They are not the enemy

The city council members are not your enemy.

The code enforcement officials are not your enemy.

The funding board members who keep giving money to other projects are not your enemy.

On every round of our Survey of Rural Challenges, people tell us about leaders not moving forward, officials not acting on suggestions or new ideas, people with a “poor us” attitude, and communities breaking into factions for and against change. Personal agendas, local organizations that don’t work together and infighting hold communities back.

In 2019, one response said:

The old guard had a lot of experience – good & bad – and with new ideas tended to say “we tried something like that once…” and instead of taking what didn’t work & learning from it, crossed it off the list of things to try at all

That doesn’t make the people your enemies.

The enemy is the old way of working that holds us back from addressing our challenges.

We’ve all struggled to work on our challenges in the old ways. We’ve created committees, task forces and action teams. We’ve let those few people vote on what ideas to include. We’ve spent untold effort writing plans that represent an idealized and static future while we face rapid change all around us.

How many times will we keep doing the same thing: organize people into a hierarchy and write plans to address our challenges?

We don’t have to do that anymore.

We have new tools and new behaviors that let us break free and create the better future we all want. No one has to take minutes, no one has to be in charge, and no one needs to force accountability on others. There’s no need for more deciding, voting or shaming.

We can involve a lot more of the community, reach new people, accomplish big things in new small ways. That’s how we’ll address our challenges and stop treating each other as the enemy.

You know I’m talking about the Idea Friendly Method. It’s the foundation of what we do to help rural communities at SaveYour.Town.

Next week, Deb and I will be joined by Andrew Button to share more of our 10 year insights into small town and small business challenges, assets and action steps for you to take right away.

Join us for the 10 Years of Rural Insights webinar, live Wed Feb 26, 2025 at 11:30 am Central time, or get the recording.