“Choose your rut carefully. You’ll be in it for the next two hundred miles.”
Sign on the Alaska Highway
The cyclical nature of production agriculture reinforces the cultivation of habits—some helpful, but many ultimately counter-productive. For example once we’ve learned the least painful way to accomplish a routine chore, we naturally stick to this path of least resistance even if that “rut” no longer leads precisely in the right direction. The challenge is recognizing when the familiar tools and processes that were adequate five or ten years ago are now hindering our competitiveness.
Please download the Management Proficiency Survey on the right to determine whether you may be falling into—or even stuck already—in a management practices rut that is preventing your from reaching your goals. Please honestly review these questions and check the appropriate boxes.
Note: some of the questions have been adapted from a management proficiency survey prepared by management consultant Dick Wittman and administered by Ron Swanson at the 2008 FBS Users Conference.