“Energize!”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
Do you have certain people in your organization or team who are natural problem solvers and who seem to be energized when there is a logistical or physical challenge within the operations system? These people are out there and they are golden.
However, a problem (actually a good problem to have) is that within a really well-run, team-run, bottom-up-run business, the logistical bottle necks are few and far between. So these solutions-oriented people are left without an outlet for their creative energies. They continue to do well, but this creative energy goes untapped.
Often, these people spend their off hours at home inventing solutions to problems that aren’t really problems, but they’ve invented fun solutions just the same, and because they have ideas in their head that need to be expressed outwardly.
What if their employer found a way to tap into this creativity on a regular basis? What if you intentionally devoted a portion of the day/week/month/year to creative solutions, either to the physical plant, or simply to the way things get done? This can be a slippery slope with certain people, as they will tend to be distracted to this effort during time they need to simply get their job done. Also, there are some people who think they are much more creative and brilliant than they really are—this is dangerous ground for this person as well.
However, while most ag businesses have certain seasons that are fast-and-furious, they have other seasons that are slow. What if, instead of having our highly trained, dedicated, creative, solutions-oriented people paint pipe and grease zerks, we gave them the creative outlet they’re craving all year long? There’s only so many times you can grease the same zerks or paint the pipe, after all. What if, say, on Fridays during the slow season, whenever that might occur in your business, you asked the team to come up with problems they see in the business during the extremely hectic times, and brainstorm on solutions to those challenges? Give them a bit of low-cost resources and some time, and creative people can invent very witty and useful tools.
You have built a truly great team; don’t lose your best people for want of a challenge.
