Week 22.35 Microbursts

Saturday, we were having lunch when my friend Larry recounted the following story. His daughter and son-in-law, Mira and Dakota, founders of Row By Row Farm, are a part of a new generation of farmers in the historic farm county of Ulster, NY. Their practices include organic farming, cover crops, and finding new ways to build the quality of the soil, including allowing the soil to rest from time to time. They are relatively mechanized for their scale and utilize the H2A program, a temporary visa program that allows individuals from other countries to access agricultural jobs in the US. This program has allowed the farm to access a level of efficiency and professionalism they could never have imagined. They think of their 12-person H2A crew as professional farm workers. I buy their produce whenever possible, and it is delicious.?

This year was promising to be a great one until a microburst, a brief tornado that lasted 30 mins, sliced through their farm with 90-mile-an-hour winds, tore trees up by their roots, and lifted the cauliflower out of the ground, destroying 4 months of work. The trees were strewn all over the place, narrowly missing their house and hitting one worker's house. The workers came over and said they would spend the next two days cutting the trees with chainsaws. Stunned about what to do, Mira and Dakota said thank you, or of course, we will pay you. And they said you don't understand, we're not going to take your money; you have treated us better than anybody ever has. And this is our place too. And that's what we're doing.

Mira and Dakota see their work as relationship building, not a transaction. Their first relationship is with themselves as individuals, understanding what they want and making choices about the lives they want to live. The second relationship is about how they show up as partners, team members, and a family. It is a relationship with their land, product, and materials that respect them as partners, not simply inputs and treats them as part of a process with the long view in mind. It is a relationship with their workers who are treated with respect and fairness. The farmers understand that by building a long-term relationship with all partners, they are living their values, improving their lives, becoming more productive, and working as a team. And it is a customer relationship that produces loyalty with buyers as a supplier of choice and who show their pride on their plates.

I have recently started calling this kind of business a Fifth Dimension (5D) business. It is a business that knows the company's economics but does not put economics first. The firm understands that to be sustainable and withstand microbursts, it needs to build strong relationships, not lean supply chains. The farm is a microcosm of our ecosystem. The parts rely on each other; there is the ability to rise up in support when needed. Trust is built over time so that when the occasion arises, which it inevitably does, it is available. The 5D business is more resilient because it has invested in making sure the soil is well cared for, the people feel like family, and the leaders know the destination they are heading towards.?

In life and leadership, we each have a choice about the people we want to be, the people we want to work with, the teams we want to be on, the products we want to make, and the way we want to make them. As leaders, we choose the kind of business we want to build to benefit those we lead and love. The past hundred years have been the century of the Third Dimension (3D) business, which puts transactions first. The driver of 3D business is the extraction of profits, value, labor, materials, or anything that concentrates capital. 3D businesses have created amazing benefits in decreasing poverty, expanding productivity, growing leisure time, and increasing mobility. It also has come at a tremendous long-term price with the destruction of natural resources, increased stress and uncertainty, and unhealthy concentration of wealth. Today, we can lead 5D companies, built on the value of relationships, to understand that all partners must be strong to have the kind of enduring businesses that can sustain the microbursts that are sure to come so that we can all be around for the next harvest.

Design The Long Life You Love (by Ayse (Eye-Shay) Birsel )

Ayse's mission is to help people design the LONG life they love, a continuation of the work she started with Amazon and The SCAN Foundation on a bigger and broader scale. She recognized that today we have an extra 20, 25, or perhaps 30 more years to live. What do we want to do with them? This is such an exciting question and one we can best answer by thinking like a designer, with optimism, empathy, and playfulness. So she is standing up a community built on Creativity and Empathy. Individuals and Corporations co-designing. Younger and Older. Self-reflective and Collaborative. US-based and Global. Her book is coming out on December 6, 2022. A website to amplify the mission is in the works.?If you are intrigued and want to get in near the start of this amazing journey, read more about her future plans, and how she has connected the dots in this weeks newsletter here.

A New Social Contract for Teams (by Keith Ferrazzi )

Companies have traditionally emphasized leadership competencies, not team competencies. But the transformation of an organization must begin with the transformation of its teams; team leaders and members must commit to new behaviors to escape mediocre or even merely good performance, accelerate innovation, and unleash growth. Drawing on more than a thousand assessments of teams conducted over two decades of research and coaching, the author presents a simple diagnostic that enables leaders to evaluate their teams on critical dimensions that relate to performance. He describes several practices designed to move members away from outdated behaviors and facilitate lasting, positive change: collaborative problem solving, “bulletproofing,” candor breaks, red-flag replays, safe words, and open 360s. Although the examples often involve leadership teams, the practices outlined can be used at any level. They can be implemented in any context but are especially effective in virtual environments, where tools permit a broader range of collaborative practices than strictly in-person formats allow.

How to Figure Out the Power Dynamics in a New Job (by Nihar Chhaya, MBA, MCC )

Your ultimate success in an organization depends on your ability to execute with and through others. But when you’re starting a new job, it can be hard to find out who the true power players are and how to get close to them. These influential leaders are not always as obvious as the ones represented on the company website, yet remain critical to your long-term success. Research shows that during times of transition like moving to a new role or company, it’s vital to understand the hidden organizational chart of networks that truly get the work done regardless of hierarchy. Follow these five strategies to recognize the lay of the land so you can not only accomplish what you need to upon joining but eventually find your own place in the company’s future power landscape. Follow these strategies to better identify where the true power exists and eventually develop your future position of influence in the company.

This is the 100th newsletter that I have posted on LinkedIn. I am grateful for the opportunity to observe the world each week and seek out meaning worth sharing. I am grateful that you are on this journey with me and I am looking forward to exploring the 5D world and hope you will join me and add your thoughts and feelings in the comments. Thank you. Scott