Tool 1.5 Discussion starters for imagining the future

Tool 1.5 Discussion starters for imagining the future

This set of ‘starting questions’ is designed to assist an individual or family imagine what their farm could look like in 10 years. It’s about the vision, rather than being overly constrained by the reality of, “How are we going to afford the time and resources to make this happen?”.

As you will see from the questions, there are no right or wrong answers – just a discussion waiting to happen.

Question 1:

Use the 1 (unhappy) to 10 (happy) rating scale below to record how happy different members of the farm family are with the way the farm currently looks and operates. Is the farm already in pretty good shape or are you coming off a low base? Without thinking too much about what the 10-year vision might be, do you think the farm is improving, degrading, or staying about the same? This is the ‘starting point’ for developing a 10-year vision and gives the opportunity to begin to explore the reasons for individuals’ levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

This question is about uncovering some of the issues about urgency and priority. The less happy you and your family are about the way the farm looks and operates, the higher the priority you might give to changing some aspects of how it is managed.

Question 2:

Regarding the way the farm currently looks and operates, are there some things you’d like to see more of, or happening more often in the future?

Or conversely, less of, or happening less often in the future?

These questions are about clarifying what individual family members want to see more of or less of. It’s not about quantifying how much, just about setting the preferred direction for change. Positives and negatives are to be encouraged because it’s often easier to see or talk about something that you are not happy with, or that does not look sustainable (such as evidence of soil erosion) than something that is.

Question 3:

Is anything happening on the farm that you think is helping take you in the right direction? That is, what is already happening to shape the farm’s future that you are happy about?

Conversely, are there some things happening on the farm that you think are working against you or perhaps even taking you in the wrong direction? That is, what is already happening to shape the farm’s future that you are not so happy about?

These questions are about identifying how the things that are happening on the farm are perceived by family members as assisting progress towards their emerging 10-year vision for the farm. Thinking about these issues will also help you keep the 10-year vision somewhat connected to the reality of the present situation. Again, positives and negatives are to be encouraged because the full picture usually involves identifying things that you might want to stop (or reduce) doing as well as those things that are helping move you in your preferred direction. Often there will be trade-offs to consider.

Question 4:

What is your favourite place on the farm and what makes it your favourite?

Is there a part of the farm (even a part of a paddock) that represents a mini version of how you would like the whole farm to look?

These questions are about looking for clues as to what are likely to be the key elements of your 10-year vision. Discussing your ‘favourite place’ not only tells about the place, but also about you and what you are looking for from the farm. Finding part of the farm that you think looks good can provide clues as to what needs to happen on the rest of the farm to bring it to the ‘standard’ you see in the part you have identified.

Having worked through these questions/discussion points, you are ready to start ‘drawing’ your vision onto the farm photo (see chapter 5.1 in MMFS Module 5 Protect Your Farm’s Natural Assets).