GTI STORY
It started with a farmer asking how he could become more effective.
Years before Grow Thru It® had a name, fourth-generation farmer Kelly Dobson was asking a question that would ultimately shape everything that followed:
Kelly Dobson · Farmer & Grow Thru It® co-founder
How do I become more effective, as a leader, on my farm, with my family and in my life?
That question led Kelly to pursue executive coaching and eventually begin coaching other farmers. He discovered that many were wrestling with similar challenges, and that bringing farmers together to pursue their own development could have a powerful impact.
From a personal journey to a national program
Heather Watson
Executive Director, Farm Management Canada
In 2017, Kelly connected with Heather Watson and Farm Management Canada, and together they launched the National Farm Leadership Program (NFLP).
Over the next several years, farmers from across Canada participated in leadership development, coaching and peer learning designed to help them lead themselves, their teams and their businesses more effectively.
While many participants described meaningful changes, others struggled to put what they had learned into practice, falling back into familiar patterns despite their best efforts to change.
Why?
Agriculture has changed. The way we help farmers must also change.
Modern farming asks an extraordinary amount of people, navigating uncertainty, complexity, family and business pressures, and an almost endless stream of consequential decisions.
Under sustained pressure, even good advice and knowing what we should do can become difficult to act on. Difficult conversations get put off. Decisions get delayed. We fall back on familiar responses. Simply pushing through can become the default.
We began to see more clearly that farmer wellbeing, human capacity and farm performance are deeply connected.
We stopped starting with what farmers should do and started asking what was getting in the way.
From leadership development to Grow Thru It®
Farmers aren't short of knowledge, advice or training.
But what happens when somebody has the knowledge, has taken the training, knows what they want to do differently, and still can't do it when it really matters?
That's the question that led us somewhere different.
Grow Thru It® brings together what we've learned through years of coaching, leadership development, research and program delivery, and, most importantly, the lived experiences of farmers.
Rather than beginning with a solution, we start with a real challenge that matters to the person, the conversation that needs to happen, the difficult decision, the recurring frustration, or the sense that what used to work isn't working anymore.
Then we let that challenge show us where growth might make a difference.
Stress is a signal, not simply something to endure.
We help farmers become curious about what's happening, understand what may be getting in the way, and develop greater capacity to respond differently.
Agriculture doesn't lack knowledge, expertise or support. The challenge is that knowing what to do isn't always the same as being able to do it, especially when the pressure is on.
WELLBEING & PERFORMANCE
That's where wellbeing and performance can become two outcomes of the same developmental process.
Grow Thru It® helps farmers grow through what they're facing today while developing greater capacity to navigate whatever comes next.
Progress is personal.