This week’s blog post draws on the fifth core value from
Community as a Safe Place to Land (2019):
Act with RESPONSIBILITY toward others and ourselves.

Our personal dreams and challenges give us direction. Our actions (or inaction) create our reality. The same goes for our community dreams and challenges.

When a challenge confronts community members how do they respond, or not respond (which is a response)? Do excuses, finger-pointing, and blame drown out considered conversation? In what ways do your communities work to ensure responsible conversations about issues that matter? For instance,

• What excuses seem to be hindering your community?
• Why do these excuses exist? Fear? Laziness? Lack of leadership? Absence of time or money? Lack of training?
• What impact do these excuses have on your community?

Dig a little deeper. Consider a challenge confronting one of your communities right now.

• How do you know this is truly a challenge?
• Why do you believe this challenge exists?
• What actions does the community need to take to address or eliminate this challenge?

A facilitated dialogue can help. Discussions, disagreements, debates…and repeat.  Listening, communicating, questioning…and repeat. Where do you diverge but, more importantly, where do you share commonalities on which to build?

Not easy and desperately needed if a community is to move forward. It takes effort and a bit of discipline.

It can be too easy to put it off until tomorrow or the next day or whenever ….  I read a tweet recently that reminds us to act now.

Stop waiting for Friday, for summer, for someone to fall in love with you, for life.
Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for it and make the most of the moment you are in right now.

In a word, responsibility.

Large ideas can create enthusiasm. But absent consistent and responsible action, those big dreams have no legs. They remain fantasies. And the community can stagnate.

Podcast Recommendation for the Week:

Section 5 (Responsibility) of my book opens with a transformational story of how one struggling inner-city neighborhood found its voice. They did not do this by yelling or threatening. Rather, they created a movement of respect, education, and support.  In this brief clip, the Executive Director of The New Town Success Zone shares how he asked the community two questions. What do you want? And, what are you willing to do to get what you want?

My book,
Community as a Safe Place to Land,
has been released! At this point, you can purchase it on Amazon. More purchasing options coming. More information at www.stevepiscitelli.com.

Make it an inspiring and grateful week and H.T.R.B. as needed.

You can still order my book Stories about Teaching, Learning, and Resilience: No Need to be an Island (2017), by clicking here. Another university recently (January 2019) adopted it for training and coaching purposes. Contact me if you and your team are interested in doing the same.

The paperback price on Amazon is now $12.00 and the Kindle version stands at $3.99. Consider it for a faculty orientation or a mentoring program. The accompanying videos would serve to stimulate community-building conversations at the beginning of a meeting.
My podcasts can be found at The Growth and Resilience Network® (http://stevepiscitelli.com/media-broadcast/podcast).
You will find more about what I do at www.stevepiscitelli.com.

©2019. Steve Piscitelli