Leadership Plenty ' Moving talk to action'

The Leadership Plenty Class met for session No. 8 on January 24th, at the Lied Library in Imperial, NE.

The speaker was Dennis Kahl from the University of Nebraska Rural Initiative, Lincoln. Dennis was also our speaker on December 13th for session No. 6 on ‘Building Strategic Partners.’


The topic of discussion for this session was ‘Moving from Talk to Action.’

‘Moving from Talk to Action’ sounds pretty self-explanatory, but not as easy as it sounds.

Throughout our Leadership Plenty Class we have tried to pinpoint the things in our communities that would encourage growth. We have brainstormed about the general things that we can do to make our communities more attractive to people. We have even looked at the different things in our community that we could change, and figured out WHO could be involved in those changes. But to actually draw up an ACTION plan, that is a different story…

I don’t have to explain this to anyone who has tried to head a community project that had every good intention, but slowly dissipated. Dennis explained that the hardest part of reaching a goal is to actually come up with a detailed plan of action.

Dennis discussed the 3 phases of ‘Moving from Talk to Action.’

‘Phase One: Finding a Starting Point. Phase One involves describing the current situation and the factors contributing to it and deciding, what needs changed? Then, identifying the core values and principles that will guide the group’s work and deciding, what matters most? Then, creating a long term vision describing how the situation ought to be in your community in regards to the issue you are addressing. What should the long term results be?’

‘Phase Two: Mapping the Journey. Phase Two involves research and collecting information about what works. What have other communities done in similar challenges? What works to address this issue? What are effective strategies? Next, build relationships. Who needs to be included in your efforts? In determining who need to be involved, look at who will be most affected by the issue and give them a voice in the issue. We then need to decide what groups or individuals are needed to design and implement the solution. The next step is determining who will do what and when, in other words, define responsibilities and time frames. Part of the research also includes identifying which organizations provide financial support for this type of work. The last part of phase two is to set a time line, establishing interim goals to track progress.’

‘Phase Three: Revising the Course En Route. Phase Three explains the importance of celebrating successes and accomplishments as the project moves along, to sustain and build momentum. At this point, it is also important to put an evaluation of the project in place. With evaluation, you can determine effectiveness and make changes to your Action Plan. This allows the project to continue to be molded and shaped to work for everyone.’

There continues to be some of the same topics coming up within our particular group, such as: Making our communities attractive to young people & the need to reverse rural to urban migration. These topics are easy to write and say, but they involve so much more. The statements are very broad. What we are doing now is trying to determine WHAT would make our community more attractive and HOW do we reverse rural to urban migration?

Leadership Plenty was developed by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change and is sponsored locally by the University of Nebraska Rural Initiative, Southwest Nebraska Community Betterment Corporation, City of Grant, and City of Imperial.”

The next Leadership Plenty Class will be on February 28th and the Lied Imperial Public Library.

Article submitted by Shaun Meyer.