My last Blog I wrote ‘I’m Buggered’ got over 24,000 views, with hundreds of responses either publicly or directly. And a few apologies, but mostly thanks for openly sharing where I had been and some reflections of their own battles.

One of my reflections after publishing the blog, was that I had omitted to thank a few close friends and colleagues around me who had supported me through this tricky period. So, to those - thank you. You know who you are.

This blog is a follow up looking at my reflections from my time away from the coal face. It was a wonderful break, and I had some great experiences and memories.

The business had some challenges while I was away, but thank goodness for strong Governance which stepped up, allowing me to stay away. The unexpected upside is that it allowed some initiatives to be born at Collective Intelligence, without me there, giving rise to new models and opportunities.

I spent the first two weeks of my break catching up at home and doing some pruning jobs of peoples' trees around the North Island. It was a tonic to be outside and doing physical work I love.

During this initial pruning phase, I was chatting with Manda Jane Johnson over breakfast one spring morning on Waiheke Island, where I had been pruning her fruit trees for a couple of days. I stated that I have noticed people don’t often truly see trees until they are a problem. I went on to muse that I love looking at trees and seeing how they are, do they need attention, companion plants around them etc. Manda said “well Harv you are a bit like that with people too” Hmmmmm.

Reflection one: Trees are like humans - it’s so easy not to really see them.

Then onto my first job which was at the Te Awanga Vineyard located near Cape Kidnappers, founded by one of our CQ members Rod McDonald. I was really interested to work at TA, as I wanted to learn about organic vineyards on a large scale - being about 43 hectares of grapes on multiple sites.

Rod had very graciously organised accommodation above the Te Awanga cellar door, where I was camped for about 9 weeks before the seasonal tourists started to book it out. I reported on a chilly Monday morning in August at 7.30am eager to learn what I might be assigned to. I knew I would be driving a wee tractor, but not sure what that might be doing.

The team were not sure exactly who this old fella was, other than he was a mate of Rod’s. One thought I might be a spy - obviously not a very good one.

Pete, who is a bit of a character to say the least, took me under his wing and got me all set up in my little blue tractor in row 89 in the merlot vines (they all looked the bloody same to me in August). I confide in Pete up front, “I’m not really good with machinery, mate”. “No bother” he says “it’s simple as”.

Well for me it was not simple. Long story short - I spent 9 weeks doing a very simple job scarifying the grass under the vines, and never really mastered it. Rather humbling. I felt like quitting after day one - seriously I was useless at this malarkey.

That evening at the end of that first day I think …… What score would I give this day? A solid 1/10. I could have quit so easily. But I didn't.

And every day after that got a wee bit better. 

Reflection 2: Just turning up can be hard. But sometimes that's all that's needed.

During this journey at TA I wanted to experience life as a worker starting out in a new role once more. Be one of the lads. Well it’s not that easy, after not being one of the lads for a number of years.

But I started to get there by the third week and was really fascinated by what I was feeling.

• I started thinking no one noticed what I was doing. My work was under-appreciated.
• Then I wondered WTF everyone else was doing? I mean you can see what I’m doing - I’m driving my wee blue tractor up and down the rows.
• Next I started thinking the management could lift their game a bit - they were struggling to keep up with all my breakages.
• I lost perspective of my work in the system of the organisation, there's always a lot going on, my work might be top of my mind but it certainly won't be on the top for everyone.
• Three weeks is all it took.

Reflection 3: When you are at the beginning of your career it’s very hard to know what else is going on. Resentment is often not that far away.

Other Learnings were:

• Growing grapes organically is hard and takes a huge amount of effort. If I could, I would drink only wine that was not produced organically when you see the amount of chemicals used in non-organic vineyards.
• There is yet another step that the TA team are pursuing - to be regenerative in time. That's another massive step to take.
• The Te Awanga business is full of passionate people who are conscientious and proud of what they do.                         
• There is a very wide range of skills needed to grow grapes, let alone make and market wine.
• Like most businesses or professions - everything is harder and more complex than it looks from the outside. 
• After 9 weeks I had nothing but admiration for the team at Te Awanga and their founder Rod McDonald. 

Reflection 4: While Organically grown wine is a step in the right direction - it’s not the end game.  To grow grapes regeneratively will take a total revamping of how the grapes are planted and cultivated to replicate their original and natural environment of growing up trees.

When I left TA they presented me with a wee model tractor all tangled up in wire, with a footnote from Pete saying - “you were right Harv, you are not good with machinery” but with a parting gift - A cool remake of Sultans of Swing.

A side note: The General Elections were ramping up around this time and I got an insight into people voting for a wide range of political parties. I got curious about why people were aligning to certain Political Parties. I asked if they were this staunch in their views in the past, and many said no. I dug a little deeper (it was easy because they weren’t old friends or family) and found a fascinating common thread.

It was apparent that people were wanting to align strongly with their tribe. They were very clear their views were right even with complex issues. They were wanting life to get back to normal as quickly as possible.

Reflection 5: After the tribulations of Covid and the ever-present undercurrent of social media many people are seeking comfort. Make New Zealand great again comes to mind.

This then set me off on an even more curious journey of discovery, investigating why people believed certain things to be true. Most had no idea, but were steadfast in their views, and it dawned on me that most of these views were being founded on personal biases that were often hidden, but underpinned and filtered information to bring about a strong view.

Simultaneously I started to examine my own biases, and fleshing out how they showed up. It was hard work, and still very much work in progress.

Reflection 6: Biases are like accents - we don’t think we have them. But we all do.

My next job was down in Whitemans Valley pruning trees at Mangaroa Farms for the manager Jules Matthews.

This was now back in my lane doing something I am actually good at, which was a lovely respite. Jules very generously put me up and we had many fun evenings together talking about everything regen farming stuff…. Mostly regen farming stuff.

Mangaroa Farms is on a mission to grow food for the local community of Upper Hutt and beyond, with a working sheep and beef farm and market garden recently added.

Jules has been working her butt off to get this complex Regen farming business up and running in just a few short years. It was a lovely change to be in an environment that was familiar. I was tasked with pruning a wide variety of trees and taking out some oldman macrocarpa hedges. All good fun, especially when the local fire brigade turned up. It’s a thing. 

My highlight though was participating with the greater team on a Friday afternoon making Johnson Su compost. I could literally write a whole Blog just on this subject but won’t for now. However, it’s something all farmers should be interested in if they want better soils and more profitable farms. 

Insight 6: It’s so often from left field that new initiatives like Johnson Su compost can appear. We just need to keep our eyes up.

It was a blast making a new batch of compost, and I was gifted 22.5kgs of aged fungal dominant compost by Jules, which I cherished and applied the very next day on our home farm.

There’s nothing like getting up close and personal for me to learn new things.

I also observed just how committed Jules is coaching people from across the globe these awesome regen farming practices, often with 4am and 5am online sessions because of the different time zones.

Through these four months away I was reflecting just how privileged I was to have access to these wonderful experiences to give me new perspectives. This privilege made me uncomfortable at times, until I thought ‘well at least I’m aware of the privilege’. I certainly didn’t feel entitled to these opportunities, which then allowed me to just chill in the moment.

And just like that it was December, and there was a need for me to come back to Collective Intelligence to help prepare for 2024. I was ready and refreshed.

This is what I am bringing back to amplify at Collective Intelligence.

• Bias eats intelligence (for breakfast). Our process at CQ is super effective, as I realise, we curate spaces for people to have unbiased conversations. These are invaluable and rare.
• Seeking comfort in cliches (whether social media based or real life) is a sign the outside world is moving faster than your own world. Our aim at CQ is to help bridge that gap wherever possible.

What new possibilities have I noticed for us to offer?

• Working inside both businesses I noticed a disconnect between people within the team. Sometimes that was because of distance, time constraints, different paradigms.

So…. after a number of conversations I realised we could take our core business of curating diverse teams to make sense of complexity, inside a business, and work with the whole work force. 

This is rolling out now - and if anyone is interested to learn more drop me a note.

And personally.

• I am going to treat myself like someone I am responsible for - so that I do not burnout again

I am going to try and take more of these mini sabbaticals over the next few years and continue exploring new horizons.

If you have any thoughts of activities I could apply myself to - don’t be shy about suggestions.