Your next step to be Idea Friendly

ByBecky McCray

The Idea Friendly Method sounds easy, but what’s the next step? How do I actually use it? 

Well, Deb and I have been working on the answer to that for 5 years. So we boiled it down into a 30 minute video for you. We called it “Idea Friendly Next Steps” and we just released it TODAY. 

The video is $5, but only for one week. It goes up to $20 on July 8. 

Writing the video got me thinking about how I came up with the Idea Friendly Method. Throughout my career (and yours, I’m sure) there were always a few people in power who told me I needed to work my way up the ranks, to pay my dues before they would listen to me. They slowed down my ideas, attacked, blocked and even dismantled my work as soon as they could. 

So I started doing projects outside of the old formal structures. 

  • The “shop small” project that rallied local merchants. 
  • The wine tastings in an empty building during the arts festival. 
  • The gatherings of hundreds of small town people who were using social media in new ways. 

I also read a lot more about innovation, crowdsourcing, change science, community, rural development, behavioral motivation, social capital, and open networks. I listened to thousands of rural people in person, in my email and through our survey. 

In fall of 2015, I shared the first draft of the Idea Friendly Method with an audience. They showed a 17% increase in optimism.

This was when Deb Brown was still working as the director of a small town chamber of commerce. She started to make small Idea Friendly changes to the work she was already doing.

She forced me to strip away complications and simplify. It was a perfect learning lab, and we’re still learning. 

The Idea Friendly Method is never “finished” because you keep giving us feedback that makes it better.

There’s more of this story at the bottom of the page here.

Keep shaping the future of your town, 
Becky

PS – The Idea Friendly Next Steps video is 75% off, but only for one week. Don’t miss out.