How Local Leaders And Officials Can Become Venture Capitalists Of New Ideas

“How can you protect your community from failure while being open to new ideas?” Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town answer an essential question.

By Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town

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Photo: Camillo Goes/Unsplash

We’re living through a shift in power, to one that is more open to participation by people outside of our formal organization. 

For local leaders and officials, it’s hard to imagine how this will work, being more open to ideas from outside the leadership. How you can protect your community from failure while being open to new ideas?

We have a simple way of thinking that can help. Think of yourself as the Venture Capitalists of New Ideas. 

What do Venture Capitalists do? A really simple view of it is they find out about as many new ideas as they can, but they don’t invest in them all. They’re more likely to encourage entrepreneurs and help them build their networks than to invest money in their businesses. They only invest in business ideas that are working well in early tests. 

You can adapt that mindset: 

Find out everything that’s going on, and not just entrepreneurial ideas but all kinds of things people are doing for your community. Publicly ask people what new ideas they’re working on. 

Encourage all of them. Help them Build Connections from your extensive network of resources. 

And then invest your limited resources only in the ideas that are doing well in testing. 

This is freeing for officials. You can refocus how you listen to people.

You become resources for people with ideas, instead of just listening and not being able to act upon it.

Local elected and appointed leaders can learn more practical steps in our video: Idea Friendly Officials and Boards. Learn the Idea Friendly secrets to:

• Look at a new way to see your role as an official, one that puts you in the center of the network

• Discover your superpower as an official and put your connections to work for you

• Turn public gripe sessions into crowdsourcing events that mobilize people into action

• Learn the one question that turns even bad ideas into something positive

Photo: Yana Lysenko/Unsplash

How Local Businesses Build Empathy, And What That Means For Rural Communities

“Our communities could use more empathy. Doing business with each other can help us build empathy.” Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town see potential in visiting the corner store.

By Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town

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Photo: Brooke Cagle/Unsplash

I’ve been thinking lately how many large challenges we face as a society that come down to not thinking from other people’s perspectives.

Our communities could use more empathy. Doing business with each other can help us build empathy. 

Selling something requires us to think about other people. We have to think about what other people will like, what they will buy. That is thinking from another person’s perspective.

In my years as retail store owner, I remember putting myself in my customers’ place, trying to understand what they might want to buy this week. 

Buyers also can potentially improve their empathy when they realize that local sellers offer something that the buyers value enough to purchase. That’s even more important when the buyers and sellers come from different groups, like when a local farmer wanders through the Hispanic grocery and finds something new to try. 

Businesses are essential third places where people can connect with each other. Your first place is your home, your second place is your work. Your third places are where you go to be with other people. 

Retail businesses can be a third place, too. Ever go to the grocery store to buy 3 things but it took half an hour because you stopped to talk to people? Community happens when people talk to each other!  

We’re rebuilding social capital while we’re chatting with friends or with a clerk over our purchase.

That doesn’t happen when people buy online. It has to be in person. 

All good reasons why local commerce builds strong communities. 

Photo: John Crozier/Unsplash

Practical Steps To Overcome Opposition To New Residents

“When you do hear complaints, it’s ok to gently point out that your town is open to everyone. People of all ages, all ethnicities, all backgrounds, all incomes. People who are new in town and people who have been here for generations. Our town is changing all the time because it is a living community of people.” Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town are open to newcomers.

By Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town

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Photo: Meg Boulden/Unsplash

Welcoming new residents means dealing with those members of your community who are not so open to new people moving in. 

Practical step 1: Magnify stories of people being welcoming 

Because it’s uncomfortable when you hear complaints about new residents moving in, you remember it. 

You don’t remember the thousand and one ways local people are being welcoming, because you never see most of them. 

The woman who makes cookies for her new neighbor’s kids. 

The man who stops to help someone carry their heavy moving boxes. 

The people who go out of their way to invite a newcomer to an event, then stop by to pick them up. 

When you do hear those stories, magnify them. Make sure everyone knows it’s normal and expected to welcome new people. 

Practical step 2: Hold well-publicized welcome events

Another way to make sure everyone knows it’s normal and expected to welcome new people, is to hold welcome events for newcomers and publicize them. 

Bennettsville, South Carolina, hosted regular gatherings of newcomers to learn more about them, and for the new residents to learn more about Bennettsville. 

Officials answered questions like what to do with bulky garbage, how the electric bill works and how to submit articles to the local paper. 

New residents shared their stories. They found places where they could volunteer and heard ideas about helping the downtown.

The secret to gathering the newcomers was to have the real estate agents who sold houses to them personally invite them. They could also ask the city to invite people who made new utility deposits, or check with the library so they can invite people who recently applied for a library card. Brainstorm more ways to find your own new residents. 

When you hear complaints

When you do hear complaints, it’s ok to gently point out that your town is open to everyone. People of all ages, all ethnicities, all backgrounds, all incomes. People who are new in town and people who have been here for generations.

Our town is changing all the time because it is a living community of people. 

And new people in your town are part of the change. They bring with them new ways of doing things, and new ideas. 

We are valuing the people who are here now. Together, we’re creating the town we want to live in, one small step at a time. 

Photo: Bryan Hanson/Unsplash