Being a farmer isn’t easy…after all, living and working on the land to feed millions, feed your family, feed yourself, feed the livestock, pay the bank loans, pay the taxes, maintain the machinery, deal with complex family and relationship dynamics, deal with the drought, deal with the floods, buy the fertiliser, buy the seed, put it all into the ground, HOPE that it rains but not too much, rain at the right times and then not again until the grain is harvested, is a very hard way to make a living. Some farmers are possibly the greatest example of ‘hopeful people’ the world has ever known. What about the rest of us though? I like to think that we are all farmers! We are all living on HOPE, fortunately there is an endless supply of it.

If you ever watch an American TV series that is shown on public television, you will notice something very unique about it…there is no use of the ‘F’ word, ever. In our workplaces and personal lives I am advocating the use of another profound ‘F’ word. An ‘F’ word that has for a very long time been BANNED from our workplace vocabulary. In fact if you mention this word in your workplace you will be looked at strangely and people will avoid you and walk out of rooms when you enter. And it all has to do with resolving conflict.