Following Halloween pumpkins are everywhere
Pumpkins are a symbol of unhealthy farming. Short term profit without regard to the environmental impact. Pumpkin pickers are often paid by how much they pick, are treated as casual labour and vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. In the UK we will throw away £ 32.6 million worth of uneaten pumpkins this Halloween! The UK binned 8 million tones of pumpkin last year. Most of which ends up in landfill where rotting pumpkins emit methane a type of greenhouse gas that is much more harmful than carbon dioxide.
Farming as a metaphor offers many parallels and insights into how organisations operate.There is the language for starters , nurturing talent, cultivating contacts, growing the business, planting ideas, cross-fertilisation, working in silos, pruning the budget, plough back investments, beefing up reports, identifying the cash cow(s) Plus agricultural expressions in general usage -grab the bull by the horns, don’t count you chickens till they’re hatched , you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, closing the stable doors after the horse has bolted, don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
There are farmers who consider them selves custodians of the land, they wish to look after it and like the CE of an organisation leave it in a healthier condition than they found it. These farmers look to the long term and invest in the future ,they look after the soil necessary for their crops to grow, they resist intensive methods, powerful pesticides and the excessive use of fertilisers which may deliver bumper crops in the short term but bleach the goodness out of the soil and lead to pollution of rivers. They are happy to invest in modern machinery and technology that will make them more efficient. Similarly some CE nurture and develop talent, they take the health and well-being of their employees seriously, they appreciate the need for managers who not only have technical skills and knowledge but are good at people management because just as a farmer rotates crops to keep the land viable so an organisation needs people with transferable skills to keep it agile.
Not all farmers take this approach and not all CEs. Whether through choice or necessity some are focused on the short term, finance driven with little regard for the environment. Their approach is characterised by exploitation whether that be land or people or both. Just as the land can become toxic due to abuse, neglect, exploitation and pollution so organisations can become toxic due to abuse of employees through bullying, harassment, discrimination, poor, inconsistent or over bearing management. Resulting in an unhealthy working environment.
No one wants to ban pumpkins but we do need to stop the waste just as no one wants to work in a pumpkin organisation because that’s also a waste.
Blair McPherson former director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
