The Idea Friendly Guide: Practical, Immediate Steps to Break Free from Old-Way Thinking and Transform Your Community’s Future

by Becky McCray

the Idea Friendly Method. There are just three parts: Gather Your Crowd with an idea that entices others. Build Connections to turn your crowd into a powerful network. Take Small Steps to accomplish your idea together.

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.”

Consensus emerges from action Consensus won’t come from voting on what most people want, or trying to compromise until the majority of people can reluctantly agree.

If you think of your role as empowering other people to do cool stuff, you’ll try to find out about as many new ideas as you can. You’ll publicly ask people what new ideas they’re working on. You get to encourage all of them, help them Build Connections from your extensive network of resources. And then invest your limited resources in the ideas that show promise as people test them.

community is your goal. That’s why you do all the hard work, to improve the quality of life of your people. You don’t have to battle this alone. All the groups, all the organizations, all the boards in your town—bottom line, they all care about quality of life. The definition of what makes better quality of life for your place comes from your people.

John Shepard is an expert on rural planning, as in the city planning profession. “Quality of life should be a core planning principle,” John said. “Quality isn’t just ‘pretty.’ It matters because it reflects that we value where we work and live; that we value our friends and family every day.”

Thanjs for the mention, Becky!