Professional Growth

Approximately 18 months ago my gardeners, JP Gardening (Jason and Jessica Parker), cut some of my old lilac bushes off close to the ground. I was a little concerned about this since it was never practiced at the family farm where I grew up. The lilacs were allowed to just grow wild, and they were admired by my family, especially my mom. Every Easter Sunday we would have a photo taken of mom, my two brothers and me in front of the purple lilac bush. Now I must admit that I was ignorant about this practice. My Master Gardeners have explained to me that this method is called regenerative cutting. It works for flowering bushes that have multiple stems. It doesn’t work for trees and other one stem bushes. For these plants you would need to trim the bush or tree by cutting out the dead wood. My concerns about this practice was unfounded. The lilacs grew back to almost 50% of their prior size the next spring and summer but did not bloom. The next year they were back to full size with amazing flowers. I was surprised by how fast they grew.

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This experience taught me multiple lessons. The first lesson was the fact that if you do not have the knowledge or experience on a particular topic you will anchor upon you own personal experience. I had transplanted lilac shoots, also called runners or suckers, from the family farm to the first home I owned. I have repeated this process with every subsequent move. Since I had never heard of or performed a regenerative cutting, I didn’t believe it would be a good idea. I had a cognitive bias about this.

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This also applies to our business environment. Our world and our industry are both changing at an increasing pace every year. Today Grinnell Mutual and our industry is changing faster in one year than we changed during my first 20 years with Grinnell Mutual. To continue to learn and grow, and to keep up, I need to do some personal regenerative cutting to have some new and more current growth. Remember I have evolved from the rotary party line phone to a touch phone with a message recorder, to emails and the internet, and from Blackberries to the iPhones to now Team’s phone calls instead of a desk phone!

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The second lesson I learned was that to maintain your ability and remain strong and vital you need to cut out your dead wood occasionally, especially when you notice a decline in your work performance, personal life, or relationships. Maybe you have extended yourself to far and do not have enough hours in a day to meet all your current obligations. Or maybe you just do not have the energy and stamina that you had years ago. I am amazed at the energy required by our staff with young families. They are on the go 24/7. I can remember those days as well. When our firstborn, Benjamin, arrived things certainly changed. That first couple of weeks I recall getting only four hours of sleep and then I was off to work. All I needed was an ample supply of coffee and everything was fine. Today our grandchildren can wear me out in just a couple of hours.

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Yes, to remain vital and viable in industry or within our personal lives, we must embrace change and practice continual improvement. As soon as we stop this regenerative process the dead wood will take over and we become left behind. I hope I can keep up with the future’s changes like my mom did when she got her first PC and email account. But don’t forget to smell the lilacs!

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