Ruby, the dog, and I like to walk our farmstead when the Nebraska weather permits. On this particular day, I looked down to find lots and lots of nails. Having just had 2 flat tires I brought a hand full of these nails to the maintenance department, aka my father-in-law. I said you might have a hole in your bucket because the driveway is full of nails. He said, “you just haven’t noticed. Those old nails have been coming up for years.”
If you know anything about old farmsteads you know that they are typically dotted with a lot of tiny buildings. Chicken coops, little shops, feed storage, garages etc. As farms grow the size of the equipment grows so the little buildings are torn down to make way for larger buildings.
My farm was purchased about 50 years ago. The farmstead itself was established in the late 1800s. It was covered with tiny sheds. These sheds were pushed over, piled together, and likely burned at one time, the remnants buried. When it rains the nails, staples, and heavy debris rise to the top and slide down into the washed-out areas of the driveway. In exchange, we are constantly patching flat tires.
As I walked the yard thinking about those nails, I started thinking about those things we do in our own work. Those things we just do because we always do it this way, those things we put off, those things that if we moved them we would alleviate a problem or issue, or those things we just may not be aware of. Instead, we continue to do, ignore, and stay unaware.
One of my favorite parts of planning or working with groups is leading them through conversations that identify the complacent, the hidden, and ignored issues. I love helping my groups identify and find solutions around the “nails” in their driveways.
In your group:
- What things are you do because you have always just done them this way?
- What conversations do you need to have with your group to learn about the issues you don’t know about?
- What is your group ignoring that needs to be addressed to move forward?
- Where are the nails in your group?
Having these discussions with your group on a regular basis is a good way to avoid the nails, improve productivity, and avoid those major blow-ups that occur when we take the time to review our work.
