Is Your Town Suspicious of New Ideas? Here’s How You Can Change That.

Which kind of town would you rather live in?

A town where… when you bring up a new idea, other people hit you with negativity and stubborn pessimism.

Other people seem to only see the negatives in the town.

People tell you “we tried that already,” and “that’s not how we do things here.” People ask, “why should we listen to you? Your last idea didn’t work.”

This has happened to you so often that you start to play it out in your head. Hearing the negative voices in your mind, you hesitate to bring up ideas any more.

Or, an idea-friendly town where… when you bring up a new idea, other people’s attitudes are generally positive.

You can feel this even before you bring up an idea because your town shows its attitude with awards for ideas, public recognition of experiments, and plans that allow for new projects and ideas to come up.

You’re not alone, because connections throughout the community mean lots of people bring up ideas, and connect with each other to work on them.

You can try a small-scale version of your idea in an innovative environment with small-scale stores, co-working spaces and pop-up opportunities. Lots of experiments are always going on, and both successes and failures are expected.

Believe it or not, there is a framework, a set of practical steps you can take to make your town more Idea Friendly.

It is possible to change attitudes, draw a crowd of supporters, improve the environment and create more connections, no matter what the pessimists say or do.

It all adds up to creating the kind of town you want to live in. Research has shown that being open to new ideas is tied to our economic future.

So, how can we open up our towns to new ideas?

In our latest Save Your Town webinar later this month, Deb and I will share the Idea Friendly framework and provide real-world examples of small town people already putting it into action.

We’ll share the Idea Friendly method: Gather Your Crowd, Build Connections and Take Small Steps.

We’ll share real-world examples of ways people have successfully applied the Idea Friendly concepts to shape a better future for their towns.

Register now at saveyour.town/ideafriendlywebinar/