Open and querying minds win the day

I’m not aiming to make a ground-breaking statement here! I’m merely trying to set a scene to say (again) that we find ourselves in a time where new technologies and new ways of doing things are increasing in the speed at which they are being developed, released and adopted.

Often, we get caught off guard or there is just too much information to take in.

There is often also much hype around such things, regardless of whether they will make a justified difference or not.

And, to offer some reassurance to everyone, in my experience it is not just the “older” generations who struggle with it from time to time! People – regardless of their age – who are directly involved in some of this stuff struggle with it! Those of us who are trying to decipher this information in meaningful ways – and work out: What will be of benefit to us; what will create efficiency; what will fill a gap in our operations; and, the plethora of other questions – are likely going to need some support. And that is OK. For anything. The old saying “don’t hold back on your questions because at least one other person will be thinking the same thing”, is truer now than it ever has before. The challenge in our industry is being able to raise questions or concerns in an open forum, as we don’t have the time or unified forum to be able to do so.

Where do you go for a question about something?

The question is broad for a purpose, if you have an answer for anything you can replace “something” for, you’d be lucky I reckon!

I certainly don’t, but I’m not afraid to ask anyone in my contact list if they have any ideas or know where to go. Letting go of the fear to say, “I don’t know” is something a few people I know could benefit from.

How many times have we seen one degree of separation between someone looking for a solution and someone having the solution that could have easily been discovered much sooner, or easier? Let’s not undersell ourselves on experience and what we know, often the people who are developing and working on these things want clear, practical and useful advice and information to make the product/service better.

Treat it as a two-way street, and make the road wider. 

- Future Farmers Network chairman Dan Korff