Effective Leadership: A Walla Walla winery and the law of the harvest

Last Friday the entire North Idaho L&D team took a field trip to Walla Walla to tour Hence Winery. Even though I don't drink and was not involved in the sampling that the rest of the team enjoyed, I found myself quite fascinated by the whole wine making process. It reminded me of Covey's discussion of the Law of the Harvest.

We learned from the winery owner and our tour guide, Henderson Orchard, that it takes, at minimum, five years from the time the first starts are planted until a winery can actually have wine ready for the market. That's alot of lead time! Imagine all the work and care that must happen during that five years. And there are no short cuts! Owning and operating a winery is a major investment - of time, money, energy and sweat, all in the hopes that after years of hard work it will pay off.

Covey points out that farmers (or winemakers for that matter) can't "cram" for the "final exam" like some of us did in school. Imagine if a farmer kept putting off all the important things that need to be done to have a healthy crop - plowing, raking, seeding, fertilizing, watering, weeding - until the night before harvest time. That would be silly right? Yet do we sometimes try to cut corners when it comes to developing our employees? Effectively leading others is hard work. There's no "cramming" allowed. Perhaps you've heard the banking account analogy? Forging a healthy relationship is like maintaining a healthy bank account. We need to be making more deposits than withdrawals or we will go broke. And a "broke" relationship is not much fun for anyone. (I'll discuss this analogy in more detail in a later post.)

A good relationship with our team (or our spouse or kids) is governed by the Law of the Harvest just as much as the vineyard. Without planning, planting, growing, nurturing, hard work and plenty of patience, neither will be very productive.