Archive for the ‘In the News’ Category

Archimedes, Daydreaming and You

June 18th, 2010

I have a tendency to daydream.  I will be listening to, or participating in, a conversation and before I realize that instead of listening, I’m in my own little dream world.  I try not to, but sometimes it happens.  As it turns out, my daydreaming might be a good thing.

Many people say their best thinking often comes in the shower.  Archimedes is said to have jumped out of his bath tub, running naked through the streets, yelling “Eureka!  I got it!”  While I don’t recommend running naked through the streets, I will promote taking a break to daydream, leading to your own “Eureka!” moment. 

According to various studies, we spend almost one-third of our time daydreaming.  When we give our brain a “break,” it is actually activating areas of the brain associated with complex problem solving.  Kalina Christoff, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia says, “People assumed that when your mind wandered it was empty. .. mind wandering is a much more active state than we ever imagined, much more active than during reasoning with a complex problem.”  She goes on to say that an unfocused mind connects new ideas and unexpected associations better than analytical reasoning.  

Over the last five years, two researchers at Northwestern University have used brain scanners and EEG sensors to find out what causes that “Eureka!” or “aha” moment.  They studied people who were stumped with a word problem and suddenly came up with a solution they knew to be right.  Turns out the brain sends signals from its right hemisphere, which controls associations and putting things together, a third of a second before the “aha” moment strikes.  That is immediately followed by a set of signals from the visualization part of the brain.  This second set of signals allows you to really solidify the idea in your head.

While we don’t know what kinds of topics or problems can trigger an “aha” moment, researches say a positive mood can increase the chances of coming to an insightful thinking.  As Dr. Jung-Beeman says, “How you are thinking beforehand is going to affect what you do with the problems you get.” 

So, you may now be thinking, what does Arcimedes have to do with rural communities?  Often I think our rural communities think too logically and are too pessimistically about their futures.  It seems like they don’t want to risk getting their collective hope up only to be let down when their dreams don’t come true.  In doing so, they deny the creative juices that work their way to the surface.  When we try too hard to fix a problem, the solution seems harder and harder to grasp. 

Maybe, instead, a community can get together and encourage all members, from the youngest to the oldest, to come up with ideas.  Ask, if we had unlimited resources and visitors and time and volunteers, what could we do?  Encourage the positive, creative thinking that comes from daydreaming about a future.  Maybe then a community can finally see what they have been missing and start working towards a new solution.

To learn more, check out this article by Newsweek magazine and this one from Psychology Today.

 

Photo Credit:  Ashley R. Good

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, In the News, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Getting out of my funk

April 30th, 2010

(Note: It’s Friday, which means this post is a part of our “I Feel Fridays” project.  Our goal is to share stories from the past week that generated an emotional response.  We encourage readers to respond to the post or to share something from their lives in the past week. To learn more about “I Feel Fridays,” check out this post- and then tell us what you’re feeling.)

 

I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and discouraged this week, causing me to be in an unproductive funk.  As the week draws to an end, I’d like to share how I’m trying to get out of this funk.  And I’d also ask you to offer any advice you believe might help.

The fallout from vacation

The first of my negative emotions stems largely from an unmanageably large “to do” list, which grew exponentially while I was on vacation recently.  As the list has grown, a sense of hopelessness has set in, decreasing my energy when I need it most.  I bet many of you can relate.

Currently, I’m attempting  to deal with this issue by doing a better job of prioritizing my daily “to do” list.  More importantly, I’m trying to focus on some advice offered by Seth Godin in his latest book, Linchpin.  Godin tells us that Linchpins (people who make a difference) do a better job of “shipping” products than others. 

By “shipping,” Godin means completing tasks on schedule and sending them off to market.  It might be a software product you’ve been working on, a presentation you’re going to give, or a marketing plan that’s critical to your business.   Linchpins find ways to ship products on-time, even when they feel the product is not quite perfect.

That’s where I’m at right now.  As I prioritize my tasks and work on my products, I’m trying to not let my fear of imperfection get in the way of shipping. 

Discouraged about the future of rural communities

The second of my negative emotions stems from a general sense of discouragement about the future of small towns.  This emotion comes from many sources but is highlighted by the recently announced temporary layoff by Knight & Carver Wind Group in Howard, SD.

The temporary layoff at Knight & Carver is personal.  Not only is the business in Howard, but I helped the company establish itself here in 2007, when I was the community’s economic development coordinator.  Even though I’m not directly involved in that work today, I still feel connected to it.

Before going further, let me say that my heart goes out to workers and their families who are dealing with the financial and emotional uncertainty of the layoff.  I know the company’s leadership cares deeply about its employees, and I’m confident they are doing their best to meet the challenge.

And that’s where I know I need to focus my attention.  Just as businesses must overcome challenges, so too must communities.  This isn’t the first challenge confronting Howard since our community development efforts began in the late 1990s, and it won’t be the last. 

As Jack Schultz identifies in his “7 ½ Keys to Big Success in Small Communities,” rural communities that thrive are those who adopt a “can do attitude.” To some, this may sound trite, but I think it’s a critical element of success community development work.  Adopting a can do attitude will prevent community leaders from wallowing in the fear and self pity that causes them to do nothing.   

And that’s where I’m at personally as well.  Prioritize better.  Ship more regularly.  And refocus on a can do attitude.  That’s how I’m attempting to get out of my funk.   If there’s something I’m missing, I hope you will help me out. 

 

Photo Credit - Secret Tenerife - Flickr

Tags: , , ,
Posted in In the News, Rural | Comments (3)

What’s going on with Job Growth in Rural South Dakota?

December 15th, 2009

Last week I published a post about a study claiming that rural communities were more “prosperous” than most people believe (click here to view a map detailing which counties the study considers prosperous).  The study used a non-traditional means of measuring prosperity (it didn’t include income and population growth as factors), which explains why some of the communities deemed prosperous could have stagnant economies and outmigration. 

Today, however, we have additional research suggesting that much of America’s western Heartland has fared well in terms of job losses during the economic down turn.

In an article titled “Location, Location, Location,” Daily Yonder reporters Bill Bishop and Roberto Gallardo note severe job losses in rural Alabama (and the Southeast US) and rural Michigan (and the eastern Midwest) from December 2007 until October 2009.

Most of us are aware of the automobile industry’s impact on job losses in Michigan and Ohio, but the Daily Yonder article highlights the industries demise is also affecting rural Alabama. 

I appreciated that the article provided a link to the data (in an Excel spreadsheet) used in generating this report.  I downloaded information for South Dakota and then segregated the ten “most urban” counties from the remaining rural counties. Click here to download my spreadsheet. (See note at bottom for my definition of “most urban”). 

It was interesting to note that the “most urban” counties in SD lost 680 jobs, while the remaining rural counties gained 1787.  This surprised me.  Can small, rural communities in SD be doing better than their more urban counterparts?

We know that many of our midsized communities in SD have struggled with manufacturing loses, but I’d be interested in understanding more about what’s going on.  How is it that the smaller rural counties have fared better in employment terms?  If you have thoughts on the issue, I’d be interested in hearing them.  

Note:  While all of SD, except Sioux Falls and Rapid City are generally considered rural, I identified the 10 most urban counties by nine largest communities and then added Lincoln to the list because of its relationship to Sioux Falls.

Map Source: Bill Bishop and Roberto Gallardo @ The Daily Yonder

Tags: , ,
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (2)

Big Problems can’t be solved by Big Solutions

December 14th, 2009

We’ve known for quite some time Dan and Chip Heath intended to include the story of the “Miner County Cash Flow Study“ project in their next book, Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard.  Chip interviewed Randy Parry about the project at Grassroots and Groundwork Conference in St. Paul, MN a couple years ago. 

Having the project, which kick started our development efforts in Miner County, SD, mentioned in Switch is pretty exciting for me.  I’m a huge fan of their first book, Made to Stick, and I regularly seek out their monthly column in FastCompany as the first article I read in the magazine. 

Yesterday, I stumbled across this blog post and learned a bit about how they intend to use the story of the cash flow study in Switch.  The author interviewed Dan and Chip, and wrote the following:

Another fascinating component of the conversation was the Heath’s belief that “big problems are only rarely solved by big solutions.” They argued that big changes must be shrunk into the smallest components possible and attacked bite by bite. Very thought-provoking for someone passionate about the importance of the follower! The illustration used here was that of some kids in a South Dakota small town economics class who managed to save their town simply by encouraging everyone in town to spend just 10% more of their money locally. And it worked!”  (Source:  “Chip/Dan Heath - Switch,” Hogshadows. 8-8-09)

Big problems can’t be solved by big solutions. That makes me think of Rosa Parks.  One lady, who refused to give up her seat on a bus, helped launch the Civil Rights movement.  Of course, her singular action - standing up to the injustice of segregation on Montgomery, AL buses — didn’t eliminate discrimination overnight, but her effort played a pivotal role in solving a problem many, at the time,  deemed insurmountable. 

It may be a bit presumptive to compare the herculean efforts of Rosa Parks and the civil rights activists who toppled segregation in the South to the efforts of Howard H.S. students who raised awareness about the importance of spending their money locally; but I think the Heaths are onto something important when they say the solutions to big problems must be attacked in smaller, more manageable bites. 

Of course, in the community development world, it means you also need sustained leadership.  The students who participated in the Miner County Cash Flow Study project addressed one issue - local spending - but it took a decade of sustained community development efforts to achieve success in Miner County. Rural decline is, after all, a pretty complex issue.

And do we ever really achieve success? Like fighting discrimination, transforming the economies of our small, rural communities will take constant vigilance.  It’s safe to say that something WILL go wrong in Miner County at some point in the future.  A business will struggle or a building will be destroyed by fire.  One never knows the challenges the future will bring.

But tackling big issues with small bites and developing sustained leadership makes a lot of sense as a foundation for creating change in our rural communities.  I look forward to what else the Heaths have to say on the subject in Switch. 

Note:  I’d encourage anyone interested in learning more about the study  to sign up for a free resource guide in the box found in the upper right column.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Leadership, Rural | Comments (3)

5 Ways Rural Communities can get ready for Gen Y

December 11th, 2009

This is the 3rd in a series of posts offering my thoughts about an article Gwendolyn Bounds wrote for the Wall Street Journal titled “Green Acres is the Place to be.” Her article highlights a small but hopefully growing trend of young people moving to rural places.  When I started writing, I only intended one article.  But the story continues to garnish my attention. (You can read previous post here and here.)           

The people highlighted in the Bounds’ article all purchased small tracts of land in Rural America. They are raising animals, growing crops, and hunting animals for food. It’s interesting to me that none decided to live in a town or hamlet. 

I think I understand why these young people, called Gen Y, are attracted to purchasing a house and land in the countryside, and I think it’s a good thing - at least in the Midwest, where the countryside has been depopulated.  I do recognize the potential problems around urban sprawl and the conflict between hobby farms and production agriculture.  But in general, I think the positives outweigh the negatives in my part of the country. 

I also think there’s an opportunity for small, rural towns to position themselves as places where Gen Y wants to move. Previously, I’ve written about that subject in a series of posts tagged “attracting college educated.” Regardless of whether they live in town or outside, however, I think there are things that rural communities can do to prepare for and maximize the movement of younger people to Rural America.   And I’d like to share my thoughts on that subject below.

 

5 tips for preparing your community for a Gen Y

Following the theme of understanding the characteristics of Gen Y, I’d recommend rural communities consider the following activities:

1) Help create economic opportunities. Yesterday, I highlighted that individuals moving to rural places were seeking a variety of opportunities. The subject is mute if economic opportunities for the rural transplants don’t exist. To some people that means rural communities need to recruit businesses for new job growth. And that’s good strategy for some communities. But I’ve long been a fan of entrepreneurship training programs, like economic gardening. Developing and marketing a good entrepreneurship program could be a boon for attracting Gen Y. After all, Gen Y is known to be very entrepreneurial. (Read more about Gen Y’s entrepreneurial tendencies here and here.) 

2) Make sure your community has third places that help introduce newcomers. We’ve talked previously about the importance of pubs, coffee shops, cafes, and community centers that function as “informal meeting places where community is built.” (Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place) If you don’t believe me, check out this blog produced by Gwendolyn Bounds about a little pub in Garrison, NY. Bounds credits the sense of community she experienced while visiting the pub as part of the reason she moved to the region from NYC. 

3) Develop good broadband internet capacities and wi-fi hot spots. No doubt about it; Gen Y is very techy. In fact, some experts say young people look at technology like cell phones and other wireless devices as extensions of themselves. That’s hard concept for many older people to grasp, but not having good Internet access in your rural community will drive young people crazy - and possibly somewhere else.

4) Help young people figure out “What am I going to do in this town?” In case you haven’t noticed, Gen Y is very social. Granted, some of that social activity is on-line, but they love to get together for a good time as well. That’s what led college student Morgan Andenas to write a blog post last summer titled “What am I suppose to do in this town?” in which she recommends inviting young people to be a part of community projects that include social opportunities. Another idea for helping young people fit in can be accomplished by creating Young Professional Groups.

5) Rethink how you “engage” Gen Y in your community. Too often, older generations treat young adults like kids, which is a real turn-off to them. They firmly believe they have something valuable to contribute, and are sometimes offended when you don’t ask them to do so. I still think this post titled “How to Engage Gen Y in Rural Communities” is an excellent guide for any person or organization that wants to make younger people feel a part of their organization or community. Younger people today want to feel valuable.

 

Before wrapping up this post, I’d like to make one more point.  I realize that most small town residents in the Midwest and Great Plains probably don’t believe there’s a significant opportunity to attract Gen Y to rural communities through entrepreneurship, third places, technology and engagement.  I too have some doubts about it growing into a full-fledged movement.  But I do believe we can make our rural communities more attractive to younger people if we are intentional in our efforts.  In fact, I believe that’s something we have to do in order to have a future at all. 

And if you want a proof that intentional efforts of this nature can be successful, take a look at what they are doing at Energize Clinton County in Wilmington, Ohio.  Their efforts are already starting to attract Gen Y.

Photo Credit: Daquella manera - Flickr 

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Agriculture, Economic Development, In the News, Rural, Rural Life | Comments (2)

Gen Y and Rural Living: A natural fit.

December 10th, 2009

Gwendolyn Bounds’ article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Green Acres Is the Place to Be” highlighted a small but hopefully growing trend of young people who are moving to rural places.  I spotlighted Bound’s article here, and I’ve been wondering ever since, “What is really going on here?  What is it that is attracting Gen Y to rural places?  (Note: Bounds’ article focuses on urban residents called “ruralpolitans” who move to rural places, but young people appear to be a major focus of those currently moving. )

First and foremost, we need to recognize that the ruralpolitans Bounds describes are moving to rural places because they sense an opportunity for them. Brandon Peaks speaks directly to this issue in the last paragraph of the WSJ article:

“I can’t tell you how many people at work say, ‘Man, I’d like to do that,’ “Mr. Peak says.  “Everybody is looking for the next opportunity for hope.”

Peaks, an Intel Corp technician in Phoenix, sees opportunity in working with his parents on a dairy operation they recently purchased in Missouri.  It means he will escape the uncertainty of the job market in his industry, and will enable him to move from a city that has seen a major housing market collapse. (Admittedly, most of us Midwesterners probably see dairy farming a risky venture with milk prices as low as they are, but at least Peaks will be able to see his wife and children on a regular basis, something that doesn’t currently happen.)

Other rural transplants see different types of opportunities:

It is easy for urban dwellers to see these opportunities when the urban economy has tanked. Losing one’s life savings and seeing the housing market crash have a funny way of doing that. But I think it goes deeper.  Why is it specifically that Gen Y is recognizing opportunities in rural places?  To answer that I think we have to look at what experts have to say about Gen Y. 

Characteristics of Gen Y

There’s no shortage of social commentators who have created their own lists of Gen Y characteristics.  I’ve written about them myself on several occasions.  (See here and here as examples.)    What I’ve attempted below is to connect these characteristics to why people of this generation might be moving to rural places. 

Looking at the trend in this way suggests to me that the movement is about more than just a reaction to the economy.  The economy may have encouraged young people to rethink their future, but the opportunities in rural places that are attractive to Gen Y have always been there.  Perhaps they just weren’t looking. 

 

Other Resources about Gen Y

Photo Credit:  newagecrap - Flickr

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Housing, In the News, Rural | Comments (3)

Look out Rural! Gen Y’s on the move

December 9th, 2009

In an article titled “Green Acres is the Place to Be,” Gwendolyn Bounds of the Wall Street Journal hints that we might expect to see a movement of Gen Y to rural places.  Motivated by an uncertain economy, the young people Bounds describes in her article are jettisoning their hectic urban lives by purchasing small tracts of land in Rural America.  They are, in Bounds’ eyes, the young modern-day equivalent of “Mr. Douglas” of TV’s “Green Acres” fame. 

But what’s really their motivation?  Were they burned out by the fast paced Park Avenue life, like Mr. Douglas? Partly.  Several do admit to aspiring to a slower pace of life. 

But more significantly, many of these rural migrants feel burned by the Park Avenue investors who contributed to our country’s recent economy collapse by turning investment banking into something more akin to investment gambling.  If there is any single factor linking all the rural migrants together, it would have to be fear over how quickly they saw investments disappear in the recent economic recession. 

For that reason, many of the young people Bounds describes are purchasing land in rural places instead.  They see it as a more stable investment than either the stock market or the overinflated urban housing market from which they emerged. And if things go really bad, at least they’ll still be able to grow their own food.

It’s tough to tell if the people highlighted in the article suggest a growing movement or a temporary reaction, soon to reverse course.  Personally, I lean toward thinking it has a real opportunity to grow into a movement.  But then, I’ve always been known as guy who believes “the glass is half full.”

 

Photo Credit: Jakesmome - Flickr

Tags: , ,
Posted in Agriculture, Economic Development, Gen Y, In the News, Rural, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Rural Midwest: Still in a recession or better than most think?

December 4th, 2009

So which of the following statements accurately describes the economy of rural Midwestern communities?  “Survey shows rural Midwest still in a recession” or “Rural America more prosperous than expected.”

I caught both of the above titled articles Tuesday while mining Twitter for information on rural communities.  Both were released on the same day (Dec. 1), and suggest contradictory opinions about what’s happening in the rural Midwest. 

So what gives?  Is our economy in the tank or are we doing better than most people assume? Could it be both?

Can we trust the sources?

Let me begin by saying that both articles come from reliable sources:

It’s important to note that the University of Illinois study differs in one other significant way - it attempts to measure community prosperity without relying on the income and growth indicators used in most study on the kind.  So, it is possible that the rural Midwest may still struggle with a recession in the upcoming months while remaining more prosperous than most people think.  But what does it mean to be more prosperous than most people think?

(Click on the map to enlarge and see how your community is doing accountring to Isserman’s study. Image Source: LiveScience.com)

Measuring Wealth by “outcomes” rather than “income and growth”

Early on in our work in Miner County, Dr. Daryl Hobbs made sure that we understood that the measures of community success often highlighted in the media don’t tell the whole story.  For instance, just measuring the number of jobs created doesn’t tell the entire story about how a community is doing.  And it definitely doesn’t explain how people feel about the community. 

Dr. Isserman at the University of Illinois seems to be well aware of these factors.  On the university’s website, he is quoted saying:

“Growth and income are the conventional measures of community success,” said U of I economist and planner Andrew Isserman. “But, in talking with farm groups, elected leaders, and rural development professionals from across the country, I realized how few were happy. Some worried about growing too much, and the others fretted about growing too little.”

Instead of income and growth, the study measured community prosperity by analyzing such factors as:

I don’t pretend to be an economist or sociologist (and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night either), but I do know that this is a very different way of thinking.  It’s definitely more in line with what Daryl was telling us, and I like it.  But then I don’t measure my personal prosperity by my bank account alone either. 

While exited to see this new approach to studying communities, I can’t help but wonder if the study didn’t miss one important criterion by not analyzing health trends.  In other words, are people in the community healthy?

I’m sure some in the academia and the economic development worlds will prefer the more traditional use of income and growth to measure community prosperity.  And that’s ok.  I’m just glad to see others like me are looking at the world a little differently.

Image credit: Andrew Isserman, Edward Feser, Drake Warren, University of Illinois, via LiveScience.com

Tags: ,
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, In the News, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (1)

Will Rural America be left behind?

December 3rd, 2009

It’s common for bloggers to capture provocative quotes from newspapers and use them to start a little controversy.  At ReImagine Rural, we’re not about controversy, but I couldn’t let the following quote from Dr. Frank Fear go by without comment:

“Will rural America be left behind?” he asked. “Will small towns, farms and places that have spawned so many things that have made this country great be left behind?” (source:  “Michigan State University prepares to dismantle extension,” Capital Press.)

Dr. Fear, senior associate dean of agriculture and natural resources at Michigan State, made this statement at the National Grange Annual Convention in response to budgetary cuts that could cause the termination of Michigan’s Extension program. 

The article, from which the above quote appears, goes on to note that agriculture in Michigan is currently doing pretty well while the rest of the state’s economy is in shambles.  In doing so, it raises the question, “Does Michigan need to divert the resources from supporting agriculture to other economic development activities?”

I obviously don’t know the intimate details about Michigan, so I can’t offer definitive answers on what they should be doing. 

I hope that we never see the end of Michigan’s extension program, or any states’ for that matter.  From what I know about the goings on in Van Buren County, MI, Extension is a key player in their entrepreneurship initiative.  Removing the funding from Extension to recreate it someplace else would seem a senseless waste of resources.   

As for Fear’s question?  In my opinion, Rural America has been left behind for a long time - at least in our part of the country. 

 

 Other resources
“Dismantling Extension in Michigan” Timothy J. Shaffer (blog) -
Press Release: “Sustain the Legacy. Keep Agriculture and Rural America Vital,” The National Grange 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (1)

Wind Energy Jobs outgrow Coal Jobs

December 1st, 2009

Thanks to a post on The Rural Blog, I stumbled across this old article from the Fortune Magazine blog touting an American Wind Energy study that claims more people are employed in wind energy than in coal mining.  My first reaction was “can this be true?”

With two wind energy companies located in tiny Howard, SD (pop. 1080), I recognize the importance of green job development to the future of Midwestern rural communities.  But I had no idea the wind industry now employs 85,000 workers compared to approximately 81,000 workers in the coal mining industry.

With that in mind, however, I’d like to caution people not to jump to the conclusion that there are more jobs in the wind energy industry than the coal industry.  The statistics speak only to coal mining.  Just as mechanization has led to the transfer of jobs from farming to the agro-industrial sector, the coal industry has also seen the movement of jobs from coal mining to industry related activities like the manufacturing of coal mining equipment.

What I like about the wind energy industry is that it makes business sense to locate the new jobs they create in rural communities close to wind resources.  Howard is a perfect example.

If you are interested in joining the conversation about job creation in wind energy, I’d encourage you to get to know the South Dakota Wind Energy Association.  Today, they are hosting their Annual Meeting in Pierre, SD. 

You can also become an “Advocate Member” of the association by visiting their website.  It’s easy and free. The wind energy industry is not going to save every rural community, but it can create a positive effect on many.

Photo Credit: Green for All - Flickr

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (0)

« Older Entries