LESSONS LEARNED & TAKEAWAYS

Our Big Lessons Learned

The following is a synthesis of what we learned through over 60 hours of interviews in conversation with 25 + people over the last year. The perspectives shared are those of organizers, farmers, chefs, professors, nonprofit management, healers and more.

Relationships Are Everything 

  • Trust takes time. Without it, collective work falls apart.

  • Expect mistakes—build resilience to keep going instead of walking away.

  • The people in your organization should reflect the community you serve. Build with them from the start.

  • Workers deserve protection, trust, and investment in their well-being.

  • Build relationships with the Indigenous communities whose land you're on. Be transparent about your commitments, if any, to land stewardship (see Land Back resources for support).

“Doing things collectively was really powerful, but decision fatigue was also really strong”

-outside contributor

Slow Down

  • The "speed of trust" can sometimes be too fast—pace yourself.

  • Seek mentorship from those who’ve built similar projects.

  • Lay a strong foundation. Bring in people and structures that are values aligned before scaling.

  • Be thoughtful about governance models, interrogate them as you go —they can shape long-term possibilities.

  • You can’t do everything at once. Prioritize, pace, and be honest about capacity.

You want something Collective? Start it Collectively!

  • It’s hard to turn one person’s vision into a collective after the fact. Start together.

  • Collective work takes time—slow progress isn’t failure, it’s the process.

  • Explore how to build collective stake across class- people invest in different ways (money, time, their dreams).

  • Build with the people you aim to serve from the beginning.

  • Organizations that hinge on one person are fragile and hard to adapt.

“If you want to do liberatory land stewardship, just consider how ownership actually changes you.”

-farm crew

Leadership Is More Than Vision

  • Know when to bring in outside mediation or facilitation.

  • Set clear expectations about what is collective and what is non-negotiable.

  • Leadership is about preparing and skilling up the next generation, not holding power. Humility is necessary.

  • Transparency around power, ownership, and decision-making is essential.

  • Direct communication and management are skills that must be cultivated.

  • Founders don’t automatically have the skills to become executive directors, it takes honest self-assessment and skill-building. 

  • As a leader ask yourself: Do I want this to be collective, or do I want control? Am I willing to walk away if it’s for the good of the project? Be realistic and honest with your answer.

  • Detangle personal identity from the organization—if critique of the organization feels like a personal attack, the adaptability of the organization suffers.

Prioritize Organizational Development

  • Get clear on mission, vision, and scope. Organizations can’t hold every dream.

  • Document structures—create bylaws, strategic plans, and processes for feedback and accountability.

  • Interpersonal relationships and trust alone aren’t enough. Systems and structures keep things running. 

  • Structure the organization to fit the work: Are you a production farm, an educational garden, or a movement project?

  • Design a structure that fits workers’ needs— everyone does have to do everything. 

  • Identify skill gaps (e.g., finances) and bring in experts.

  • Provide strong onboarding and training for staff and board, shared power without preparation leads nowhere.

  • If you're building a land-based project, have farmers on the board.

  • Conduct a power analysis—make power and decision-making transparent.

“The first thing you do [when you step into a leadership role]  is plan how you're going to transition someone else into your role. Start thinking about [it] from the moment you start that job.”

-farm crew

Acknowledge the Contradictions:

We’re trying to build a post-capitalist world while surviving in capitalism; contradictions are inevitable.

  • How do we move slowly when the farming season demands speed?

  • Can we value both democratic processes and create a viable business, or are we sacrificing for the other?

  • Land ownership itself can be a contradiction when aiming for right relationship with land.

  • How do we create workspaces that are healing while not setting the expectation that our jobs will become our spiritual homes?

  • Moving at the speed of trust can sometimes mean moving too fast.

  • Valuing interpersonal relationships over structure can make it hard to create and implement lasting structure.

  • We need to make decisions in order to build the decision making structures.

Be Bold, Create Feedback Loops

  • We need leaders who are willing to take risks, receive critique, and adapt as visions, interests, and community needs change.

  • Keep asking questions—interrogate choices at every step.

Study and Ask for Help

  • Commit to ongoing political education, shared language and values matter.

  • Study global movements for land and food sovereignty.

  • Get mediation and facilitation support from outside consultants who are impartial and not so deeply invested in the success of the project.

  • Seek mentorship and partnerships with organizations that have done this work before.

Honor the Land

  • Land is not a commodity to consume- how can our organizations and farming practices serve the land rather than extract from it?

  • Farming is one way to engage with land, but not the only way. As we build land-based projects can we think more expansively about how to connect with land?

  • Keep in perspective the returning nature of grief in landwork, particularly as climate change continues and what once worked no longer does.

Infuse Joy

  • Find ways to infuse joy at every step!

And if you are part of a project and realize that it's time to close, consider the following: 

  • harvesting and sharing your lessons learned

  • honoring your community by bringing them into a closing process with time for ceremony and celebration; a straddling of joy and grief

  • distributing any resources you still have access to (material needs, connections to grantors etc.)

We need to find more ways to end well—to close our projects with integrity and humility, and in ways that honors the wisdom of endings.