WHAT IS HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT?Just the words’ "Holistic Management" can scare, turn off, threaten, intimidate, and/or bring on a misconception, such as: OH, NO! Now What? Another radical environmental group against chemical usage, a new-age group, or a cult type organization with some sort of religious agenda with a guru type leader (that fellow from Africa, Allan Savory). Maybe the words just bring a blank stare. Like, so what, I've never heard of it before or doesn't the word holistic have something to do with medicine. Still, many others think of Holistic Management - as some sort of fancy new grazing system where you double your livestock numbers, bunch your animals into small paddocks, blow a whistle, move the animals often, and make a lot of money. It's been very hard for me to define Holistic Management. I once tried to explain it to a television crew and failed miserably. I told them that Holistic Management was a thought process and compared it to building a home. I told them, "First, you need a goal (the type of home, neighborhood, and life style you want). Next, you need to understand what kind of environment you would like to live in and its processes, the foundation - ecosystem function blocks." I then showed them the Holistic Management model and said, "Here is a list of all the tools known to mankind that you can pick and choose from to build this home. And here at the bottom of the model are some very important guidelines to follow. These guidelines can help you get the home you really want. Also, this model helps you to monitor, re-plan, keep on track, and prevent things from going wrong." Well, maybe the television crew was beginning to understand what I was talking about, but I doubt if they could repeat it and that's what they do for a living. What is Holistic Management? My best shot is to simply say: Holistic Management is a way to manage ALL of the many parts of our lives, to take yourself and all those folks involved with you in the direction you really want to go. ALL means to consider: ALL the people, ALL the land, and ALL the resources. Then come up with a reachable holistic goal that fits the whole group. Make sure you can get everyone on the new bandwagon and owning a piece of the new action or they'll resist the change. When I went to college, I was taught all the different parts: Math, English, Chemistry, Sociology, Entomology, Animal Nutrition, Plant Identification, Crop Science and so on. I never had a class on how to apply all the education to make it useable and productive. What I really wanted out of college was to figure out a way for me and my family to make a decent living from the land - ranching. What they taught me was that I better marry it or inherit it, because I'd never make it on my own. So I became a product of academia. Later as I really pondered my future, I finally made a holistic decision and started doing what I really wanted to do - Help people experience a better life at home, work and from the land. The Center for Holistic Management, a non-profit organization - home based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, defines Holistic Management as a process of goal-setting, decision-making, and monitoring - that is helping people throughout the world restore the vitality of their communities and the natural resources on which they depend. Holistic Management allows people to ask themselves, what do I or we really want out of life. Holistic Management can make you back up and take a closer look at your present management and see just how successful you really are. Holistic Management can help us (families, agencies, corporations, and communities) make better decisions daily. It makes us think in holistic terms when facing the multiple decisions we have to make each day. Holistic thinking allows us to look at the whole and start to see how everything in life is interconnected. Times are changing and it's wise to be aware of new management concepts. Goal setting is the basis of Holistic Management. Why have Goals? You have to know where you want to go, so you can get there. Holistic Management breaks down one lifetime goal statement (Holistic Goal) into the following 3-parts: Quality of life and values you desire. The form of production and profit from what to support your quality of life. The future landscape you desire. I know of a couple of good reasons why Holistic Management appears threatening and misunderstood - Jargon words and paradigms. If I were to first use words like: partial rest, brittle environment, biodiversity, holistic, the "whole," succession, animal impact, or weak link. I'm sure folks would have a difficult time following me. It takes time and learning to understand new words and every profession seems to have its own jargon words. Holistic Management is not constant, it will continue to expand and evolve as more knowledge and feedback is developed, other words will be added and subtracted. Paradigms (pair'-a-dimes) is a big stumbling block. It means that we view things today from our past experiences, teachings, and culture. For example, have you ever tried to change your thinking from inches to meters or pounds to kilograms. It's hard, if not impossible. We all have paradigms. This paradigm thing is so true when trying to explain Holistic Management. Non-agriculture folks seem to pick up on Holistic Management very fast. They even say, why doesn't everybody do things this way, it seems so logical? More traditional farmers and ranchers including myself have a difficult time understanding the meaning of Holistic Management. We are stuck with our old views of conventional management. This is not to say we are wrong or backwards. But when something new comes along, we automatically, because of our paradigms, find it hard to see the advantages of change. Ever tried to change a habit? Hard isn't it. All the time I hear folks say, This Holistic Management thing only works in a desert, not up here in the mountains. Or Holistic Management works well with yearling cattle, but not for my cows. Or it will never work in a drought. I even hear, Oh, you're one of those Savory boys or a Savory clone. These people, including myself, all have certain paradigms to overcome. Holistic Management is a positive productive, good common sense approach to managing your WHOLE life instead of the parts and pieces of your life. So the next time you hear the words’ Holistic Management, don't get all uptight thinking that this is either a new approach to medicine or a new radical environmental grazing system. Holistic Management is a GOAL DRIVEN way to make better decisions when managing ALL the PARTS of our lives that guide us in the direction we
really want to go. An outline guide to Holistic Management Define the "whole" picture THE WHOLE UNDER MANAGEMENT Develop a complete Inventory List all people that influence the "whole" List all the resources available List all the land areas available and their conditions List problems and issues Set a common and shared HOLISTIC GOAL What is the purpose of your family or business? Define the quality of life they desire Define forms of production Define future resource base Develop HOLISTIC PLANS List projects to accomplish the above TAKE ACTION and implement change Monitor results Look for early warnings that predict errors Adjust actions early & Re-plan The QUEST for SUCCESS begins together with one common and shared TARGET.
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