𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐈 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐈𝐭 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

This morning I’m enjoying my cup of coffee on the patio, watching another hazy, humid sunrise with the promise of another hot, steamy day here in Northeast Indiana.

The last two weeks were filled with the usual mix of normal activities, punctuated by showing lambs and pigs at the Indiana State Fair and the start of a new school year. Mother Nature threw in a monkey wrench with a rain shower that disrupted our “perfect” plan to make hay before our last trip to Indianapolis. We adjusted schedules, got the hay baled, and into storage. Sometimes you have to adapt when the plan is forced to change, and we did just that.

Last night I watched the Supreme Female Celebration from the Indiana State Fair thanks to livestreaming and celebrated virtually as the son of one of my second cousins took home the Grand Champion Gilt banner from the dirt in the Coliseum. What an honor for him and his family. This young man has worked hard with his gilt and the pigs he’s shown in past years, continually adjusting his plan to get the most out of them.

As I see the celebrations of their win filling my social media feed, I can’t help but think about the plan this family followed with that gilt. Would my cousin’s son have garnered the purple banner last night if he was simply told, “Just do it because I told you,” instead of knowing how the work he did every day fit into the process: the plan to reach the goal of standing on the dirt in the Coliseum at the State Fair?

Clarity matters: in the show ring and in the workplace. Yet how many of you go through your day without knowing where you fit in the plan, how your work applies to the process, or even what the goal is? How can we do better at sharing the plan and the goals? Or are we just at the mercy of those in power who know something we don’t? In this era of information overload, shouldn’t some of that information reach the people who are collectively striving to reach the goal?