the opposite of a postmortem. The purpose of the exercise is to engage in a candid conversation about the real threats to your business.”
Imagine your farm went out of business in five years, he suggests. Ask yourself and your employees: What didn’t we see coming?
“This will allow you to tap into the wisdom of your team to better explore the real threats to your business,” Uldrich says. “Counterintuitively, the conversation will also likely change how a disruption could be turned into new opportunities.”
Save the Date!
Top Producer Summit
Feb. 14-16. 2022 in Nashville, Tenn.
