FACE THE MUSIC

By DALLIN BROOKS, Executive Director

Ionce drove my dad’s work truck through the side of our garage. Long story short, I was coming back from a long day working in the fields and had mud on my boots. While driving down our gravel driveway, my foot slipped off the brake and hit the gas as I was coming up to the garage. My 14-year-old brain recovered quickly, and I hit the brake, but when I stopped, my bumper was 6 inches inside, the wrong side. I backed up, parked the truck, looked in the garage, and saw the chaos. About 100 small bins of fasteners had been launched off their shelves and spilled all over the floor. My natural response was to run and hide.

I didn’t tell anyone what happened; I just hid close by so I could hear the reaction. I hid because I didn’t want to face my dad’s wrath. My younger brother came out to call me for dinner, spotted the damage, and ran to tell dad. He came out and inspected it, clearly upset. They called for me, but I never responded. They went into the house and had dinner. By the time I came out of hiding hours later, my dad had calmed down, so hiding had worked - partially. I missed dinner and spent several days picking up all the nails, screws, nuts, bolts, and washers on the floor and sorting them into the correct bins. We tied several ropes to the winch to pull the wall back into place and secured it. In the end, everything was back to normal, and I learned a valuable lesson.

I remember thinking my dad was going to kill me. I didn’t think about the cleanup or anything other than self-preservation. I should have been thinking about accountability, responsibility, and communication. That is too much for a 14-year-old brain to handle but not too much for a multi-generational industry to keep in mind.

We as an industry can ignore the bad things said about us and hope they go away, and sometimes they do. But hiding from others’ opinions doesn’t change anyone’s opinion. Self-preservation is not the right goal when facing criticism, chaos, or industry mistakes. We must face the claims, take responsibility, and tell our story. It may result in some harsh reactions, but it allows us to be part of the discussion rather than the problem. Doesn’t every parent tell their kids that facing problems solves more challenges than hiding from problems? So why do we hide as an industry?

Criticism of how we do things will not disappear; it’s a common problem. But we, as an industry, need to find common ground with those who would criticize us and tell our story to them, doing the work to build on our shared beliefs and understandings. When we tell our side of the story, share our perspective, and face our mistakes, we can enhance their perspective and help them understand that we care about the environment too.

As my dad said to me after I came out of hiding, everyone has had an accident. Everyone has made mistakes. We need to face them, not hide from them. No matter what you believe we all share one common ground on that, so let’s build on it.

Dallin Brooks NHLA Executive Director dallin@nhla.com | 360-823-3898