{"id":12691,"date":"2019-05-26T06:05:54","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T11:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=12691"},"modified":"2019-04-28T13:49:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T18:49:41","slug":"we-tried-that-before-and-it-didnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2019\/05\/we-tried-that-before-and-it-didnt-work.html","title":{"rendered":"We tried that before and it didn\u2019t work!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We tried it once. Does that mean we can never try it again? Photo by Becky McCray.<\/p><\/div>\n

Guest Post by Paula Jensen<\/h2>\n

When was the last time you heard someone say, \u201cWe tried that before and it didn\u2019t work!<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 In my early days as a local leader those words spoken by an experienced leader often stopped me in my tracks. Their words indicated to me that they had the experience of knowing what worked and what didn\u2019t work in the community.\u00a0 Sometimes I would ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d and rarely get a strong explanation about the failure that occurred, which left me determined to learn more.<\/p>\n

My confidence as a leader has grown over the years and I have gained much more experience. Now when someone says, \u201cWe tried that before and it didn\u2019t work!<\/em>\u201d my response is\u2026\u201dand, what did you learn from that<\/em>?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learning about failed attempts, missed opportunities, and community history requires honest and focused conversations with local leaders. I strongly believe that as current leaders, we must know the history of things tried in our community, the work that has been accomplished and why decisions were made.\u00a0 So often, the reason history repeats itself is that leaders don\u2019t own their part in the community\u2019s history. We must look back and own our part of history to move ahead.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin by asking a question \u2013 How do we start an honest and focused conversation with community leaders about what has been learned in our past?<\/p>\n

4 Steps to Learn from “We Tried That Once!”<\/h1>\n

There is an art to initiating and carrying out a conversation that creates positive results.\u00a0 Here is a 4-step method that enables your conversation to flow from surface to depth. You can lead this conversation through a series of questions at these four levels:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Step 1. Objective Level<\/strong> \u2013 Begin with the data, facts, and external reality.<\/strong> Ask your conversation participant(s), \u201cWhat did you actually see, hear or read?<\/em>\u201d or \u201cWhat surprised you?<\/em>\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Step 2. Reflective Level<\/strong> \u2013 Next, ask for immediate personal reactions, internal responses,<\/strong> emotions or feelings, hidden images, and associations with the facts you discussed in step one. Ask your conversation participant(s), \u201cWhat was your gut reaction?<\/em>\u201d or \u201cWhat were your biggest frustrations?\u201d\u00a0<\/em>or \u201cWhat has worked well?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
  • Step 3. Interpretive Level<\/strong> \u2013 Then, draw out meaning, values, significance, and implications.<\/strong> Ask your conversation participant(s), \u201cWhat are your hopes and dreams?<\/em>\u201d or \u201cWhat would you say were your most significant contributions?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n
  • Step 4. Decisional Level<\/strong> \u2013 Lastly, bring the conversation to a close, seeking resolution and enabling the participants to make decisions about the future.<\/strong> Ask your conversation participant(s), \u201cWhat do you think we should do?<\/em>\u201d or \u201cWhat steps could we take to move forward?\u201d\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0\u201cWho else should be involved in local leadership?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The results of focused conversations can help develop awareness to accept the things that have been done in the past and follow the lessons learned from each situation to move our work forward. When a leader starts asking \u201cHow can we learn from this?\u201d, automatically it affects the future of the community. Having focused conversations is a transformational process that starts with one person wanting to learn more and ends with moving toward a more positive future by learning from the past.<\/p>\n

    As a local leader I want to empower younger generations to take their ideas and act on them. I want to be asked about successes and failures from the past. And lastly \u2013 I, Paula Jensen, vow to never say the words, \u201cWe tried that before and it didn\u2019t work<\/em>!\u201d #Iamrural<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Guest Post by Paula Jensen When was the last time you heard someone say, \u201cWe tried that before and it didn\u2019t work!\u201d\u00a0 In my early days as a local leader those words spoken by an experienced leader often stopped me in my tracks. Their words indicated to me that they had the experience of knowing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":11655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,5,8],"tags":[361,371,169,100,192,134,360,437],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Alva-empty-lot-pop-up-market.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13139,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12691\/revisions\/13139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}