Growing Understanding: A Q&A With Erin Gowriluk

I founded Terramera to transform how food is grown and the economics of agriculture. But we’re not the only company striving to change the world. In “The Core Question” I’ll be sharing my learnings and talking to purpose-driven leaders, entrepreneurs and change-makers about some of the most important questions we’re facing today. My goal is to start a conversation, so please read, comment and subscribe! This month… 

Representing the interests of 65,000 farmers across Canada is no easy task. But if anyone is up for the job, it’s Erin Gowriluk. As the Executive Director of Grain Growers Canada, Erin manages the day-to-day operations and advances federal policy work on behalf of grain, pulse and seed farmers coast-to-coast. 

We share a passion for policy and partnerships –– like me, Erin has worked in both private and public sectors. Her background in agriculture policy is extensive, with roles with Syngenta Canada, the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions, and the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. She’s also the host of a bi-weekly podcast, Fireside Chats with Erin, on which I was honoured to make an appearance. I’m so thrilled that she agreed to share her insights from working with Canadian farmers in a year like no other. Here’s what we talked about: 

What do you love about working in Canada’s agriculture sector? Since joining the sector in 2012, not once have I not wanted to go to work in the morning. Agriculture, I think, is unique in that it inspires those involved to use our energy and creativity to seek solutions to ever-evolving challenges. In doing so, each of us has the opportunity to be a force for positive change for farmers across the country. Is there a more rewarding feeling?

Many of us have had to shift our priorities in light of the pandemic. How has this impacted your work in ensuring farmers can thrive moving forward? Before the pandemic, Grain Grower members established a goal to “put more farmers in front of policy makers more often.” When Covid restrictions were put in place, physical meetings became impossible, but the team was still committed to our goal. So, we found ways to keep our issues and farmer members front and centre with policy makers. We started a podcast, Fireside Chats with Erin. And for the first time in our 20-year history, our semi-annual outreach, Grain Week, went virtual. 

Not only were the Members of Parliament, Senators and officials highly engaged, but because they didn’t have to travel, more Grain Grower members could participate. Virtual advocacy has enabled Grain Growers to raise our profile and keep parliamentarians connected to farmers from coast to coast –– we took a record number of meetings in 2020!

What are the biggest challenges your members currently face in bringing tech and innovation to their farms? Farmers regularly make investments in technology that increases productivity, reduces emissions, and improves environmental sustainability. However, many new technologies come at a significant expense, and with narrow margins, adoption can simply be too cost prohibitive. 

The volatility of the global trading environment, fluctuating weather patterns, and risk management programs that don’t offer an adequate backstop can create a general unease of investing in new technology that doesn’t offer a clear ROI or proof of concept. While such unknowns can never be eliminated for farmers, government support can de-risk adoption of practices and technology.

Lastly, limitations in access to high-speed internet across rural homes and fields is a significant stumbling block to certain new technologies. While progress is being made, it isn’t advancing at the pace required for rapid adoption.

I share your passion for public policy. What are two things Canadians should know about how agriculture policy affects their daily lives? Why should they care? For many reasons, but I will focus on two which are likely top of mind for most Canadians these days.

1. The tools and technology that farmers rely on can address issues consumers cared about like improved nutrition, reduced allergens, the ability to grow more food with fewer inputs and mitigate the impacts of climate change on our crops. To ensure they’re safe, all of these tools, whether it’s innovative plant breeding techniques or crop protection products, require regulatory approval in Canada. It’s important that our regulatory approach be rooted in science and keep pace with agriculture advancements. Doing so will ensure that farmers not only have the tools they need to remain profitable but are well positioned to meet the needs of consumers around the world.

2. It also comes down to profitability. When farmers are profitable, the entire agri-food sector benefits, but so does the Canadian economy. In fact, our ag sector contributes over $32 billion to the economy every year and employs about 250,000 Canadians.

There are few sectors in Canada that have the potential for growth that agriculture has. And public policy plays a big role in helping or hindering the sector to realize our full potential.

Much of your work involves speaking for farmers despite not coming from a farming background yourself. Has this been challenging and how do you overcome that? That’s right, I’m two generations removed from my grandparents’ mixed farm in Gonor, Manitoba. I was born and raised in Winnipeg, spending most of my adult life in Calgary where I worked in the restaurant industry. I was embedded in a community whose agriculture perspectives were rooted in the teachings of Dr. Vandana Shiva, Michael Pollen and Raj Patal. You can imagine what an eye-opening experience it was when I joined the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions in 2013.

I did feel like I was at a disadvantage given my role to work on behalf of 12,000+ export-oriented Albertan grain farmers. But that feeling didn’t last long. The farmers on the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commission boards took me under their wings. Farmers are naturally helpful people who are passionate about what they do. Working with them made me realize this is precisely where I need to be right now.

Any self-doubt I had about my background was put to rest one evening when I had the good fortune of sitting next to Vance Crowe, Monsanto’s then Director for Millennial Engagement. After telling him that my initial exposure to the ag sector was through books like Stolen Harvest and Stuffed and Starved, he suggested (quite enthusiastically) that I was uniquely positioned to share millions of consumers’ perspective of our food system. His reaction not only surprised me, it changed the way I considered my contribution to the sector. In that moment, I realized that what I had perceived to be my greatest weakness was, in fact, a strength.

What’s something about your work right now that is really exciting to you? The collaboration happening right now between national producer associations on important policy files is both impressive and unprecedented. Whether it’s the need for enhanced Business Risk Management programming or our collective response to the government’s increase in the carbon tax – we’re learning that we’re together in this. There are certainly differences depending on what you grow or raise and even which part of the country you live in. But to me, this kind of collaboration has benefits: it’s good value for our members when we can pool our resources and in-house expertise, and share perspectives that would have gone unconsidered. This makes for richer conversations and more robust policy.

I would also suggest that any time we can approach the government with one clear, united ask, it’s harder to ignore us.

I’d love to hear more about your approach to leadership.  What do you think is the most under-rated skill for leaders?  I think, given the covid-context; vulnerability is a skill that leaders need to focus on bringing to the conversation more often. If we as leaders aren’t vulnerable, we can’t expect our colleagues to be. And right now, above and beyond anything else, our responsibility as leaders is to support the people we work with through uncertain times.

What does vulnerability look like in the context of leadership? While I think leaders should maintain a positive outlook, being vulnerable means being open to saying “I don’t know,” and “I need help.” Raise your hand if you felt fully prepared going into this pandemic to lead your teams to continue delivering stellar results while working through the global challenges. Opening up to your team, telling them when you as a leader could use some help not only invites them to do the same, it establishes trust.

What are two activities or routines essential to your personal well-being that you can’t do without?  I’ve realized how valuable it can be to do nothing. My pre-pandemic world was embedded with opportunities to process and synthesize information –– the hours commuting, sitting on planes, or enjoying a glass of wine in the lobby bar at my destination (for those of you with kids, how much do you miss quiet evenings in hotel rooms when someone delivered dinner to your door and did the dishes after?). When covid hit and we were confined to our homes, those opportunities seemingly disappeared overnight. Now when we’re not on a Zoom call, parents like me have children at home who need help with school work, the dishes from countless meals piling up – our lives are an endless list of “to dos” without reprieve.

In this environment, the first thing I noticed was how challenging it was to generate ideas or find creative ways to solve problems. Working with my coach, I realized how much of that came from moments when my mind was free – to wander, to imagine the possibilities, to do nothing but see what showed up.

Once I started creating that space for myself, the results were pleasantly surprising. Whether it’s taking a walk or sitting out on the veranda to enjoy the weather, I try to do it alone and without distraction (which means leaving my phone inside and telling my family that this time is for me and no one else).

Second for me is music. I almost always have it on as a way to set the tone. If I need a mood booster, I have a playlist for that. If I need time for quiet reflection, I have one for that too. It’s a good reminder of what I need in that moment and encourages me to find it.

What’s one way you’ve grown in the last year, either personally or professionally, that you’re proud of? I have learned and continue to learn about managing people remotely, something I wasn’t accustomed to. I’ve seen that the focus needs to be on outcomes, not activity, and giving people the freedom to manage their time is a great way to establish trust.

But until we were forced to work from home last year, I believed work is best done in a shared office environment. Working from home during the pandemic hasn’t been ideal for many of us, but there have been silver linings. I don’t miss sitting in traffic or the madness of the morning routine. But I do miss those organic opportunities for cross pollination that you get by simply being in the office. I’m also a believer that a sense of community or a healthy “corporate culture” is best maintained when we are physically together. I’m asking myself lately, are we really after a return to normal? Or is there an opportunity to come back in a way that addresses the previous model’s deficiencies and gives us what we need to foster balance while providing space to be more creative in how we work? I suspect the answer is yes, and though I don’t know what it looks like yet, I’m on a mission to find out.

What’s the leadership advice you wish you had gotten 10 years ago? I love this question, Karn, because it’s one I have struggled with, and that is my perception of what it means to be a leader. I remember attending a cocktail reception on Parliament Hill years ago. As one of my colleagues introduced a group of us to a Member of Parliament, he listed our areas of expertise, and then he got me and paused. “Well” he said, “Erin is the glue that holds us all together.” “That’s it?” I thought. Everyone brings a special talent to this team and I’m just the glue?!

Not once have I been the smartest person in the room. I have been the most “senior” person in the room but regardless of what we were discussing, I was never the subject matter expert. To be clear, it’s not about ego for me - it has always been about how best to be in service to those around me. There’s a quote I love from Michael Dell: “Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people, or find a different room.”

It took me a long time to realize that my subject matter expertise, if you will, the greatest contribution I could make was to provide leadership. How else did all these smart people end up in one room together – fueled by their collective belief in a common vision? It is a leader’s responsibility to “transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity and risks into rewards” (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). If the leaders in your organization aren’t focused on this work, then who is? 

And we can’t do this alone. Building a high-performing team is one of the ways I can be in service to my member customers and industry colleagues. Because, as Steve Jobs said: “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Thank you so much, Erin, for your thoughtful responses and honest insight into the challenges farmers and leaders are facing now. My takeaway: there’s lots of work to be done in supporting farmers as we endeavour to adopt new tech and innovation to ensure agriculture systems that provide for all. The first step of accomplishing all that? Listening. Learn more about Erin’s work with Grain Growers of Canada, here.

The Root: My Quick Tips For Staying Grounded 

From vaccine rollouts, to systemic racism, to the climate crisis, there’s no shortage of important issues competing for our attention these days. 

It can be overwhelming. As individuals, what can we do to help? I’ve found the ancient Greek practice of stoicism is a handy approach to process even the biggest problems.

The Stoics were archly pragmatic, committed to expending energies where they would have maximal impact. In modern terms? Rather than letting the enormity of the world’s problems overwhelm us, our energy is better spent on actions we can take. For me, this starts with asking three questions: What’s in my span of direct control? What’s in my sphere of influence? And what’s completely out of my control? 

Dwelling on the latter can spiral into negativity, whereas focusing time and effort on what we can do leads us forward. Ultimately, this approach helps build a culture of pragmatic altruism: doing good and doing what’s possible. But what do you think: what strategies do you use to bring the world’s issues into focus? 

Additional Nutrients: What I’m Reading and Listening to

• Why appointing Chief Sustainability Officers isn’t just a climate imperative, but a business imperative too. 
• Eager to get growing? Find out when it’s safe to sow your summer garden.
• Many companies used to keep quiet on political issues. But this episode of The Economist’s podcast Checks and Balances explores why CEOs who speak out can be good for business.

Thanks again so much to Erin Gowriluk for sharing her thoughts on communicating diverse perspectives to foster public and private partnerships — and thanks to you for reading along. If you found The Core Question interesting, please subscribe and follow me on Linkedin ... or, better yet, share it with somebody you know!