The value of naive questions

Category: Editorial

Many years ago when I had a small farm I read a book about pig keeping. I found it very exciting - it was written by an aircraft engineer who had moved into pig keeping on a large scale. Rather than just accepting the way things were done in the industry, he took a scientific approach and, with large numbers of pigs in his care, carried out rigorous, controlled experiments. As a result he disproved many traditional assumptions and developed new methods that were not only commercially beneficial, but also led to improved quality of life for his pigs.

Many years later I read Michel Montignac's book, Eat Yourself Slim. This was similar in so far as a non scientist had researched the reasons for people putting on weight. He noticed that 90% of obese people are also diabetic and investigated what diets were recomended for them. His conclusion was that the control of insulin production was key to controlling weight and, as a result, he developed a diet that enables people to lose weight without deliberately controlling calories.

Next on my list is Monty Roberts, the Horse Whisperer, who went back to first principles by studying the behaviour of wild horses to develop a new and humane method of 'breaking' horses. His book The Man Who Listens to Horses is another delight, especially for people involved in personal development.

I am currently in Australia. Once upon a time, Australia was a land of swamps - which are wet - now it suffers two major environmental problems - drought and salinity, which are creating new deserts. Australia is the driest continent but the dramatic change that has occurred is not a result of climate change. It has come about because of the agricultural practices of man; first the arrival of the aborigines 30,000 years ago and more dramatically of white men 200 years ago. I have been reading an exciting book by a farmer who grew up during the early part of the last century when grazing land was turning into desert. As with each of the others above, he started asking questions, carried out research and then tested new practices. Peter Andrews discovered how nature used to store water and control the movement of salt, and he has been able to develop practical methods to mimic this on his own farm. As a result he has had a green farm when his neighbours were suffering from drought.

As with the others above, his methods challenged the accepted practices of traditional farming and even of government policy. The difference between Peter Andrews and the others is that his work could save the planet!!! In addition to his book Back From The Brink, he has had a television programme and his work focuses on the major concern of all people in Australia. Crisis and commercial decline are good motivators for addressing change.

I am also reading Jared Diamond's book Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. Salination and water shortages are occurring in many places around the world and threaten our ability to feed populations in the future. Andrews' simple theories deserve consideration on a wider scale.

Readers will know of my fascination with the law of unintended consequences. A variant of this is the acceptance of the 'obvious'. Both result from a failure to think systemically. How much of your life and work are based upon things that you take for granted - especially things that everybody else also accepts?

We need people able to keep an open mind and challenge the status quo. It is one of the roles of a coach to keep challenging our clients' assumptions.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.

He coaches directors and boards in transition:

new and potential directors, effective boards,

mergers and acquisitions, corporate retreats,

change programmes.