Being a Salesperson for Conservation

Your position description may not have said “salesperson” however you may have discovered that when a new program is rolled out or existing programs or best management practices need additional participation you may find yourself needing to “sell” it to the intended audience. There is much written about the art of selling. Below are some suggestions:

• Confidence – Be very familiar with the program or best management practice to instill confidence when talking about it.
• Credibility – Being trustworthy and believable. Is there relationship building that needs to occur?
• What problem is being addressed – Share what problem/concern is being addressed and the need/value in addressing it. Can you identify some shared values?
• Share a story – Share a success story about someone who has implemented the program or best practice.
• Listen – Take the time to really listen to hear what information, values and emotions are being shared. Be sure to use this information to connect and build trust.

Forty budding conservationists attended the 2023 Conservation Planning Course August 7-11 in Morris. Students received hands on instruction in identifying resource concerns and completing assessments for farmsteads, forests, pastures, cropland, wildlife, and soils. Students then applied the skills they learned to perform these tasks in small groups and develop their own conservation plans.

This course, which has around 55 hours of prerequisite training, is a big step forward for those seeking to become Level III Conservation Planners, allowing them to work independently to write conservation plans that address all resource concerns on all land uses.

Take Your Skills to the Next Level: Complete Your Individual Development Plan!

Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are used by Minnesota’s Technical Training and Certification Program (TTCP) to identify priority technical training needs throughout the state. These training needs provide the foundation for TTCP’s annual training plan. Please complete your IDP by October 13!

Having an accurate assessment of technical training needs is critical to ensure our training delivery will address local needs. There are a couple of things you can do to improve the accuracy of your training needs:

• Review and update your existing training needs. You identified a training need last year, but is it still a training need? It only takes a few moments to either remove outdated training needs or to update them as a current request. For the coming year, we will not consider any training needs dated prior to January 1, 2023.
• Be as specific as possible. When requesting training, there is a space to enter additional comments to identify the topic or content of the training you need, such as specific wildlife species or plant regimes.
• When identifying a practice as a training need you can select which phases – planning, design, construction – you are requesting training on. There is also an option to identify On the Job Training (OJT), classroom, field, or virtual training preferences.
• If you are a newer employee and need some examples of typical practices by land use, check out the common practices by land use tab in the New Employee Training Guide.

To assist both managers and technical staff in completing IDPs, we have put together several resources. This includes two short videos that have bookmarks so you can jump to the specific section you need help with.

• Technical Staff Guidance (video)
• Manager Guidance (video)
• IDP Skill Matrix (xlsx)
• Skill Matrix Definitions (pdf)

Do you prefer visuals and written instructions? Check out the IDP User Guidance resources.

If you have questions or need further assistance, please contact us.

Area Technical Training Teams

As part of developing an annual training plan, Area Technical Training Teams (ATTTs) meet to review training requests entered into the Individual Development Plan (IDP) Tool in eLINK. ATTTs will meet in November and recommend training priorities for each Area to the state working group. If you have specific details about training needs for your area or ideas for a specific training, please share them with your Area Technical Training Team members.

Tech Talks Return

Tech Talks are webinars, covering a wide range of technical topics from a variety of presenters, held on Mondays at 1:00. After taking a break for a summer full of in person trainings, Tech Talks are starting again. The next session will be September 25, where your TTCP staff will be providing an Onboarding session for new staff, or those looking to learn more about the training opportunities we provide. More information about upcoming sessions, and links to replays for previous sessions, can be found here.

Minnesota Agroforestry Institute

The Minnesota Agroforestry Institute is a two and a half day training that includes classroom workshops and on farm visits. It will provide participants the opportunity to integrate the Agroforestry concepts learned into a practical farm plan. The five Agroforestry practices that will be discussed in depth will be: windbreaks, silvopasture, alley cropping, riparian forest buffers, and forest farming. This training program is especially for SWCD and NRCS staff, but other agricultural/conservation professionals, farmers, and landowners are welcome to attend.

Additional information and a link to the registration can be found here.

2023 Training Calendar

An updated working version of the 2023 training calendar is now available. This 12 month view of training offerings is regularly updated and provides information about upcoming training events, including potential dates and locations. Please see the legend at the top and note that the further out a training is proposed the more likely adjustments will need to be made. The dates, locations, and other details are always tentative until the event is posted on the Training Calendar.