May 17, 2022
Our Old Why
A comment made in a front office discussion turned into a social media post. That post brought a plethora of comments both on- and off-line which led to a lot more discussion and pondering. Is tradition how we do something, or why we do something? There is no correct answer because it all depends on the situation, the person and the organization.
I’ve had the incredible privilege to be an extension agent for 40 years. I’ve seen a lot of events, activities and programs come and go. In all honesty, there are still a lot more of those events, activities and programs that need to go. Years ago, I heard someone say, “Once it’s an accident, twice it's tradition.” Which is likely how many traditions got started.
I’m history- and tradition-based, but I also like to bust tradition wide open sometimes just to make people wake up. Regardless if we are coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic or merely at a lull, the last couple of years have given us a rare opportunity to put much of what we traditionally do on hold for a while. Where many people can’t wait to pick back up and move on with life, I would challenge you to first take a long hard look and introspection of all of those “traditional” activities that we find ourselves in.
In extension, we have annual cycles. We have this deadline and this event and then another deadline and another event, and then there’s registration for a new year of this, that and the other and now we’re off to a conference because it’s what we do. I tell new staff that it’s hard to really understand extension at any level until you’ve gone through a complete year.
How often do we get so caught up in those annual cycles that we have no sooner put away the most recent event and we are on to the next? Did you take the time, however, to really sit down and look it over or are you just going to pick it back up next year and do the same thing?
I feel that we often get so caught up in the “what we are doing” that we have started to lose sight of the “why are we doing it.” The pandemic forced us to explore new methods of program and information delivery. We ALL learned new skills and new techniques. We may not have liked those new skills and new techniques, but we learned them and we used them.
I love to do in-person presentations. I enjoy the interaction with people, and the ability to adjust the program on the fly based on the cues I’m receiving from the participants. My first Zoom presentation was a program that I’ve done dozens of times. But for the first few minutes I was fumbling all over the place because I had no visual feedback from the participants.
I finally took a deep breath, imagined a room full of participants in front of me and carried on. It ended just fine. I still prefer to do in-person presentations. But I was able to reach so many more participants with my Zoom presentations than I ever would with in-person programs.
The why here is presenting educational information to the people. That is the tradition of why. What we had always done were in-person meetings. When that was interrupted, we found a new “what to do” to serve the “why.”
We HAD to evaluate “what” we were doing. At the same time did we evaluate “why” we were doing it? Were we doing it because we’d just always done it? We knew how to do it that way so it was easier to just keep doing it that way. If “why” was/is still valid, is there a different way to do it that might more effectively meet the why? The why likely hasn’t changed, but the how may need to.
In a few months I will be retiring. A new agent will come along, that will not be me, and will have different ways to look at things, evaluate things and do things. I’ve already told my co-workers and people in the county that when that person does something differently that they are not allowed to say, “Well Chuck didn’t do it that way.” Chuck doesn’t work here anymore. For everything that I do a certain way, there are dozens of different ways to do it and they all may be better. I just did them that way because that’s what worked best for me.
Tradition, like memories, can be an intoxicant. It helps us harken back to days gone by that we enjoyed and maybe miss. Doing things the same way year after year is a comforting warm blanket because we can switch on the automatic pilot and just go without having to think very much at all.
But just because it’s easy and comforting for us, is it the best way to reach the desired “why” for our participants? We yearn for the way things were pre-pandemic. But for extension, the changes that have been forced upon us may be the best thing that has happened recently!
Remember, Chuck doesn’t work here anymore.