What do resilient farmers have in common when it comes to facing adversity?
This was the focus of a Kellogg’s Rural Leadership project undertaken by Jack Cocks in 2021. Jack is someone who is not a stranger to adversity and resilience. In 2013 he suffered a major brain aneurysm with an associated seizure, pulmonary oedema, cardiac arrest, and two weeks in a coma. Over the next six years he underwent 15 major surgeries. Over the course of his recovery and finding his way back to being able to farm again, Jack has been characterised as resilient which led him to wonder how other farmers could learn to be more resilient in the face of the forms of adversity that they face.
Jack’s research sought to answer the question: ‘is there an encompassing set of principles for how New Zealand farmers can become more resilient as individuals to handle adversity, in whatever form that adversity may present itself?’
What is resilience?
For the purposes of Jack’s research, his definition of resilience was ‘the capacity to recover quickly from adversity’. Resilience is important for being able to reduce vulnerability and personal impact of adversity. It can encompass things like being able to absorb the effects of an event, the ability to respond effectively to adversity, the ability to adapt, and more. When one has high personal resilience, it means that individuals have the ability to handle adversity and ‘bounce back’. Jack’s initial research of literature found that resilience is something that people may find they do or do not have in the circumstances where they needed it, however, research also found that resilience can be developed and strengthened. The key takeaway from Jack’s initial research was that farmers can learn how to become more resilient and be able to handle adversity better.
Adversity, resilience, and Farming
Adversity comes in many forms and there are thought to be six key types: physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual and financial. For Jack’s study, he characterised the adversity that farmers face into five main areas of: health; natural disasters, climate and weather; financial; family challenges; and personal loss. Irrespective of the type of adversity that ones faces, navigating it requires resilience.
Through his research, Jack found that resilience literature in farming was concentrated on climatic and financial resilience, and that overall there was an absence of focus on personal resilience for farmers. However, resilience literature in general indicates that it is essential that people have personal resilience to handle challenges. Therefore, it is essential that farmers have personal resilience within themselves in order to be able to build resilient farming systems, businesses, or to manage their own mental health.
Jack found that while there is significant research and work in the area of personal resilience, there is a lack of any focus on this in farming literature. While general research is good, the lack of focus on the unique circumstances of farmers, the adversity they face, and how this all intertwines with rural life, has meant that there is not enough emphasis on understanding resilience for farmers, or being able to promote ways to improve it in a farmers context. Jack’s research sought to bridge the gap and develop a conceptual model of how farmers thrive when faced with serious adversity.
Research Methods
Jack sought to develop a conceptual model of how farmers thrive when faced with serious adversity. To do this he undertook five case studies of farming individuals who have faced major adversity in one of the five main areas of adversity that farmers face. These case studies focused on:
- Health: a farmer who faced severe adversity in the form of depression,
- Natural disasters, climate and weather: a farmer who has farmed through a succession of major weather events – snowfall and droughts,
- Financial: a farming couple who experience very low dairy pay out in their first two seasons as 50:50 sharemilkers,
- Family: a farming couple who experienced a number of challenges with farm succession,
- Personal loss: a farmer who lost her husband to cancer.
Jack analysed these case studies to see if there were some commonalities between the five case studies. He wanted to know if there were similar strategies and techniques that these farmers employed to become resilient. From this, Jack developed a theoretical model of the three common strategies that all five participants used to become resilient.
The three strategies to be resilient
Jack’s research found that there were three key overarching strategies that the five case study participants used to be resilient. He found that these three strategies could be best put together into a model in the form of a three-layer triangle which is made up of: purpose, keeping connected, and keeping well.
What is most important is the combination of these three strategies and how the case study participants implemented these strategies in combination in their lives.
Purpose
Jack found that having a constant reminder of purpose had the effect of lifting those interviewed and keeping them on ‘track’. For some this looked like building a future with certainty, for others it was having a sense of belonging and value. Those who had a strong purpose had a strong sense of why, which allowed them to continue on in the face of adversity.
He described purpose as the ‘direction’ of the triangle’ – that it represents the direction that the participants are moving in their lives and why.
Keeping connected
The second common strategy employed by all participants was the importance of keeping connected with other people. Jack’s research found that all of the case study participants either explicitly or implicitly listed connections with others as important to handling adversity and becoming resilient. Key ways people did this was to connect with other farmers to share stories, experiences and learnings.
Jack describes keeping connected as the glue that holds the triangle together. These connections are the people in our lives who often lift us up and encourage us to achieve and to rise above in times of adversity.
Keeping well
The third strategy all participants used was keeping well. Wellness is fundamental to being resilient, and an emphasis on doing what one needs to keep well was important in case study participants. All participants identified exercise as a key tool for them to keep well and to aid in their ability to be resilient.
Jack describes keeping well as the foundation of the triangle as it is a core foundation to developing resilience to adversity.
Secondary techniques and Personal attributes
Within each of these three strategies to be resilient there were secondary techniques that were common between some of the participants. These included:
While there were common strategies that the case study participants used and techniques that allowed them to employ these strategies, Jack also found that there were common characteristics of the five participants that may have also attributed to their resilience. These were:
- Driven people,
- High achievers,
- Emotionally intelligent,
- Unrelentingly positive,
- Grateful, and
- Humble.
Jack’s research provides great insight into how farmers can ensure that they are setting themselves up as well as possible to be resilient and face the adversity that comes with farming and rural life. There is something for everyone to takeaway from his findings, and look to increase purpose, connection and wellbeing in our own lives.
A full copy of Jack’s Kellogg’s Report can be found here.