I recently attended the Toro Grounds Leadership Academy in Bloomington, Minnesota. This four-day event was informative, expanded understanding of my ground’s operation and reintroduced me to the company’s equipment.
While my operation uses Toro, and TTC family equipment, it is not a Toro shop. No matter the commodity or equipment we use, I believe it is prudent to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket.
While some time was spent learning about Toro products (very informative), the experience was not a sale pitch, and was predominantly focused on leadership. While Toro was obviously the language, I learned about how to be a better grounds manager and leader.
Never a dull moment
The first event started right after arriving. An ice breaker social function got attendees introduced and talking. Participants represented a diverse set of grounds organizations including sports, golf, municipal parks and campus groundskeepers.
While a mixed group, the overlap in our roles created shared understanding. We all spoke the language of groundskeeping. But the specialized application within our roles generated new ideas and new learning. I’m not exactly sure how attendees were selected, but I was contacted by an area vendor. Class sessions included wellness on the job, the future of equipment, staff hiring and retention and more. We toured the Minnesota Vikings practice facility, the Toro headquarters and a manufacturing plant in Tomah, Wisconsin. The staff kept us busy and engaged.
Speakers and round tables
The speakers were very knowledgeable, communicated clearly and commanded the subject matter. Toro was mentioned often, but it never felt heavy-handed. All presenters welcomed questions and comments, which lead to some engaging expansion of the subject matter.
The first speaker was Dr. Theresa Glomb from the University of Minnesota, who spoke on work-life balance. This subject is critical to the success of our operations. Team well-being and temperament influences employee satisfaction, retention and production. Her discussion of negativity bias, how I can focus too much on adverse occurrences, hit home. It is better to talk more about team successes rather than challenges. I was also intrigued by her suggestion of understanding cycles of peaks and valleys. Recognizing productivity inevitably rises/falls allows teams space to enjoy success, while also accommodating healthy rejuvenation for upcoming work.
The roundtables were a key format woven throughout the academy. Roundtable members represented sports fields, but their information and discussions were applicable to everyone. Roundtable speakers represented an NFL team, an SEC athletics department and a multi-sport facility. Their varied experiences and perspectives helped me appreciate their viewpoints and helped me to hear anew. Their honest and open ideas on a range of subjects helped me to see a common thread throughout their work. This will help me unify the different parts of my job into a single yet manageable objective.
What caught my eye
I am familiar with some Toro products, but I didn’t really expect I would see new equipment I would want in my operation. I was exposed to a few items I’ll be giving a closer look for my work, such as the Proline AMI autonomous stand-on mower, the Workman LTX utility vehicle and everything related to Ventrac. We already have a Ventrac tractor unit with two mowing attachments, and the new model on display has a remote-control unit and several innovative attachments I want to look at.
Eye-opener
Toro obviously puts significant research into their products through development, customer feedback, engineering and customer service. Witnessing this continuum is my biggest, and most satisfying takeaway. I previously have not considered this behind-the-scenes experience from an equipment manufacturer. My experience is usually built from local vendors
But productive, durable equipment requires intentionality. It occurs from first idea to first blade of grass cut. Understanding the full spectrum of your equipment makes you a better customer, operator and groundskeeper. This event helped opened my eyes to that.
