Network or Notwork!
Networking is often considered to be the realm of politicians or socialites. It may be viewed as an insincere or superficial activity, or perceived as a ‘talkshop’. But to fail to recognise the power of networking is to miss out on an invaluable opportunity for personal and business development. Despite the advances in technology and efficiency, human interaction and communication will remain key to the success of these same technologies, whether it is in their development, promotion and application, or their refinement.
Farmers currently engage with many varied service providers (SPs) as part of the management of their business. These agricultural service providers rarely engage with, or even know each other. Yet, they are all working towards a common goal-to provide a good service to farmers to enable them to run an efficient business. In the 300s B.C. Aristotle said “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. What if this were to be applied to the agricultural service provision sector? If it worked as a “whole” could it be more effective than the sum of its parts? To achieve this, there is a need to embrace and support interprofessional working, and public and private sector collaboration.
Benefits of agricultural SPNs:
As farming systems evolve and business decisions change, so too will the demand for an even broader range of skillsets. Service providers will need to either upskill in new areas, or have connections and work with experts from other fields in order to provide a comprehensive service to their farmers. Knowledge exchange between service providers is an essential part of continual professional development. Developing cross-professional networks can facilitate this, as well as improving the feedback loop from extension to research and development.
The current reality in public agricultural extension services is that available resources are contracting. Fragmentation in the service provision industry means that agri-professionals often work in isolation. Both of these challenges can be addressed through the development of cross-professional networks.
Current activity and case studies:
There are examples elsewhere of service providers working together in structured industry programmes. There are also organisations that through their work are building networks between organisations and agri-professionals from certain sectors. There are several international examples of programmes and organisations that provide an opportunity for individuals from various disciplines to connect.
Barriers to developing cross professional networks:
While there are clear benefits from building broader networks in agriculture, to both the service provider and the end-user of their services, it would be idealistic and naive not to recognise that there are also barriers to building these networks. Firstly, making time to partake in networking and upskilling events is a constant challenge for service providers. This can also be more difficult in certain employment situations e.g. self-employment, or when an employer does not support networking because they do not recognise the value of it. Service providers also rarely have an opportunity to meet people from other disciplines in their local area, and when they do it can often be an intimidating situation, particularly for newer graduates. Competition between service providers, both real and perceived, can also be an obstacle to building networks, when people feel they cannot work together for fear of losing business or clients.
Requirements to initiate and sustain networks:
Although there are challenges to building networks, the reality is that it can be done effectively. In general, the positive outcomes from networking outweigh the real challenges and the perceived ‘threats’. Networks rarely just start or appear by accident- to build cross-professional networks, it is important to have a driver. This driver, also known as an ‘honest broker’, needs to be respected as an inclusive, neutral body, to act as an intermediary between the various stakeholders, and facilitate their interaction. Nurturing trust, showing relevance, building awareness of the networking opportunities and stakeholder engagement at a management/organisational level are other important building blocks, all of which the ‘broker’ can play a role in.
So What?
Building broader networks and working in teams can be advantageous to both the service provider and the end-user of their services. However, it would be idealistic not to recognise and explore some of the barriers to building these networks and working as a team.
Firstly, time is often a limiting factor. Peoples’ working lives are already busy, and in many cases are getting busier with increased bureaucratic burdens, and a reduction of available resources. Trying to find time to attend ‘more’ meetings or training events can be a real challenge, no matter what the potential benefits are. This is particularly true when there is not an immediately tangible and quantifiable return.
This emphasises the need to communicate the message about the efficiencies of networking. Rather than looking at networking as an additional ‘job’ to be done, SPs need to be encouraged to look at networking as a means of upskilling and improving client services in a cost and timeefficient way. With networks, SPs can quickly and easily tap into complementary skills and expertise when necessary, instead of trying to be all things to all people. Avoiding duplication of existing activities is important if a service provider network is to be valued and successful. Rather than creating another structure for people to join, it is better to consider what is currently in place and see if that can be enhanced to deliver the objective.
Competition between professionals can also be a challenge, particularly when initiating networks. Many professionals have a ‘healthy’ suspicion of other professionals working in the same region, and may worry about losing clients or business. However, this suspicion is often borne out of ignorance of and isolation from other professionals. Once SPs have an opportunity to connect and understand the different roles that they play, and varying skills that they possess, what was a perceived threat becomes a potential opportunity e.g. knowledge exchange, improved service to clients, referrals etc. As Jeremy Philipson of Landbridge (2015) said “How do experts work with other experts? How do we build respect across the professions? It’s not necessarily a problem, but it needs to be understood and managed. This is an opportunity for learning across the professions-we say to people “come out of your own silos and enter an environment that allows you to look at the interface (between professionals)”. Experience has shown that some professions and/or individuals are more secure than others about interprofessional working and are happy to signpost to other professionals. Most of the professionals are very willing to bring in outside expertise when necessary. Some others prefer to manage the inter-professional working out of the view of the client. '
While it may be accepted that working as a team and networking with other disciplines has clear benefits, in the author’s experience agricultural professionals rarely have an opportunity to meet professionals from other disciplines. In Kenya, as in many other countries, there is no structured mechanism for service providers across all agricultural sectors to get to know each other. Interdisciplinary professional development is uncommon, as most service providers attend profession-specific training. Unless connections with service providers from other sectors are facilitated in some way, it is not uncommon for several agri-professionals to work in one region yet have no knowledge of each other. Developing professional relationships is a lot easier when there are preexisting personal relationships.
Feeling intimidated, or fear of the unknown can also be an obstacle-sometimes introducing oneself can be scary! For example, while experienced agri-professionals are an invaluable source of knowledge and