Lessons in continuous improvement from the farm

I’ve recently been reminded just how practical great process management is at a personal level. My family took the plunge and moved out of the city onto a small rural property. We went from an average back yard to several paddocks, and expanded the family by adding 12 chickens, three lambs, two calves and a puppy! It’s been quite a change, but throughout the move and settling in, I’ve seen countless times just how valuable the continuous improvement mindset is.

Every step along the way began with a foundational exercise. We’d check in with each other and assess what our appetite was for the next step. How were our energy levels? How were we coping with the current state of operations? It was very much a culture exercise that ensured we were all on the same page. It helped us check that our processes were running smoothly enough to consider expansion and intensification. We had to make sure that as an operation, we were ready to take the next step.

Continuous improvement is about ongoing change

It was a series of steps, of course. It would have been madness to introduce all that at once! Continuous improvement is about ongoing change, not trying to do everything at once. We added new elements incrementally as we settled in the previous ones. First came setting up the new house. Then we got the chickens. After them came the puppy. At each point we considered what we’d need to do and how we’d integrate this new factor into our existing activities. How could we find efficiencies by using existing processes?

When we prepared dinner, we set aside scraps that could go to chicken feed. We considered where making the chicken feed-mash would fit with our regular morning routines. When the puppy came along, we saw the opportunity to incorporate his morning exercise when we went out to feed the chickens. We looked for ways to meet the operational requirements we had but still minimize wasting time or effort.

Adding the lambs was a lesson in building processes for scale. Lambs grow fast and their needs change just as quickly! At first it was easy to make up a single batch of milk and prepare a couple of bottles for them, but soon we needed to make two batches. The bottles needed to be bigger. Everything we were doing for them had to accommodate these changing parameters and the previous methodology had to evolve to keep meeting the operational needs.

When we considered the practices we were adopting to incorporate the lambs, we had to have an eye on how realistically we could scale those activities in the coming months. It would have been no good to establish a new routine that couldn’t scale, because we’d find ourselves either failing to provide what the lambs needed or starting back at the drawing board time and time again. Scalable processes became efficient continuous improvement.

Risk management in continuous improvement

Along the way, we recognized the importance of risk management and how vital it is to understand the importance of process variations. If it’s windy, when you put the empty lamb’s bottle down after feeding, the wind will blow it over. Then the dog will grab it and run off, and you’ll end up chasing an excited Golden Retriever for half the morning. So we had to identify secure places to put empty bottles while we finished the feeding routine and make that the standard practice. Wind like that might only happen once every few weeks, but that’s more than enough to throw your day into chaos.

Every risk we identified needed to be mitigated through continuous improvement. We’d encounter new conditions, consider what could go wrong and build robust processes to deal with those possibilities. Our processes became more resilient with every iteration and continuous improvement kept the frustrations to a minimum.

Another realization I had through this was the importance of having the right tools. When we first moved to the farm, I had ‘city’ boots. They were zip-up, comfortable and honestly, stylish too. However, they weren’t made for a rural lifestyle. When I walked to the door early in the morning with three lambs’ bottles, a bucket of chicken feed and a puppy on a lead, I didn’t have the hands (or time!) to zip on fancy boots.

I very quickly invested in some proper farm footwear – premium gumboots or galoshes. They’re easy to slip on, secure on muddy ground and safer to wear around livestock. They aren’t cheap or pretty, but they’ll last me a lifetime, where my city boots would have been destroyed in weeks. Having the right tools made the processes smoother, safer and ultimately more cost effective because I wouldn’t be buying new boots every few weeks. 

Everyone needs to be a part of continuous improvement

The key factor that made all of this work was the culture that drove it. Continuous improvement is something everyone needs to be part of. For us, family dinners became a vital touchpoint. Not only is good food essential for the kind of work we found we were doing, but it strengthened our connection. Those meals gave us a chance to reflect, to report on what was working and what wasn’t. They were times to identify process improvements and brainstorm solutions together. They were points of alignment and support. When you’re managing change on any scale, it’s important to take some time to enjoy the outcomes. Celebrate your wins and take pleasure in the experiences. 

Those dinnertime conversations were also great for keeping the strategic plan in mind. What’s the bigger picture? Why are we doing this? While the kids may not love getting up earlier to help with the animals, they can appreciate that we’ll have fully stocked freezers in 12 months and probably never have to buy eggs again. As a family we’re getting more exercise, spending more time outdoors in the most beautiful surroundings and rapidly becoming more self-sufficient. Remembering the strategic outcomes helps us focus our efforts and lean into the continuous improvement journey.

There’s a lot more changes to come, I’m sure. As the livestock grows we’ll need to make more adjustments. We’re also always on the lookout for better ways to manage our time and energy. All of this is happening outside business hours, on top of our regular work, so we don’t want to waste a minute! That’s what continuous improvement is about and we’re definitely committed to pursuing process excellence in our tiny rural paradise, because we can see that it works!

The effort, especially on the hard days, is towards a bigger goal, and a desirable one!