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As Dean, I represent the 429 faculty, 1488 staff, 3647 students, 43,000 living alumni, 47,000 animals, 11,000 acres that make up the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University (give or take any recent changes). We are one college- with three campuses (Columbus, Wooster, and State-wide; with our faculty/staff split evenly among the three) and three missions (Research, Teaching, Extension) all dedicated to one essential purpose: We sustain life.

One of my jobs as your dean, is to remind everyone that what we do is not only essential for our industry, not only essential for Ohio, but essential for the human species and our world. It’s not often that we stop our busy lives and consider what makes it possible to do work of any kind. It takes energy. And really, for our planet, almost all energy can be traced back to one important source- our sun. For over 12,000 years- agriculture and stewarding natural resources have effectively and sustainably harnessed that energy and converted it to the food, fiber, and fuel humans use to thrive.

This past spring, Dr. Rattan Lal, a soil scientist in SENR, received the prestigious Japan Prize from the Japanese Emperor. Lal’s pioneering research is on no-tillage agriculture and on methods to sequester carbon dioxide in the soil, such as by planting cover crops and spreading compost. The Prize foundation said Lal has shown ways to manage change “while improving environmental quality and addressing the critical issue of feeding the Earth’s population.” Dr. Lal is a great example of what we do. See you there.

We may not spend a lot of time thinking about it, but friction plays a pretty big role in our lives –both positive and negative. Friction is part of what makes it hard to get my bike up the next hill (I’m sure our Pelotonia team can verify that), but it’s also what makes it possible to stop my bike before the railroad tracks. While we can reduce or minimize friction, it’s always present.

So when engineers design engines, they plan for friction. They know when an engine runs, unexpected stuff happens. Determining the exact cause of the problem can be complicated. Seasoned mechanics often will combine computerized diagnostics with their own knowledge and experience to figure out the issue. It’s just part of the design process. There’s no drama involved. We could learn from that approach.

When stuff happens in life, things get more complex. Friction in human relationships or endeavors is more difficult to understand. Often, we increase complexity even more by seeking more information and conducting more analyses. That’s not all bad, but it can spiral into levels of complexity, including organizational complexity — more meetings, decision delays, and specialized teams. We add layers of policy and processes intended to address the complexity, but it could make it worse. Essentially, we replace clarity with detail. As a result, activity increases and so does confusion. At the same time, trust decreases and so does effectiveness. It’s hard to stay focused on staying clear and focused when your legs feel like lead from trying to pump up that last hill.

Just because we encounter friction doesn’t mean we’re headed in the wrong direction or need to abandon the project. We rarely will have the ideal conditions we might wish for. As things get rolling, stuff will happen, so plan for friction. See you there.