Age Before Beauty?

Chris Beytes

Are we guilty of tossing young people in over their heads without enough training and experience? That’s a question that came up during a recent phone conversation with an industry colleague. He was thinking of a specific instance (to remain off the record), wherein a relatively inexperienced grower was put in charge of an important production facility with seemingly little experience or preparation for the specific challenge at hand.

I found his concerns interesting, but also contradictory, and told him so.

“Haven’t we been complaining for years that there aren’t enough young people coming into horticulture?” I asked him. “Now you want them to bide their time and pay their dues before being offered a big opportunity. Make up your mind!”

As we volleyed the topic back and forth, I learned that his main point was that, in many if not most businesses, the stakes are extremely high. Margins are thin, meaning the margin for error is also thin. In the old days, a grower could mess up a crop and it would be chalked up to on-the-job training—embarrassing (ask me about leafminers on Mother’s Day pot mums), but not a threat to the business. But today, due to those very high stakes, on-the-job training should be conducted under the watchful eye of a seasoned veteran, in order to prevent mistakes that could cost tens of thousands of dollars—and maybe even a customer.

I can certainly buy that argument. The bigger the business, the bigger the stakes. Especially if you’re dealing with plugs or liners.

But at the same time, how do we give young growers the responsibility and autonomy I’m sure they all crave? I know specific cases where talented young employees have left large, conservative companies for new, still-expanding companies after a few years because the large company wouldn’t provide the freedom and responsibility the young employee asked for. Next time I see them, they’re in nationally prominent positions—and doing extremely well in the jobs.

Holding a talented young person under the watchful eye—or, in too many cases, the crushing thumb—of a “you-haven’t-paid-your-dues” mentality is a sure-fire way to lose them to the competition.

So do you hold them back and risk losing them? Or promote them and risk even more?

I guess it comes down to that word I used above: “talent.”

One of the things I pride myself in here at Ball Publishing is nurturing talent. I want my writers to write brilliant stuff. Amazing stuff. Stuff nobody has ever read in a greenhouse trade magazine. Stuff I can’t write. The only way they can do that is if I let them do it. I can’t teach it, I can’t force it. All I can do is give them lots of freedom and encouragement, some expert guidance about angles they might focus on and then get out of their way. The result is almost always better than my expectations.

Is there risk? Absolutely. Misquoted experts. Libel, even. Fact errors that could possibly lead to expensive production mistakes (there’s an enormous difference between “25 ppm Bonzi” and “2-5 ppm Bonzi”).

To minimize the risk, I keep that watchful eye, but from a friendly distance. Give them plenty of rope … but not quite enough to hang themselves. Just enough so they’ll feel the pain.

And I never let them forget the enormous responsibility they have to the magazine, the company and the industry. I scare them with it because it scares me when I think about it.

So back to my friend’s issue. I agree that nothing is better than learning from a master. I worked with Vic Ball for four years. That’s as good as it gets. Any young grower should be honored to train under a veteran. So if there’s one in place, take advantage of the relationship.

But if there isn’t, well, then provide your new young grower with the best consultants and educational opportunities possible. And make sure they know just how much responsibility they’ve bitten off. A little fear can be a great motivator.

Lastly, remember that if you put them in the spot, it’s your duty to help them succeed. GT