Goal SettingWhere do you want to go

AndHow do you get there?

Mike Everett, 2010 ©

Where do you want to go?

10 Principles for Effective Resource Management1. Nature Functions in Wholes2. Understand the Environment You Manage3. Livestock can Improve Land Health4. Time is MORE Important than Numbers5. Define What You are Managing6. State What You Want7. Bare Ground is Public Enemy #18. Play with a Full Deck9. Test Your Decisions10. Monitor for Results

Holisticgoal

CommunityDynamics

WaterCycle

EnergyFlow

MineralCycle

Cause &Effect

Society &Culture

Sustainability

Energy/MoneyUse/Source

Gross ProfitAnalysis

MarginalReaction

WeakLink

AnimalImpact

Grazing

Fire

Rest

Technology

LivingOrganisms

Money &Labor

HumanCreativity

Plan

Monitor

Control

Re-Plan

How your world must

What you do to have the life you want

The Life you want to have

Social

Be in the Future

EnvironmentalEconomic

How do you get there?

• Define the Whole you are managing

• Define who makes the decisions

You

Farm/ranch

job

Family

Labor

Community

• If you want your enterprise to be sustainable, who needs to be included in decisions about that enterprise?

• Gather the family, hired help, friends, etc.

Decision Makers

Who are the Decision Makers in your Whole?

YOU

SPOUSE CHILDREN

PARENTS HIRED HELP

What Resources and Money do you have?

Resource ListYOURSELF LAND (ACREAGE: OWNED; LEASED; BORROWED)FAMILY HOUSE(S)FRIENDS (LIST) OUTBUILDINGS (LIST)NEIGHBORS (LIST) FENCING (TYPES, CHARGERS, ETC.)GROUP MEMBERS (LIST) WATER (WELLS, PONDS, TROUGHS, ETC.) ? ?

SUPPLIERSLAND-OWNER(S) BREEDERS GROWERS SEED FUEL MEDICINESEQUIPMENT SUPPLIES SUPPLEMENTS ? ? ?

CLIENTSFAMILY NEIGHBORS FRIENDSFARMERS MARKETS GROCERS RESTAURANTSETHINIC GROUPS (LIST) INTERNET SALES CONTRACT SALES

? ? ?

$ MONEY $

CASH SAVINGS PENSION

SALARY RENT & LEASES FARM SALES

OTHER SALES/SERVICES (NON-FARM ITEMS OR SKILLS)

LOANS: FSA BANKS AG CREDITFAMILY FRIENDS OTHER USDA

GRANTS: SARE FOUNDATIONS RESEARCHLOCAL/STATE GOVERNMENT

How do you see your farm in the future?

Envisioning Your Goal

• Decision makers discuss and write out their values. How do you want to live in the future?– Health, Wealth, Happiness, Time with Family and

Friends, Meaningful Work, etc.?What must be done to have that life?

Ecosystem processes must be functioning right Water cycle Mineral cycle Energy Flow Community Dynamics

so Goal is Environmentally sustainable.

Envisioning Your Goal

• One must produce a profit in Meaningful Work so Goal is Economically sustainable.

• One must be a good neighbor in order to have good neighbors so Goal is Socially sustainable.

• The Triple Bottom Line: Environmentally, Economically, and Socially sustainable wealth.

• Now that you have an idea of how to have the Life you want:

Envisioning Your Goal• How must your surroundings be in order to

have the Life you want long into the future?– Infrastructure

• Transportation, Power, Education• Medical Facilities, Supportive Community

– Behavior• Fair, Honest, Friendly, Open, Good Attitude

– Environment• Soils covered and building, converting solar energy to

wealth and the rivers flowing perennially.

How do you attain that vision?• Pasture, Crops, Diversity, Monoculture, Organic, Steel and Oil?

• CATTLE? Long term investment; too big for wife/children to handle? Do you have brush covered pastures? Beef,

dairy, draft? • SHEEP? Shorter turnaround but is there a market? Parasites? Can

you sell them yourself? Wool, hair, meat, dairy? Predators?

• GOATS? Brushy pastures? Quick turnaround, but is there a market? Parasites? Can you develop a market? Meat, dairy?

Predators?• SWINE? Quick turnaround, ready market in most cases. Pastured

or confined? • POULTRY? Very quick turnaround, multiple uses – eggs, feathers,

meat? Predators?• Vegetables?• Fruit?• Other factors? Allergies, Fear, Water, Land Base, Help from Family

or Hired Labor, Weather, Financing

New Principles & Stepsfor Handling Complex Decisions

Typical Decision-Making Approach

Create & write missions, visions, goals, strategies, or objectives

Take a look at the available tools to manage your resourcesConsider one or more factors that influence you (experience, data, peer pressure, cost, etc.)

HM® Decision-MakingLook at the whole that you’re managing

– people, resources, moneyDevelop a holisticgoal based on what those in the whole value and want to createConsider ecosystem processes in your decisionCreate & write missions, visions, goals, strategies, or objectives in line with your holisticgoalConsider all tools you have available to manage your resourcesConsider one or more factors that influence you (experience, data, peer pressure, cost, etc.)

Make a decision and assume you’re correct

React when things don’t go the way you assumed

Apply 7 tests that make sure the decision(s) you’re making are sound and lead toward your holisticgoal

Make a decision and consider the unintended consequences that can arise within complex living systems (especially when working with the land – assume your decision is wrong and determine the earliest indicators to monitor)

Monitor your decisions/plans for the earliest signs of change using a feedback loop: plan, monitor, control (take action), replan (if necessary)

How do you Decide?The Seven Tests

• Remember your Goal: the Life you want to Live• Every decision takes you toward or away from

that Goal. YOU have to decide which!• Does your decision address the Cause of the Problem, or

only treat a Symptom?• Does it address your Weak Link at this time? Social,

Financial, Biological?• Comparing two enterprises, which Returns more for

Investment (Time, Labor, Money)• Comparing two enterprises, which Pays more toward the

Overhead?

How do you Decide?• Is the Energy & Money to be used derived from most

appropriate source? Will it be used to take me/us toward my/our GOAL?

• If I/we take this action, will it lead toward or away how our world must be in our GOAL?

• Considering all of these questions and in light of your Goal, how do you FEEL about the action contemplated?– Even if the majority of the answers are NO and you feel it

is right, go ahead; or vice versa, should they be YES but you have doubts, do more research.

Decision Made – Now What?

• Monitoring– What do you expect to see because of your decision?

» or

– What are the first signs that your vision and decision are taking you where you want to go?

– What signals that you’re off course?– What corrections need to be made? Who will make them?

• Don’t Try to Make the Right Decision, make the Best Decision you can at the time with the facts you have!

• “Anything worth doing is worth doing wrong - the first time,“ Joel Salatin