I'm not asking you to do anything new

It's enough to nudge it a little

Howdy Sometimes, when you hear the Idea Friendly Method, you think I'm asking you to do a lot of new things. I'm not. You're doing plenty now, maybe more than enough. And you have the tools you need, right there in that phone in your hand.  You just need to shift your behaviors. Here's what I mean. Old way: Formal Structured committees, officers, meetings, notes, reports New way: Informal Get-togethers, self-organized, idea exchanges, action Old way: Control Issuing orders, commands, follow-ups, accountability New way: Chaos Trying, acting, talking, duplicating, starting, stopping, retrying, repeating, learning Old way: Few Officials, appointments, selections, committees, officers, back rooms, the old guard New way: Crowd Lots of people, everyone, anyone who wants to Old way: Decide Pick winners, eliminate choices, cut off options, streamline, one "best" way New way: Test Experiment, test, try, fail, succeed, partly fail, learn, revise, give up on some things, get better through experience Old way: Isolated Meetings with no public attendance, gatekeepers, qualifications, prerequisites, requirements New way: Connected Out and present in the community, participating, listening, involving Old way: BIG Large projects, big costs, hard to do, long term, difficult to stop New way: small Tiny businesses, small steps, little failures, small successes, easy to do, short term, easy to quit if not working Old way: Failure is bad Hide failures, don't talk about them, be embarrassed, remind people of their failures to shame them. New way: Failure is good Learn from failure, celebrate good tries, look for lessons, let things go quickly that aren't working Start by moving just a few things from the Old Way to the New Way. Instead of voting, run some tests. Instead of keeping minutes, let things happen. Swap out a boring meeting for a fun action session instead. Don't talk about wanting to be a cleaner town when you could each go sweep your own sidewalk and tag it #CleanYourOwnSidewalkDay on Instagram to generate more public conversation.  Keep shaping the future of your town,  Becky PS -  I was astounded how much measurable difference there was in people's mental well-being when vacant lots in their neighborhood were greened up. The story may be set in a big city, but I'm sure greening up vacant lots is good for small town people's mental health, too.      How'd I do? Was this useful for you?  Useful Not so much Want to forward this message to a friend via email? Use this button:  Forward to a Friend Want to share this message on social channels? Copy this link and paste it in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or HootSuite:  Link for Sharing   New email address? Go here to update your profile Want fewer emails from me and Deb? Go here to change your subscriptions Never want to hear from me, Deb, Small Biz Survival or SaveYour.Town ever again? Unsubscribe completely SaveYour.Town PO Box 8 Hopeton, OK 73746 Add us to your address book   Powered by MailChimp