Discuss the undiscussabull

Most farming businesses know they need to talk about tough issues; they just don’t know how or where to get started.

We want to help farmers bring the people in their businesses – be it family members or other staff – to the table to start the conversation.

Communication and transition planning

As part of our Roots to Resilience programme, we held a series of workshops around communication and planning transitions for farming businesses with Elaine Froese.

We shared simple, practical and actionable tools to help teams work together in harmony.

If you missed these workshops, we have a variety of resources you can use to find the best methods of communicating with your teams and how you can prepare the farm for the future.

Communication

Some key topics that you need to think about include:

• How age impacts frustrations and communication styles
• How to identify why people don’t want to talk about certain things
• What your conflict style is – what do you do in a conflict situation that might set others off and what sets you off and why?
• Key communication styles – what’s yours and what style do the people you’re talking to have? How do we use this information to communicate with most impact?
• Key challenges for communicating effectively in your business and how to overcome these

To help you improve communication and resolve potential conflict that might occur during transition planning, you can order a workbook that will take you through each step you will need to consider.

It even includes a simple self-assessment exercise to help you understand your communication style and how to relate to people with different communcation preferences.

Succession planning

Watch the videos below for some practical advice around some of the most common pain points and frustrations when it comes to succession planning in farming businesses.

AHDB's Amy Hughes chats to Lyn Sykes, a globally renowned succession expert about everything from the basics of starting difficult conversations, to what it means to be good at communication, seeing things from both sides and how to talk about and address touchy situations early so they don’t become difficult in the future.

We've also got a range of resources and information that you can read through and watch in your own time that will support you with some of these important issues.

Having positive conversations around succession

Business support

Our farm business services offer farmers a range of resources to help manage employees better, analyse business performance and plan and budget longer term.

From skills and training to benchmarking, finances and leadership, we want to help you take your business to the next level.

And whether you’re looking for your first employee or already running a team, our labour life cycle information can help make sure you understand all the stages of the cycle, including planning for your business and making adjustments when staff are promoted or leave.

Get in touch

If you want to know more about Roots to Resilience, or if you have any feedback, get in touch with your regional manager or email Emma Steele, Senior Engagement Manager.