Psychofarmers on the loose!

PICTURED: TOM GREEN (RIGHT) FINDING HIS PERSONALITY IN COLOURED CARDS







Just last week Louisa, Daniel and I did a personality test as part of the Central West Catchment Management Authority's Farm Systems Project. The Hermann Brain Dominance Indicator divided the group of 11 farmers (selected for training for their progressive farm practices) into 4 personality types: Blue - analyses, likes technical/financial accuracy, logical, asks 'what are the facts?'; Green - organises, likes to follow procedures, reliable, asks 'what is the sequence of events?'; Yellow - strategises, likes to conceptualise, imaginitive, asks 'how can the parts be put together?'; and Red - personalises, likes to know the effect on others, supportive, asks 'who's involved?' Now no one is simply all one colour.





PICTURED: COL SEIS AND NIGEL KERIN (THE BIG FELLA) TRADING PERSONALITY TRAITS.


We are combinations of colours, and these combinations can be mapped. This is the second time I have been psychologically profiled when meeting a group of farmers - psychofarmers, we'll call them. The first time it was when our neighbour Tom Green introduced us to the Edge Management group. Edge Management is a system of 'advisory boards' that you join as both a recipient of advice from members of your 'board' and as a giver of advice as a member of the other members' boards. In effect it's a circle of wisdom and support. We have committed to joining, but have not had our initial meeting with our "board'. But the Myers Briggs test we took will be sued to team us with other board members.
But back to the Colours: The idea of the testing was to help us understand that team-building in the farm environment requires adjusting to the personal styles of different personalities in the family and the business.
But just as an aside the excellent facilitator Margie Crowther* mentioned that people who live together (cohabit) tend to have similar patterns (ie. the same personality characteristics or colour combinations) and people who follow the traditional route into marriage tend to have the opposite - that is, couples who fall in love and decide to shack up tend to have a lot in common and think that's the basis for an enduring relationship. But couples thinking seriously about spending the rest of their lives together must think about compensating characteristics in each other - how one's strengths will compensate for the other's weaknesses and vice versa. [Just imagine it: A messy, creative person living with another messy, creative person is fun at first, but then the trouble begins. An organiser living with an organiser will have no one to organise.] So are marriages that start with shacking up (like mine) doomed? No. But Margie says that they require greater skills and patience with each other - and the road is likely to be rockier. (And it was.)
PICTURED: MARGIE CROWTHER: THE PSYCHOFARMER COLOUR ANALYST
*Margie Crowther is also a permaculture design specialist, based at her organic farm near Canowindra in New South Wales. Contact her at permaculturepatches@bigpond.com