Page 61 - strategicfactbook

tiers, checklists, prizes, structures and processes. Again, things were well considered and professional, but the overall complexity was overwhelming. We encourage everyone to look for the simplest path to get where you want to go.
• We felt similarly about the organization’s data collection efforts. Data is important to an organization like Farm Bureau. It helps us measure our efforts and make good decisions. But collecting, analyzing and acting upon data can be crippling. We encourage you to consider what data you really need and make sure you have a plan to use the data in a meaningful way before you bother collecting and analyzing it.
• As an example of organizational complexity, during many of our conversations, people were randomly mentioning the deadline for this or that, and how the field representatives helped board remembers keep track of all the deadlines for submitting nominations, forms and other information. As we asked more questions, we learned there are a variety of ways to submit that information, sometimes by email, sometimes by Google doc, sometimes by on-line form. We encourage the organization to see if this process of district information collection could be simplified. Could there be one method to collect information? Could the deadlines all be aligned so everything is turned in at one time through one method?
• While we were impressed at the quality of the Lansing Legislative Conference, and we’re confident all the other conferences are also outstanding, you have a lot of conferences in the first few months of the year. We encourage you to consider the purpose and target audience for each conference and see if there is a way to consolidate efforts. We think this would be appreciated by volunteers and help reduce staff overload.
• One common challenge in most Farm Bureaus is the demand on the field representative’s time. This was true in Michigan as well, and for all the right reasons. Staff in the home office value the field staff and recognize their key role in engaging volunteers and keeping the grassroots healthy. Therefore, everyone wants the field staff to do something to support their projects or activities. Again, it appears that projects and programs are competing with each other. We encourage the management team to discuss, before each monthly field staff meeting, what the key priorities are for the field staff each month. Agreeing about this before the meeting will provide clarity and focus on the overall priorities of the organization each month rather than the combined priorities of each center/division.
• As mentioned earlier in the strengths section, we appreciated that the organization truly represents all of Michigan agriculture, which is no small feat considering the agricultural diversity in the state. We also heard the organization works well with commodity groups and academia. That being said, the theme of this section is focus, so we encourage you to consider all the efforts of your commodity team to ensure that they are complementary to, rather than duplicative of, outside commodity groups. We don’t have any evidence they are duplicative, we just believed there is a potential for this given the number of commodity groups in the state.
Please note that our feedback in this area was not driven by staff complaints. Our feedback is based on our observations of the perfect storm, as described above, coupled with the extensive materials we
7