It's how it has always been done!
Tradition is a powerful anchor in farming, but it can also become a quiet constraint. Every time I am in a meeting with a client who says, “That’s the way it’s always been done,” my first thought and question is “are you open to challenging it, to see if it still has merit, for you and your current situation?” That moment of inquiry is often where real leadership begins. It shifts the conversation from inherited habit to intentional choice.
Adam Grant, in Think Again, calls this the courage to rethink—stepping out of the comfort of certainty and into the curiosity of possibility. He argues that strong leaders don’t attach their identity to old ideas; they treat their beliefs like hypotheses to be tested. We are after logic: evidence, evaluation, experimentation and an imagination—the willingness to envision a different way of working, a different rhythm to the business, a different future for the family. When farmers (and business owners) adopt this mindset, they stop assuming tradition equals truth and start asking: Is this still serving us? What else might be possible? It is recognising that history can be honoured without being blindly followed.
Brené Brown’s work (Dare to Lead and Braving the Wilderness) adds the emotional layer that makes rethinking possible. She describes leadership as having a “strong back, soft front”—the backbone to stand in your values, and the openness to be vulnerable enough to question long‑held practices. That vulnerability is not weakness; it’s the birthplace of innovation. It’s the moment you invite new thinking, new data, and new possibilities into the room.
The real opportunity now is to look at your own operation and ask: which long‑standing practice is ready to be rethought, and what new possibilities might open up if you gave yourself permission to challenge it?
References
Brown, B. (2017). Braving the wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone. Random House.
Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Random House.
Grant, A. (2021). Think again: The power of knowing what you don’t know. Viking.
