Communication: Nothing Survives Without It

"Communication is the backbone to any decision; whether it's what to eat for dinner or a world problem, people need to talk."

My mom used to say that my siblings and I needed effective communication if we were ever going to decide on dessert for after dinner. I had no issue with it, I was a kid who really couldn't close my mouth if we're being honest; however, my younger sister did seem to struggle with simply stating what she wanted for dessert. If we didn't guess what she wanted, she would get upset and then refuse to contribute to the conversation anymore, often saying "You guys should have known better.

 

This may sound familiar to the situations we face in our everyday lives, especially with issues we see within the leadership sector of agriculture. We, as humans, often assume that everyone knows what we are thinking, and we should not need to speak about it. That isn't true! We should ALWAYS be talking to one another, figuring out what works best for everyone, and effectively solving problems with the perspectives of others. Jorden et al. (2013) explains the struggles that many agriculturalists around the word face due to the lack of effective communication. How are we going to feed the rest of the world, if the world does not speak?