WHAT IS THE FUTURE YOU WANT TO CREATE
FOR LUNENBURG COUNTY?
Local people leading.
Fall in love with the opportunities of living and working here.
Fall in love with the opportunities of living and working here.
>WE'RE ACTIVELY SEEKING OUT MORE CORE TEAM MEMBERS, COULD THAT BE YOU?
Our regular meetings serve to challenge and inspire each of us. We invite you to attend a meeting or three to “try us out” – we’re not for everyone. We aren’t all friends, we view the world very differently and we’ve had to work through those differences on many occasions.
This hasn’t been easy, sticking together takes effort. Everyone around our table believes they get more out of the meetings than they put in. After a few meetings we’ll have a frank conversation about how we all feel about your “fit”.
This hasn’t been easy, sticking together takes effort. Everyone around our table believes they get more out of the meetings than they put in. After a few meetings we’ll have a frank conversation about how we all feel about your “fit”.
>WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT?
You will be asked to share the experience you have from all facets of your life, personal and professional along with your open mind. You will be working for the overall benefit of
Lunenburg County. You’ll be asked to think differently, to challenge yourself to do things in new ways, to jump into and embrace uncertainty and to evaluate and learn along the way. There is no finish line, no pre-determined path. It’s about learning from failure, not getting it right the first time. This is difficult work but the strength of the relationships we build with each other and the richness of our learning will be your reward.
Lunenburg County. You’ll be asked to think differently, to challenge yourself to do things in new ways, to jump into and embrace uncertainty and to evaluate and learn along the way. There is no finish line, no pre-determined path. It’s about learning from failure, not getting it right the first time. This is difficult work but the strength of the relationships we build with each other and the richness of our learning will be your reward.
>YOU'LL BE EXPECTED TO LEAVE BEHIND
- Your attachment to the way things “have always “or “are usually done”.
- Your need for structure, certainty and success.
- Your attachment: to your community; to your business; the interests of any organizations you belong to; and your personal interests – the work we do is for the benefit of the whole of Lunenburg County.
Our meetings are safe places for frank, open, honest and above all respectful discussion and our decisions are reached by consensus. Core team members are expected to embody the change we are trying to create – that means always checking in to see if we’re doing things the same old way; challenging our own biases and what we think we know; seeking diversity and other points of view; jumping in with both feet and getting stuff done and evaluating and measuring the results to inform our next steps.
Working in this unstructured way is uncomfortable for many and it takes practice and faith in each other to learn to be okay swimming in uncertainty. If we hadn’t just decided to start - we never would have.
>WHAT WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR...
Now Lunenburg County is a giant experiment; an experiment in community development and community engagement leading to a better future for Lunenburg County.
>WHAT WE'VE LEARNED ABOUT LEADING CHANGE
- Change requires a small group of truly committed people who are connected in multiple ways to different segments of the community. Their commitment needs to be long –term, we all committed to at least two years from the beginning.
- Using private money allows for a nimble and innovative response.
- Always work with the people who show up, they are the right people.
- Segments of our business community sit on the sidelines only interested in traditional government centric approaches – you’ll need to leave these traditional leaders behind and find the innovators.
- An innovative dynamic approach grabs people attention.
- It’s not about convincing everyone – it’s about convincing just enough people to influence key decision makers and influencers.
- Changing community values and attitudes is a daunting project. It’s lonely work and it’s important to connect people together. They buoy each other when needed.
- Language is important “change” is terrifying for many. Think in terms of possibilities rather than focusing on the need to change; it’s not what we are giving up, rather it is what we can gain.
- People are looking for leadership on important issues. Now Lunenburg County provides a neutral platform for people to use to help them act. – we’ve allowed groups to use our name to add credibility and community to their own efforts – Municipal government reimagined and Citizen engagement in health care.
- Credibility of those leading is very important.
- Transparency of action and decision-making is required in-order-to build and sustain credibility.
- We need to be careful of our own and others’ limiting beliefs. You can’t predetermine what’s an opportunity or a good job or a reason to move for someone else. You can only present the facts and let people decide for themselves, don’t decide for them.
- And finally continue to check-in with the group to determine direction, do not prejudge or presume to know. It’s so easy to fall back into the same old ways – it’s much harder to continue to change your view.
