{"id":13496,"date":"2020-04-12T10:16:35","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T15:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=13496"},"modified":"2020-04-12T10:27:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T15:27:19","slug":"what-would-you-be-doing-this-weekend-if-the-world-hadnt-fallen-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2020\/04\/what-would-you-be-doing-this-weekend-if-the-world-hadnt-fallen-apart.html","title":{"rendered":"What would you be doing this weekend, if the world hadn\u2019t fallen apart?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Paula Jensen<\/p>\n

I was on my second video conference of the day earlier last week and a peer in the meeting said, \u201cTime-out! I need to ask everyone a question.\u201d We all agreed, and he said, \u201cWhat would you be doing this weekend, if the world hadn\u2019t fallen apart?\u201d Some people answered by saying they would be meeting with friends or family for a meal. Others offered special events like getting fitted for their wedding dress. Many mentioned normal things — laundry, cooking, kids, housework, or binge-watching Netflix. But, whatever the answer, we all agreed the way we are living and working today is much different than one month ago.<\/p>\n

So, what if I changed that question just a bit and asked you, \u201cHow is your community doing after the world fell apart?\u201d<\/p>\n

Things are changing quickly around us — what we knew to be true yesterday, might not be true today and our tomorrow is unclear. And, I’m told change is something rural communities don\u2019t do very well.<\/p>\n

Rural communities are often publicly criticized for being slow to change. We prove that point by making disparaging remarks about our own hometowns and are quick to reject new ways of getting things done. Too often people around us say, \u201cWe\u2019re fine the way we are.\u201d Those actions lead the world to believe we are in a holding pattern. It sends a negative message that rural communities are not worthy of investment. And, if those mindsets are believed locally it leads toward a path of decline.<\/p>\n

My life’s work is focused on empowering and connecting rural communities. To support that work, I recently learned a new facilitation practice called Strategic Doing<\/a>. It is based on four principles of collaborative action that can lead to change in our organizations, communities, and society. We believe… 1) we have a responsibility to build a prosperous sustainable future for ourselves and future generations; 2) no individual, organization or place can build that future alone; 3) open, honest, focused and caring collaboration among diverse participants is the path to accomplishing clear, valuable, shared outcomes; and 4) in doing, not just talking – in alignment with our beliefs.<\/p>\n

When I think about rural’s relationship with change, the Strategic Doing practice excites me! It has the potential to help diverse groups of people create lasting change through a new way of working together. Strategic Doing isn\u2019t about fixing the old system \u2013 it\u2019s about designing what\u2019s next based on what is valued most!<\/p>\n

And, what I discovered in the past few weeks, because of the shifts due to the pandemic, has been quite the opposite of the criticism \u2013 rural is slow to change. I have observed rural communities, with well-connected economic development professionals and progressive local leadership, respond quickly to learn new technology so they could connect proactively with numerous partners to meet the immediate and future needs of the community. Rural leaders and their partners are naturally stepping into pieces of the Strategic Doing process to ask the questions: What could we do? What should we do? What will we do? and Who will do it?<\/p>\n

The real test for all of us in rural communities will be based on how we continue to embrace change — new ideas, new supportive practices, new technology, new leaders and new ways to lead — after the pandemic has gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Paula Jensen I was on my second video conference of the day earlier last week and a peer in the meeting said, \u201cTime-out! I need to ask everyone a question.\u201d We all agreed, and he said, \u201cWhat would you be doing this weekend, if the world hadn\u2019t fallen apart?\u201d Some people answered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":12663,"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":[9,5,8],"tags":[361,259],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Paula-Jensen.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13496"}],"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=13496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13508,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13496\/revisions\/13508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}