Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Do you have a coach?

August 4th, 2010

I saw a post by Randi Buckley, leadership, partnership and team coach, the other day on Facebook.  She shared a video in which Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, tells about the importance of a coach.  This video is one in series of videos that Fortune magazine put together about the best advice different CEO’s, billionaires, entrepreneurs, NBA stars, etc. have received during their careers. 

One day a board member came up to Eric Schmidt and said, “You need a coach.”  A little taken a-back, Eric replied, “I don’t need a coach!  I’m an established CEO, why would I need a coach? Is something wrong?”   “No,” said the board member, “Everyone needs a coach.”

 

 

Coaches are not just for athletes.  Coaches see what you are working towards and do their very best to help you reach that goal.  Coaches help you stay on track and can see the mistakes you cannot, because they are coming at your goal from another angle.  As Eric says in the video, “The one thing people are not good at is seeing themselves as others see them; a coach really helps with that.”

Do you have a coach?

Can’t view the video?  Click here to view it on the original website.

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Are You Promoting a Ghost Town?

July 6th, 2010

In Miner County, we are having a photo contest, but this is no ordinary photo contest.  We have some amazing photographers in Miner County, and we want to be able to showcase their talent.  By hosting the contest via Flickr.com and printing winners in the county paper, we are showing off their talent both locally and globally.   But, that is not all.

The goal of our work through the Rural Learning Center and this blog is to give a new image to vibrant, rural communities.  Besides showing off local talent, we want to show to the world what a great community Miner County is to live in.  We want to show that there is more to this place than beautiful prairie vistas and wildlife.

With the help of our local photo club and newspaper, we strategically chose three contest topics that would promote pictures with people enjoying themselves.  Turns out, we are not alone in this strategy.

According to Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival, “Putting people in your pictures gives you instant social proof. It draws your potential visitor into the story.”  She goes on to point out that often times tourism websites post pictures of lots of wonderful things, but the pictures are void of any people.  She warns that these websites start to advertise “ghost towns” instead of vibrant communities.  She gives two examples in her post.  While these photos are not the type of professional photos a community would use for advertising, they illustrate the importance of people in photos.

The first picture is a beautiful hotel lobby, but not a person in sight.  You only see the stained glass skylight and the grand staircase.  Her next picture is of the exact same lobby, but with about 7 people walking and sitting throughout the room.  The difference is huge. 

In her second example we see an arching palm tree overlooking blue waters and a lighthouse in the background.  Directly below the first picture we see another palm tree on the same beach, but with a father and son feeding seagulls.  Becky says, “Suddenly, there is a human story, an activity, an interest.  A photo with people is able to tell a story. That’s a story the thing alone could never provide.”

Communities want to show off the “things” that make it great: the park, the stores, the great restaurant.  But, when you ask, people often say that the people themselves are the best part of living there.  All of the “things” are great, but if you can’t showcase the people enjoying those parks, stores, or restaurants, others won’t be able to see it either.

West Central Initiative Foundation of Minnesota had the same idea for their photo contest.  They challenged their photo contest participants, “Show us what YOU think will make a difference to the future of west central Minnesota.”  I’m happy to report that just about half of the pictures submitted so far feature the people of west central Minnesota.

Is your community promoting a ghost town or a vibrant place to live?  If you could enter one of these two contests, what would you say is the future of your community?

 

Photo:  Becky McCray on Flickr

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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

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Building the Case: Greening Our Schools

June 4th, 2010

Going to school at Howard High was pretty good.  The building was built in 1969 and in fairly good shape for a building now in its 40’s; almost every classroom had a window and the library had skylights, but the temperature controls weren’t quite right and often window blinds were shut tight.  I didn’t particularly enjoy the building, but it wasn’t bad and could have been much worse. 

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) says the average American spends 90% of their day indoors.  Often little thought is put into how the built environment impacts our daily routine.  As a socially minded architecture student, I think good buildings should enhance our daily lives and not only be available to those with a fist full of cash.  I start to wonder if it really is that unrealistic to build green schools in rural areas. 

Currently there are numerous schools being housed in what appear to be tin sheds or leftover trailers.  When I hear that “green” schools improve the health of teachers and students, raise test scores and decrease student absences, I ask myself why our schools aren’t doing more to help our students.

The USGBC defines green schools as, “… a school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money.”

According to Air Quality Sciences, Inc, Turner Construction, and the USGBC-Green Schools, there are many reasons why schools should be built using “green” practices.

 In our rural school districts, it can be hard to find enough money for textbooks, let alone a new building.  But when given the opportunity, are we providing our students and teachers with the best possible opportunities to succeed?

 If the statistics I found are correct, this means our decision to build schools goes far beyond financial or environmental factors. 

 Stay tuned next week for a post looking at different case studies about rural “green” schools.

 Photo:  Howard High School in Howard, SD

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Broadband: should you need to want it to get it?

March 25th, 2010

Dupree, SD (pop. 434) made the news last Tuesday.  The town’s mayor is quoted in a Slate magazine article saying that the community is 30 years behind the times and that the town residents probably aren’t interested enough in broadband internet to pay for it. 

That’s not the kind of inspiration   community residents usually want to hear coming from their mayor.  But in fairness to the mayor, I suspect he was quoted a bit out of context.  I reach that conclusion because the author of the article uses Dupree as a case study in the argument against bringing broadband to rural communities.

The Argument against Broadband

Most people are aware that the Federal government is implementing a program that would help bring broadband to rural areas previously lacking it.  Completing the task of wiring Rural America with ground-based broadband could cost the feds as much as $24 billion; but the plan is generally well supported.

Chris Wilson, the author of “What’s wrong with the FCC’s plan to bring high-speed Internet access to rural America,” makes the case that there are better places to invest this money.  In doing so, he hides behind the statement, “Before the federal government invests billions in extending high-speed Internet to such areas, it ought to make sure people want it-and are ready for it.”

Do Rural Communities Need Broadband?

Do we want it and are we ready for it?  Using these questions as the basis for one’s argument against broadband is a bit like asking, “Do you want healthier foods and are you ready it for them?”  Well maybe, maybe not.  But does that mean they shouldn’t be available to everyone? 

Yes, I know that analogy is a bit cheesy, but the point is broadband internet is a vital part of every community’s infrastructure.  Without it, I doubt rural communities have the ability to survive.  Wilson may be willing to write off some rural communities because he doesn’t think they are worth it, but he shouldn’t hide behind the argument that rural residents don’t want it.

It’s about raising awareness

A couple weeks ago, I shared that Lindsey and I have been hosting a series of social media classes in Howard.  Our reasons are many, but primary among them is the idea that we need to encourage local residents and business owners to use social media more effectively as an economic development strategy for Miner County.  That starts with teaching them how to use it at all. We’ve had a fun and exhausting time with these classes, but just yesterday we were reminded again why we’re really doing it. 

We had lunch will a local business owner who has been developing a social media strategy for her business as well as two community organizations she’s involved in.  She’s using Facebook, and recently generated some buzz by mentioning a new product line on the Miner County Facebook Page.  The bottom line is social media (and the broadband access that’s needed to facilitate its use) encouraged sales at a local business.    That was good for the business and good for the community. 

We’re lucky in Howard, SD and most of Miner County, SD to already have pretty good broadband technology.  It would easy for me to say, I’ve got mine, so I don’t care about you.  But I won’t.  And I hope you won’t either.

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Does Urban respect Rural (and vice versa)?

February 24th, 2010

With the Olympic Games pitting the United States and Canadian athletes and fans against each other, South Dakota native Tom Brokaw offered a smart commentary on the relationship between our two great countries.   His comments, displayed in the video embedded below, focus on the commonalities that exist between our countries.  The U.S. is lucky to have such good neighbors.

 

 Source location:  “Tom Brokaw explains Canada to Americans,” J9406051’s Channel on YouTube,

 

Social, Economic, and Political.  Brokaw shows the connections between run deep.  Watching the video, I think most Americans understand that the U.S. and Canada need each other for continued prosperity. 

Sadly, I’m not sure that same level of respect exists between urban and rural Americans.  Being online as much as I am, I see a lot of news reports, blog posts, and comments suggesting Rural America’s only significant value is that it provides cheap food for cities — where the real economic activity gets done.  Perhaps my take on this issue is still jaded by the recent negativity associated the Hazelton, ND story, but I don’t think I’m far off. 

 

So what can be done about this lack of respect?

Respect is a two-way street, and Rural America could show respect by getting over some of the stereotypes we hold about urban culture.  That’s probably a good place to start.

I also wonder if Tom Brokaw could be part of the solution.  After all, he’s a product of rural South Dakota and has a pretty good feel for both rural and urban people.  Perhaps a video production like the U.S.- Canadian piece would help raise awareness of this issue.

But at the end of the day, videos, while helpful, seldom produce transformative, long-term results.

To accomplish lasting change, we may want to consider a model being developed by Minnesota Rural Partners called Rurb.MN.  The project seeks to generate conversation about rural-urban connections with the goal of stimulating economic growth and innovation. 

I encourage you to check out this blog post describing the project in greater detail.  I need to dig into the project in greater detail myself and have fired off an e-mail with a few questions.

I hope the project’s impacts will be substantial and transformative; that’s what is really needed for rural and urban communities.

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10 Reasons “Third Places” matter to Rural Communities

January 26th, 2010

Admittedly, I go a little overboard on emphasizing the importance of “third places” to the future of rural communities, but my gut tells me they play a more vital role in the social and economic wellbeing of our rural communities than most people give them credit for.   

For those who haven’t heard of them before, third places are where people meet and socialize outside of their homes (first places) and their work (second places). Sociologist Ray Oldenburg is credited with drawing attention to third places through his influential book, The Great Good Place.  Back in January 2009, I wrote this post titled “Does your Community need a Coffee Shop and other Third Places?”  It’s still one of our more popular posts here at Reimagine Rural.    

Lacking in any of my previous writing about third places, however, is a comprehensive explanation of how third places impact the economic wellbeing of small, rural communities - or any community for that matter.  For that reason, I’ve produced the following resource guide to illuminate why rural communities must get serious about their efforts to develop strong third places in their communities. 

10 Reasons Third Places Matter to Rural Communities

1. Third places are cool…and rural places could stand a little cool. It’s no secret that young people today crave “cool” environments to live and hang out. What receives less attention, however, is research that suggests Gen Yers often choose where to live before seeking permanent employment; and that “coolness” plays a role in this decision making process. If true, this tells us that for rural communities to attract young people, they need to develop some cool places young people crave. And what better way to do it than by creating a place where young and old can get together. (Another article on the subject can be found here.)

2. Third places introduce new people to the community. I’ve noted in previous posts, how important it is for new residents and visitors to feel welcomed by a community.  Wall Street Journal writer Gwendolyn Bounds offers a personal perspective of how Guinans, an Irish pub, welcomed her into the Garrison, NY community and played a critical role in her choice to move there. As Bounds came to frequent the pub, “regulars” at Guinans taught her (a former NYC resident) a great deal about how to live in a rural community (i.e. use a chain saw, fix the plumbing, and deal with the snow). It’s possible that new residents can become a part of a community without a third place, but third places seem to make the process a lot easier.

3. Third Places improve the quality of life in a community. Quality of life means different things to different people. Some say quality of life requires a community to have a strong “night life.” Other, say it requires safe environments. But as this research suggests, people who live in communities with third places perceive the quality of life in their community as being higher than those who live without them.

4. Third Places are good for tourism. When people go on vacation they are typically looking for a unique experience. More and more, they also want that experience to be authentic. In other words, they want to get a sense of a community’s character, rather than an image developed by a corporate marketing department. If your community has a scenic wonder like the Grand Canyon, or man-made attraction like the Mall of America, you may not need to worry about a third place. But as tourism expert Roger Brooks of Destination Development Inc. notes, third places are a part of each community’s “brand” and can become places where locals and visitors meet each other. If you want further proof on the importance of third places to tourism, just look at what the Irish pub has done for tourism in Ireland.

5. Third places can help improve the business climate in your small town. Increasingly entrepreneurs need to work from anywhere and at anytime. That’s why cell service, broadband internet, and wifi accessibility are vital infrastructure to any rural community. But does your community have a place where entrepreneurs can meet with clients and business partners, take advantage of technology, and remain connected to the office? If not, your community may be frustrating entrepreneurs more than you realize.

6. Third places stimulate creativity. I work from home quite a bit. Sometimes, the solitude becomes deafening, and I need to be around people. I’ve discovered that in addition to combating isolation, third places help stimulate both my productivity and creativity. Surprisingly, I’m not alone. I recently learned that J.K. Rowlings turns to cafés for inspiration while writing her monumental Harry Potter books. Now she’s creative! (And just think what would happen if a third place in your community inspired the next Harry Potter series.)

7. Third Places help people age in place. Back in the 1990s, the Rural Learning Center focused on developing senior housing options (like independent and assisted living) in our community because we learned that helping seniors age in place was important to their quality of life. F. Kaid Benfield recognized that same issue in this blog post where he emphasized that communities who follow smart growth principles should develop third places for seniors that they can walk to. The point here is that seniors need to be active and engaged. That could be accomplished with a senior citizens facility. But a more efficient use of resources would involve developing third places where all generations visit.

8. Third Places can help create jobs.  Cooltown Studios has published numerous blogs posts about third places in urban areas.  I particularly like this post, which highlights how third places help build conversations that lead to entrepreneurial thinking, a requirement for growing our economy.   On one hand, saying that third places lead to job growth is a bit abstract for me, but I do believe it’s a good reminder that entrepreneurs need places to network and build conversations in order to generate new ideas that will hopefully lead to job growth. 

9. Third Places will never be replaced by social networking sites like Facebook. There’s a school of thought suggesting that physical third places are being replaced by virtual ones. In other words, Facebook is the new third place. Now let me be clear: I believe rural communities should consider developing an online social networking strategy as a part of their economic development work. It’s a great way to connect with people both inside and outside your community. But as Mary Newsom writes on Citiwire: online social networks as third places are “mere metaphors for the real thing.”

10. Third Places help build conversation …. and conversation leads to trust. One of the beautiful things about quality third places is that they bring together people of all socio-economic backgrounds. As conversation emerges in a third place, people begin to know, understand, and trust each other. Sociologists call this bridging social capital and have recognized its importance in community and economic development in rural places. (As this paper suggest, bridging social capital is the entry point for strengthening your community socially and economically.) On a basic level, most of us can appreciate that whenever people come together for open conversation, they begin to trust each other. And when people trust each other, it’s a lot easier to get things done in our communities.

I’ve been thinking and writing about the importance of third places in rural communities for a couple years now, and I’ve really noticed the growth of good resources being published online. In addition to sharing some of those resources as links above, I’ve attempted to save my favorites to my Delicious account.  Even though I’ve saved over 60 recourses, I know the list is incomplete. 

That’s why I’d like to ask for your help.  Feel free to check out my list of favorites on Delicious, but just as important, please share your favorites with me.  And don’t think that my “10 Reasons Third Places are important to Rural Communities” list above is complete either.  I plan to revise the list in the near future, and include your thoughts and new discoveries in it.

 

Photo Credits:

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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

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What’s in it for me?

November 13th, 2009

Yesterday, we presented readers with a basic economic question:  Do our rural communities have enough resources to invest in being attractive to both Boomers and Millennials?   I raised it after reading an article from Northern Great Plains, Inc.’s newsletter, which provides great tips for creating communities that are more attractive to young people (who we call Millennials).

Personally, I don’t think we have the luxury of creating communities that are attractive to everyone.  Communities need to figure who is the best target market (boomers or millennials) and develop a plan that creates a product these individuals want.  

That said, I think it’s a mistake to ignore the community’s current residents.  How would you like it if you were a senior living in a rural community that only did things for young people?

Can we have our cake and eat it too? 

Sounds like I want to have it both ways, and in a way I do.  What I’m saying is if your community development strategy is going to focus on attracting new young residents, just don’t forget about the people who are already living there. 

To clarify, I’ve created the following list of ways that I think this can occur.

4 ways to include everyone

1. Develop community events that appeal to people of all ages. For example, if you want to appeal to a younger demographic by hosting a festival, consider how it will be attractive to all generations.

2. Help older generations learn how to use social media tools. Many communities are building marketing strategies around Facebook because the tool has appeal with younger generation. You can help bridge this gap by holding some classes that help people create their own Facebook profiles.

3. Create places where people of all generations can gather for informal conversation. It’s that third place concept that we’ve talked about so much. If you are working to attract young people, you may want to develop a coffee shop; but make sure that it still has appeal to older generations as well.

4. Encourage leadership of all ages. If all ages are represented on the city council, county commission, and the commercial/community club boards, then the decisions made are more likely to benefit all age groups

So keep in mind it’s perfectly acceptable for communities to develop projects and activities that focus on a specific group, like millennials.  But at the end of the day, these projects and activities will be more successful if the existing residents can answer “What’s in it for me?”

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Miller, SD has got Facebook figured out

October 13th, 2009

I’m always on the lookout for rural communities that are using social media to build conversations.  Recently, I found a great example with Miller, SD. 

Joe Fiala and Amy Howard of On Hand Development Corp. launched the Miller, SD Facebook page on Sept. 24, 2009.  Within weeks they built over 500 fans, which is very impressive in a community with a population of approximately 1530 people. 

Amy Howard and Joe Fiala, On Hand Dev. Corp.

What has impressed me more than the number of fans is how people are interacting on the page.  Lots of people start Facebook pages, but not many do a good job of generating conversations with their fan base. 

Joe and Amy do.  They even have people who have moved away from the community saying how much they miss the community.  Impressive.

With that in mind, I contacted Joe to find out what’s the secret sauce in his recipe.  The following interview  with Joe is the result. 

 

Why did you create a Facebook page for the community of Miller?  Does it connect to your organization’s goals? 

We were looking for ways to engage our community utilizing the internet beyond our “regular” website. Facebook is a way to easily interact with people living in Miller, people that used to live in here, and people that had visited our town.

Using Facebook helps us reach our goals as a business development organization because we can showcase our community and lifestyle. It allows us to communicate more effectively with the young adults that will be the next generation of business owners in town.

 

One of the things that impresses me about your page is number of people commenting.  What have you done to try to create “conversations” on your Facebook page?

We have made a conscious effort to create posts that garner comments from the fans. We’ve tried to post items that people will find interesting, but we also ask questions within the post.

Our partnership with our local newspaper, the Miller Press, has been effective too. They have a “Talk on Main Street” question each week in the paper. We asked if we could address that same question on the Facebook page and they agreed.

 

Any future plans for your page? 

As we have events in Miller like the opening weekend of pheasant season, the Christmas on the Prairie celebration, and the 4th of July festivities, we will post pictures of the events.

We will also listen to our fans to see what items they would like us to post.  Our page is set up so that fans can post items and we are hoping that they will take advantage of this and add to our content.

 

We constantly hear how social media tools are sucking up work time and decreasing productivity.  How much time do you spend each week using Facebook? 

Our goal is to post an item on every work day, whether it is an announcement, a picture, or a question. So far, we probably average about 10 minutes per day.

This is not much time and we are reaching an audience of over 500 people that have already shown interest in being involved in our conversation. For a small town, that is an amazing amount of publicity for so little time involved.

 

Why did you choose Facebook as a social networking tool over others tools like blogging, Twitter, MySpace, etc…?

Facebook lends itself very well to holding a community conversation. It allows short posts, pictures, and comments. All of these actions are very easy to do.

However, the deciding factor was that a large majority of young adults and high school students use Facebook.

We are planning to incorporate a blog as part of our website communication tools. This will allow us to post articles that are too long for Facebook to handle efficiently.

 

Note:  Wow!  Working with the local newspaper is a great idea.  And if you go to their page you will see that they do a nice job of asking questions that engage their fans.  (You don’t have to join Facebook to view the Miller, SD Facebook Page.  Check it out by clicking here. )

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