Go Along to Get Along Leads to More of the Same

GREAT LEADERSHIP TAKES INTENTIONALITY… IT MEANS RELENTLESS GROWTH

While discussing an innovative partnership opportunity in a meeting a few weeks ago, one of the other participants shared that they had checked with their group’s state organization to learn that there has never been a successful example of this type of partnership. I immediately thought to myself, how many examples did they give you of organizations that have died on the vine from doing the same ol’ same ol’. What actually came out of my mouth was, “good”.

My wife recently painted a mural for my office that includes one of my favorite leadership quotes from Jenni Catron. “Great leadership is rare because it takes work. It takes intentionality. It requires sacrifice. It takes resolve. It involves heartaches, disappointment and mistakes. It requires apologies. It entails a daily dose of humility. It means relentless growth and frequent failure.”

I guess that’s just me. I am not interested in what others are doing or what they think works or doesn’t. In response to that other participant, in addition to “good” I added that ten years ago the experts (“they”) said that our organization’s partnership model would never work. Ten years later, organizations that were once bigger than ours are looking at drastic changes in their operations and others have flatlined for the better part of a decade. Meanwhile our organization is leveraging resources from a multi-county regional partnership with numerous additional counties desiring to join the partnership. Bragging? No. Merely stating facts. Tell me again it can’t be done.

It’s one of the most disheartening parts of my job. Regularly listening to people who regurgitate excuse after excuse about why something won’t work. Why it won’t work? How about how can we make it work? Why is it that so many communities and organizations are hanging on so tight to their piece of an ever shrinking pie instead of finding innovative ways to grow the pie? Worse yet, hanging on while an opportunity to grow the pie smacks them in the face. One of my colleagues astutely added the following about the meeting, “I feel like we are in a boat in the middle of the lake and the other two organizations are drowning. We throw them a life preserver but they don’t take the red one because they wanted the blue one.”

Speaking of facts, not the facts we want to see but the cold hard facts; let’s examine them. Currently over 25% of storefronts (first floor only) in this particular community’s central business district are empty. Oddly, people from outside the community often remark about the viability of this district. In reality, the community has a significantly economically underutilized area that is not producing revenue for taxing jurisdictions at an appropriate level. Why does that not seem to catalyze the necessary action?

Ever been in a similar situation? If I just had a dollar for every time I have said these two phrases… “go along to get along” and “we can’t seem to get out of our own way.” Why is that so frustrating, what’s the big deal? What’s at stake? In rural America; the very existence of our communities.

I spend a lot of time working with rural communities and I hear many of the same struggles. More and more buildings are going dark. Jobs are being lost and the population is shrinking. Student populations are down and revenues are sliding. Bring them home and shop local campaigns are prevalent. Amidst this decline what are most leaders doing? Hanging on to the ever shrinking pie as if their very lives depend on it. No regard for innovative thinking. “They” say it can’t be done so it must be so.

In my hometown, a group of people have been meeting over the last few months to discuss the “what if” scenarios. What if we could partner together? What if we could leverage limited resources? What if we could change our strategy all together to be more impactful? After all, you know what they say about doing the same things over and over and expecting different results…

“You see things; you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?” - George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

We have been able to overcome the traditional challenges to create a successful regional economic development partnership and have been discussing the same model for other community development agencies. Innovative partnerships designed around recent industry changes in all three disciplines and meant to challenge conventional practices. A streamlined customer-driven approach leading to greater efficiencies while leveraging limited resources. What if…

Corey J Mehaffy, CEO

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