Prairie Idea Exchange Launch! Objective: Changing Mindsets “By changing the way we think about change, we change the way we act, which changes the trends and ultimately the events that will happen,” said Bartmann, process host and community coach of Rural Weaver, LLC.
By Heidi Marttila-Losure and Wendy Royston Photos by Dakotafire Media As we look to the future for our rural communities, one thing is certain: What lies ahead is not going to be the same as what came before. Change is inevitable. Will that change be good, or will it be bad? It could go either way. But at least some of that direction is within our control, suggested Joe Bartmann, facilitator for the first Prairie Idea Exchange event, held September 10 in Aberdeen, SD.
Systems: There’s more beneath the surface Question Level: “What is happening here?”
“What has been happening?”
Action Level: React, Quick Fix, Firefight
Anticipate, Forecast
“Why is it happening this way?”
Design, Build
“Why does this persist?”
Transform Thinking
Iceberg model adapted from Michael Goodman
In any system, there is almost always a lot more going on than we can easily notice, and so much of the “how” and “why” of what is happening stays hidden from view, like an iceberg. When we try to change the system just by seeing what is obviously happening, we miss most of what is causing that to happen, and end up creating a quick fix that backfires or doesn’t solve our problem. NEW GOAL: If we can address what is beneath the surface—what’s actually causing those events—we can make changes in the structures of the system to drive new kinds of action that will create the outcomes we want. THE KEY: It turns out that what happens in a human system is driven by thinking—what we believe and how we view the world. We ultimately create change by changing the way we think and challenging what we assume to be true. —Joe Bartmann 26
Bartmann invited the economic development professionals in the room to ask themselves and one another tough questions to challenge mental models that aren’t productive. “Sometimes what happens when we feel like we’re stuck, when we feel like ... we’re spinning our wheels no matter what kind of resources and effort and time we put into it,” he said, “what’s actually keeping us stuck is what I would call ‘limiting beliefs’—beliefs that limit our possibilities.” Bartmann, who lives in a small town and works with rural communities all over the state, gave two examples of limiting beliefs that are common in rural places: Success is for someone else, somewhere else. And: Success is getting our community to look like it did 50 years ago. “Without realizing it, people in our communities put on our blinders for possibility because we can only imagine our community the way it used to be,” Bartmann said. The goal is to recognize limiting beliefs, put them aside and practice the opposite: possibility thinking. What if we assume that we already have everything required to make our communities the kind of communities we want them to be? “It’s not somewhere else. There’s not somebody with a magic wand who is going to show up and fix things,” Bartmann said. “We have it. It’s possible.” At the PIE event, several participants were invited to share a time when a change in thinking—setting aside a
Joe Bartmann introduces the idea of possibility thinking. SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
