MASTER FARMER
TEACHING SMALL FARMERS MANAGEMENT
BRUCE M. LANSDALE
WESTVIEW PRESS 1986
PART VII
Chapter 4: Dynamic Training Centers
- What leads to excellence in an institution?
- What attributes should schools try to develop?
- Can the staff of institutions be both compassionate and businesslike?
Hodja story #5
One of Hodja’s neighbors complained bitterly to him about having too many children and a very small house. Hodja promised to help him solve his problem if he would agree to follow his instructions religiously for a week. Utterly despondent about his situation, the neighbor accepted the terms. Each day during the week that followed the wretched neighbor was told to move a different animal into his already cramped house – the first day his cow, followed by a goat, a donkey, a pig, two sheep, and the mule – until he felt he could stand it no longer. On the last day Hodja told him to remove all the animals and come to see him the following morning. “Glory be to Allah,” said the neighbor to Hodja when he returned, “what a delightful house I have.”
It is so easy to find fault with almost any training institution. Staff members, trainees, and visitors tend to complain about the facilities, the program, the instructors, the food, or some other actual or imaginary shortcomings. As with Hodja’s neighbor, they find the family too big or the house too small. A study by the author in more than 20 countries, however, revealed that outstanding institutions share certain intangible qualities that have a lasting impact on the trainees and visitors, as well as on the staff itself. Invariably, discussions with the staff of these organizations center on the fundamental question of why certain institutions and development programs are conspicuously successful.
These helpful comments and suggestions pinpoint four common attributes of exceptional schools: a clear direction, standards of excellence, a sense of community, and an atmosphere of compassion. These characteristics are particularly relevant to training centers but are equally valid for village-level community development programs. In the following sections, institutions that illustrate these characteristics are described.
CLEAR DIRECTION
The home of one who does not praise it will cave in and crush him.
Greek peasant saying
Top administrators of any training center must be convinced that its work is vital and that its mission has a sense of greatness about it; only because of these convictions, can the administrators pass their enthusiasm on to others. These convictions permeate the thinking of the administrative staff of the Instituto Superior de Agricultura (ISA) at Santiago in the Dominican Republic. ISA is an agricultural college operated in cooperation with the Catholic University in Santiago. It is directed by Dr. Norberto A. Quezada and a group of young associates – an inspired team with single-minded fervor. Demonstrating the best qualities of dynamic salesmen to fellow staff, students, and supporters, they convey their firm belief in the substantial contribution that ISA is making to their country. Their unwavering ambition for its programs and their impatience with mediocrity are fully shared by the faculty. An extended group of loyal supporters shares this belief in ISA and is inspired by a staff that has attempted to make their dreams of greatness a reality.
Another factor that gives a clear sense of direction to an institution is a well-defined statement of the mission. Lack of agreement among the members of the teaching staff and administration on the goals of an institution often leads to many hours of fruitless discussion, which might more usefully be devoted to program development. Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson use the term “one minute goals” to emphasize the importance of precise objectives. They are convinced that goals should be expressed in fewer than 250 words, so that they can be read and understood by anyone in less that a minute. The need for a concise mission statement was discernible in a short-course center attached to an agricultural school in East Africa. There the staff disagreed so much about the mission of the newly built center that their discussions left them little time to implement programs. Once they decided on a mission, they were able to focus on creative training activities.
An organization with a clear definition of mission is CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical), outside Cali, Columbia. This autonomous, nonprofit institution is dedicated to international agricultural research and training: one of a group of similar centers located around the world that have contributed so greatly to the Green Revolution.
The mission of CIAT is to generate and deliver, in collaboration with national institutions, improved technology which will contribute to increased production, productivity and quality of specific basic food commodities in the tropics – principally in Latin America and Caribbean countries – thereby enabling producers and consumers, especially those with limited resources, to increase their purchasing power and improve their nutrition.
CIAT is seeking to develop new varieties and improve production practices of four crops basic to Latin America – beans, cassava, rice, and pastures – by assembling information, making laboratory tests, and operating experimental plots.
If the objectives and deadlines for each program are not specified in a mission statement, the direction of an institution can be ambiguous. CIAT is an outstanding example of an organization that has defined its objectives clearly and that has established specific time frames that are constantly reviewed by the staff and the board. Programs that have failed to meet approved schedules are subject to reappraisal and may be abandoned. This makes the staff members feel a constant sense of urgency often lacking in other organizations.
Homer Lackey, a former steel mill manager, insisted on developing similar well-defined objectives when he was engaged to help the Farm School. At that time there was confusion about the direction of the school and many departments were being run inefficiently. He treated each production section as if it were a steel mill, analyzing its goals and productivity in comparable terms. He then helped the staff reorganize the education departments. By the time he left, each department of the school had clear objectives and agreed about how and when they could be accomplished.
A deep commitment to an underlying ideal – a force behind the program’s existence more fundamental than the institution’s objectives or structure – also contributes to a clear sense of direction. Such a commitment had a dynamic impact on the Indian Meridian Vocational Technical School in Oklahoma. The assistant superintendent, Leroy Bailiff, had a deep sense of dedication and knew exactly where the school was going and why. The administration had a detailed time schedule for the coming years, which was worked out with the faculty to ensure their full cooperation in achieving the school’s goals.
Students of all ages were enrolled in this impressive high school complex. The faculty observed that the older students, who knew what their own goals were could serve as a major motivating force for the younger ones. Students took their basic course work in local high schools and then attended the technical school for three hours each day. The school offered 287 evening courses for which instructors were hired from industry. In accordance with the underlying philosophy of the school, the courses were organized to tie in with skills demanded by local industry. Each department had an advisory committee that helped define its goals. Visitors were impressed by the school’s strong sense of commitment to outstanding education, apparent in the order and organization, in the involvement of the teachers and administrators, and in everyone’s conviction that it was a very special school.