A farmer sighs loudly about his transition frustration :“it is what it is.” How we handle our mental well-being bathed in waves of frustration matters as we try to navigate the needs of founders and their next generation managers.
A Well and Good article ( https://www.wellandgood.com/thought-terminating-cliches/ ) by Kells McPhillips calls these conversation stoppers Thought Terminating Cliches:
- “It is what it is.”
- “So it goes.”
- “It could be worse.”
- “Time heals all.”
- “Someone out there has it worse than you.”
- “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
- “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
- “This too shall pass.”
- “It’s all about balance.”
- “Try to look on the bright side.”
- “The sun will come out tomorrow.”
- “The only way out is through.”
Words really matter. Our thoughts become words and words spur on action or the lack of action. What we believe to be true is part of how we craft the culture of our farms. The first cliché — “It is what it is” — sounds defeatist. Embrace the power of choice. You get to choose your response to the circumstances of your family and farm situation. Are you going to be pro-active and make some decisions for a better outcome? Or are you just going to throw the shovel hard on the ground and believe “nothing is ever going to change around here!”
“It could be worse” aligns with the misery you’ve witnessed of neighbours or community farmers whose farms have disappeared due to unreasonable estate land transfers, divorce, or siblings in litigation. These sad stories of transition gone poorly are not helpful, nor are they motivating folks to act and improve the communication. Failure of others is not a strong motivator for you to change. You need to draw on internal factors of motivation to do hard things.
You can do hard things. You also don’t have to do them alone!
“The only way out is through”. Who agrees that transition facilitated communication doesn’t necessarily need to be hard? We’ve bought into the mindset that conversations cause explosions, so the best thing to do is just avoid the hard conversations about income, compensation, fairness, and letting go of management. We disagree.
Conflict resolution can be a process of discovery lifting a huge weight of tension. Facilitated conversations where folks are prepared before the meeting to express what they truly want can be transformational.
Cliches (as above) can damage mental health. If you are struggling with your mental health, we encourage you to reach out to your doctor for a check-up and find the local mental health worker. If you are walking alongside a very depressed sad farmer, sign up for the Mental Health First Aide course: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/what-we-do/mental-health-first-aid/
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” was Dr Nikki Gerrard’s research (2000) on stress in farm families. Gerrard’s three keys to coping better:
- Communication
- Celebration
- Connection to community
When you say “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” you are not offering support or solutions to those struggling with mental health.
How can you be more vigilant about what comes out of your mouth? Think before you speak.
- Listen to understand more, not to formulate your next response. Two ears, one mouth.
- Be curious. Come to the conversation with kindness and genuine curiosity about what is truly going on for the other person.
- Ask better questions without a spirt of judgement. What do you need in this moment? What is frustrating you the most? How do you want me to walk alongside you?
- Is now a good time to talk further, or do you need some time to process what we just discussed?
- By when do you want to come back to the table to create some solutions and timelines for action?
- Be careful not to confuse estate planning with transition planning. “It’s in my will, you’ll get it all when I die!” This is classic procrastination of not dealing with the need for transfer of farm assets while the next generation is looking for ways to gain equity and the founders are fearful of failure and losing wealth.
- Ask for help. Seek out ag-informed advisors with strong facilitation skills so the whole family can learn helpful language for conflict resolution with positive behaviours to create solutions not angst.
Supportive words to open communication:
- Tell me more.
- That’s interesting, what is the story behind that thought?
- I’m curious about what you just said, how does that feel for you?
- What ways would you like to be encouraged? Time with family, words of affirmation, or action on the farm?
- Here’s what I am observing…
- What do you need in this moment?
- What’s the next step you would like to take?
Many times, folks just don’t know what to say to comfort others or recognize the pain or frustration they are seeing. The Do More Ag Foundation has a great new conversation starter game, https://www.domore.ag/shop
