Innovative Leaders and Potato Farmers – Part 1
The Art and Practices of a Potato Farmer: What Innovators Can Learn From Them
Over the next few weeks, my blog will identify the characteristics of innovative potato farmers and provide recommendations as to how to apply them to all fields where innovation is a key to sustained effectiveness and great leadership. Please stay with me on this. I promise it is going somewhere! Leaders have a lot to learn from potato farmers!
A Day in the Life of a Potato Farmer
It is early on a Tuesday morning when the sun has yet to reveal even a hint of its morning light and there is the dampness of the light dew on the grass and leaves outside. In the dark, a worshipper arises from bed, dresses in jeans, a favorite T-shirt, boots, and jacket, then, after stopping in the kitchen for coffee and toast, make their way outside. It will be a few hours before breakfast and it is time for worship – not that of singers and preachers in a polished tabernacle of theology, but rather across the yard in a humble and well-worn structure housing the tools needed for the day’s work. Worship on this Tuesday is manifest in the work to be done that is, as Witherington stated, “a necessary and meaningful task that God calls and gifts a person to do” undertaken for God’s glory and for the benefit of others. This worshipper is an innovator in his field and knows that the creativity he counts on to do his work not only comes from his creator but is in itself an act of worship. Oster stated that innovators like this one respond to the call to listen to and mimic God by creating, showing honor and adoration, and experiencing the thrilling sense of participation with God’s beauty. This worshipping innovator understands the truth spoken by authors Davila, Epstein, and Shelton when they discussed how the act of innovation occurs through the realization that something is missing by which they can provide value to others. That is the aim of this innovator, to make their work honor God and improve the lives of people.
This worshipper is a humble potato farmer. His church is the barn and his mission field is the acres of land he tills and tends, all with the hope and faith that the coming harvest will be plentiful. Following in the footsteps of farmers who have grown a variety of potatoes for centuries, this farmer does so with an innovative drive to find new ways to perfect a craft over which he has only limited control. It is a test of faith and perseverance that he plows the field and plants the seed, hoping for an abundant harvest. While chefs devise ways to bake, boil, roast, microwave, mash, grill and fry the fruit of his labor, and foodies publish articles extolling the 300 best potato recipes, the farmer stays close to ground level, so to speak, going about their task in a manner in which other innovators from all fields can glean wisdom and practical and applicable behaviors to emulate in their pursuit to be better at what they do for the good of others.
What Traits Should Innovators Learn from Potato Farmers?
When taking a step back from a loaded baked potato at our favorite steakhouse or even the simple and delicious large order of fries at a mega-potato-distributor fast food chain, certain habits, and signals of how the innovators of the production and use of potatoes become apparent. There are certain characteristics and practices which present as the keys to being effective, useful, and, as Berkun stated, contributing to “significant positive change” for people and communities. Innovation has been defined by Oster as “the intentional development of a specific product, service, idea, process, or environment for the generation of value,” all of which can be observed in the potato industry. However, in order to bring about innovative practices, there must be the willingness on the part of those involved to accept and embrace incremental and radical changes to how things are done. This requires, as Dainty and Kakabadse explain, the understanding of why, what, and how methods and practices will change and evolve as an industry makes new discoveries and adapts to local and global expectations, changes in demand, internal and external environmental factors, and even the public’s fickle taste for a product. To successfully navigate through these challenges, innovators from all fields should adopt six behaviors which rise to the top as common traits and characteristics of successful potato farmers.
#1 – Innovative Leaders Are Humble
The first trait observed in the potato farmer is humility. Bekker stated that “Positions of power and influence have the tendency to attract the proud and upwardly mobile,” however, the opposite would seem to be the case for the potato farmer, who, while ultimately has a great amount of influence on the health and welfare of people who depend on him, is not generally viewed as a position of prestige or influence in the daily affairs of people or business. They have, as Bonem and Patterson point out, put aside position and power in favor of picking up a towel of service, and their view is for the common good of many people, not merely their own personal gain. The example they provide is referred to by culture expert Edgar Schein as here-and-now humility where there is a high degree of interdependency with other people. Farmers and innovators alike must depend on other people and circumstances often beyond their control to be effective, which in itself causes humility because dependency and humility do not typically co-exist.
Business analyst of what makes businesses move from being good to great, Jim Collins, identifies personal humility as a defining factor of powerful and transformative executive leaders. Waking up to the sound of a crowing rooster and then commuting from the front door of the house to the barn is a far cry from the lifestyle of an executive whose day is comprised of one high-rise to another, and often includes wondering if their to-do list made a difference in the lives of anyone but themselves. Aspiring innovators can learn a lot from farmers, who humbly go about their tasks equipped with the knowledge that what they are doing will directly bring benefit to someone’s life. They can act, as Bekker points out, with a calm and quiet determination to make a difference in their world, without the encumbrance of public adulation or selfish ambition. They will do as scripture teaches in Psalm 25:9, be led by God who, “leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way,” knowing that, as James 4:20 states, when people “humble themselves before the Lord, they will be exalted.”
Innovative leaders are humble.
Lead well.