The Idea Friendly Method has just three parts:
- Gather Your Crowd with an idea which entices others.
- Build Connections to turn your crowd into a powerful network.
- Take Small Steps to accomplish your idea together.
Becky McCray is a small business owner, a rancher, a one-time small town staffer. She knew, early on, that there were better ways than “the same old way” to get things done–in business, at home, at town hall. She’s talked to a lot of people. She’s buildt connections between people. She’s taken small steps with a lot of different ideas. Some worked. Some needed more work
In The Idea Friendly Guide: Practical, Immediate Steps to Break Free from Old-Way Thinking and Transform Your Community’s Future, Becky shares her experience based on these three simple steps–in straight-forward, Kitchen table English you can put right to work.
This is a hands-on guide for small towns and rural communities looking to foster innovation and collaboration. It goes beyond boosterism, though she is relentlessly positive. Instead, the book focuses on shifting key behaviors toward openness. Being open and friendly to new ideas.
Here’s an example, right up front in the first chapter:
Openness to new ideas makes the difference
The world is changing around all of us, and Iowa State University has been studying what characteristics help communities facing change. They followed 99 small towns for over 20 years. In that time, those towns experienced every kind of change you can name. Some lost a manufacturer, others gained a new business. Some lost a local school, some had big growth in their schools. Some were hit by natural disasters, others were not.
No matter what happened or didn’t happen, the towns that came through it the best were the ones that were open to new ideas. Those were the towns that saw “better economic and demographic outcomes” no matter what change threw at them.
ISU Professor David Peters said, “They realize no one is coming to save their town. If their town was going to survive and have a future it was going to be up to them.”
It’s that openness to new ideas that boosts our resilience.
Becky brings her colleague Deb Brown in to share some examples of getting it done the Idea Friendly way. There’s the Old Geezer’s Club in Akron, Iowa, population 1,500. They have done some great projects–open the book up to Chapter 3 to read more about them. Then there’s the folks who Deb worked with in Hampton, Iowa, population 4,300. And so many more.
By the way, Deb wrote a workbook last year. You should check it out, or buy a copy or three.
I am a planner by profession. I find value in plans and the planning process. As Becky notes, “Community building will look messy or inefficient from the outside, but it creates the social connections that make everything else possible.”
The value is also in what you do with the plan–sitting on a shelf does not help people improve their quality of life or wellbeing. Becky keys in on the “what do we do about it”. We need to be open to new ways of doing things, especially if we want the next generation to stick around and help out.
Community is the goal. Implementation is the watchword. You do what works for you.
Find more great ideas on Becky & Deb’s SaveYour.Town website. We’ve also started doing a newsletter Small Towns, Real Ideas, of short-reads over on Medium.com.
(As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Ask your local library about ordering a copy for your community.)
.
