How to handle complex change on your farm
A lack of education or money is often assumed to be the constraining factors of a farm that’s trying to improve and grow. But Cam Ogilvie, a change management coach, says these aren’t necessarily the root of the problem.
In 2022, Ogilvie, founder and principal at Curioso Coaching & Consulting Inc., was hired by the Soil Health Institute to assist potato farmers growing for McCain Foods to adopt regenerative agriculture practices. After organizing many field days and workshops, he realized it wasn’t a lack of information holding growers back. What they really needed was a coach to help them apply their knowledge to their unique farm situations.
So, he changed his focus from education to coaching and in 2023 developed a group coaching model for a small group of Manitoba potato growers. Each grower committed to try a new regenerative agriculture practice and stay with the program for at least three years.
The group coaching model Ogilvie developed was so successful it was expanded to two other provinces and two states.
Ogilvie acted as a facilitator, and each member of the group made a plan for a farm trial. The members toured the trials and shared results after harvest.
At the front end, he helped group members troubleshoot issues, figure out logistics and build unique plans. If you change the tillage, for example, how does weed control change? Then, at the back end, what do you need to tweak?
“Change rarely goes the way you expect,” says Ogilvie. “The first time is a year to get good info.” He adds that it’s an iterative process, meaning it’s a cycle of creating, testing, evaluating and refining in repeated loops.
As Ogilvie points out, the producers didn’t need to be told what to do. What they needed was someone to ask the right questions, help them build out a strategy for their farms and provide soft accountability.
The coaching effect
Mark Owen, who farms near Carman, Man., was one of the growers who participated in Ogilvie’s voluntary coaching group for three years. “It was a super positive experience,” he says. While he sometimes questioned if it was a good use of his time, he says he was glad he stuck with it.
The regenerative agriculture practices targeted by McCain Foods are ones Manitoba farmers are trying because they are economical, says Owen. “We’re trying new practices all the time, and we appreciated the support and the collaborative approach.”
One of the producers in Owen’s group was able to find a suitable companion crop to protect potato plants from “sand blasting,” which increases disease pressure and hurts yields. “That was all through collaboration and talking and having this coaching effect from Cam,” says Owen.
MacGregor, Man. potato farmer Andrew Doerksen was another participant who benefited from group coaching. He says Ogilvie led discussions on the challenges and opportunities around regenerative agriculture. As a result, group members generated their own ideas for trials, followed through with the trials and presented their findings. The accountability helped them to “stay on task,” he says.
Consequently, they were able to reduce their tillage and adopt a new perennial crop into their rotation, which was a big change.
What a coach does and does not do
Ogilvie, who lives in Guelph, Ont., has a master’s degree in agronomy, expertise in regenerative agriculture and experience in extension. This technical background, he explains, gives him enough insight to help farmers troubleshoot by asking the questions that get them unstuck.
After launching Curioso earlier this year, Ogilvie is now pursuing certification as a change management professional to complement his ag background. And while individual and group coaching are available for business management and succession planning, as far as Ogilvie knows, he is the first to offer these services to help farmers navigate new practices and technological change.
“Coaching and change management can apply to all sorts of technological change — infrastructure improvements, precision ag and automation, data systems, you name it,” he says. “The more complex the change, the more valuable coaching and change management are to ensure a successful transition.”
Ogilvie explains that coaching differs from a traditional extension model where knowledge from research institutions is “pushed out” through events and educational resources.
“A coach doesn’t tell them what to do or give advice,” he says. “The expert is the producer. The coach’s expertise is in the process. The coach asks open-ended, powerful and insightful questions to enable self-discovery.”
Coaching through peer networks supports the expertise and the new ideas that are already out there, he says. “There are producers making it work, and we want to amplify that.” In a peer-to-peer model, farmers also benefit from the experience of other farmers who may offer suggestions.
Ogilvie says the ideal group size is six to eight farmers. “It’s small enough that everyone gets a chance to contribute,” adding there’s soft accountability because you’re missed if you aren’t there.
Part of the coaching process is to help people get unstuck, which can happen at any of several points along the path to change, says Ogilvie. He shares the following examples:
Are they ready? If not, they may lack awareness of the situation. More communication is needed.
If a lack of appetite and motivation are problems, that’s an engagement issue. More relationship and trust are needed.
If it’s a lack of knowledge, there’s an opportunity for training and education.
If it’s a capacity issue, you may need more workers, financial resources or time.
If it’s culture, it can be addressed by changing the stories, the narratives that we know, and the communities that we place ourselves in. Ogilvie points out that peer-to-peer networks, where everyone wants to make it work, create a “change-positive culture.”
Negative experiences with change in the past — what has been called “the ghosts of changes past” — can also make change difficult. If you got burned before, that bad experience will haunt you, Ogilvie explains. The solution is to get good at measuring what success looks like, collect lots of information, and pay close attention to whether you’re headed into dangerous territory.
Ogilvie says coaching also helps with skill building and the learning needed to support the places where implementation of new approaches can get stuck; however, he notes that not all peer groups have a coaching component.
Whether it’s using a new piece of equipment in the field or a new way to manage data in the office, old habits die hard, continues Ogilvie. “The common thread across all these types of change is that we can’t expect people will simply and automatically accept and adopt new ways of working.”
It’s necessary to “think beyond the technical side of change and recognize that the people side needs as much, if not more, attention,” continues Ogilvie. Change on the farm never involves just one person, and this is what causes a lot of farmers to get stuck. “We are missing the relational, deeply personal side of change.”
Cultivate an attitude of curiosity
It’s common to experience resistance and push-back from other team members when you’re making a change, but throwing out more facts or throwing more information at it isn’t the answer, he says. And telling people they don’t need to worry won’t help either. “If people don’t feel heard, they often double down with fear and skepticism.”
A better approach, he explains, is to cultivate an attitude of curiosity. Let them know they are entitled to feel concerned. Then, ask for their help to understand where their concern is coming from. Ask curious, open-ended questions, such as, “What’s one small change we can make to relieve a little of that fear and anxiety?” This helps to build the trust needed to lead people through uncertainty.
A posture of curiosity also helps with managing health and wellness, a foundational component of change management, Ogilvie explains. “If you’re feeling anxious, stressed, threatened, tired, frustrated or angry … when you’re feeling these negative emotions, your body goes into a protective mode. You become defensive, you miss things, you won’t be able to react as quickly or rally others.”
He is quick to point out that these emotions are completely understandable, but they will impede your ability to make the desired change. “This is not a time to put your head down and try to power through.”
A more useful approach is to consider the source of emotions. He says, “Ask yourself, ‘Where is this anxiety coming from? What do I need in this moment? What steps can I take?’ Maybe you need a rest, a friend, a therapist or a coach.”
If we don’t get our personal well-being right, everything else will be off, continues Ogilvie, noting that we need to bring our best selves to the table and to those around us. “That’s important for being a good leader on the farm.”
