A diverse group of people line the street in a small town, watching a marching band in a parade.

You can’t order people to collaborate

And you can’t plan your way there, either. I ran into another one of those outdated “how to fix your rural community” prescriptions. I think you know the type I mean, written to address the “official leaders.” It started with shared vision, then planning (lots of planning), recruiting additional participants, assigning parts of the plan…

A light skinned woman and a medium skinned man with a gray beard stop for selfie in front of a brick sign that says Harvard Kennedy School

Our natural rural collaboration vs. our giant silos

A couple of times last year I had the chance to hear Dell Gines talk about collaboration. Both times, he used the phrase “build robust networks for targeted purposes.” That resonated for me as Deb Brown and I often tell you stories about Building Connections and turning your crowd into a powerful network as part…