Trends Are Awesome – Till They Aren't!

J. Paul Getty once said, "In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy."  That quote has never been more relevant. We live in an era where the strategies that built successful communities and businesses over decades can become liabilities almost overnight. And here's the uncomfortable truth layered beneath that: most people despise change. According to research from McKinsey & Company, roughly 70% of change initiatives in organizations fail — not because the ideas are bad, but because people resist them.  So, what does that mean for your town, your chamber, your local business district? It means the playbook has expired.

It means the old rules no longer apply.  For generations, stability was the goal. Consistency was a virtue. Incremental improvement was considered progress. Those days are gone. The communities thriving today aren't the ones fine-tuning what already exists — they're the ones willing to blow up the blueprint entirely.

Consider this: between 2010 and 2023, more than 120,000 small businesses closed in rural and mid-sized American communities, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Meanwhile, communities that invested in collaborative local ecosystems — connecting chambers, local governments, and business owners around shared goals — saw measurably stronger economic resilience. The difference wasn't resources. It was alignment.

Teamwork Isn't a Slogan — It's a Strategy. There's a reason sports franchises, military units, and Fortune 500 companies invest heavily in team cohesion: it works. The same principle applies to your zip code. A community operating as a unified team will always outperform one where every organization is running its own play.

That means your community, businesses and chamber can't operate in silos. Your economic development office can't either. When these groups align around common goals — shared data, shared messaging, shared accountability — the results compound. A Harvard Business Review study found that organizations with high internal collaboration are 5x more likely to be high-performing. There's no reason that math stops at the city limits.

Building that kind of communitywide synergy is rarely easy, largely because local politics, longstanding rivalries, and competing agendas get in the way. That's not cynicism — it's just reality. But communities that have pushed through those frictions to find common ground have unlocked something powerful: a foundation strong enough to support real transformation.

We must realize the being busy is not the same as being productive.  Here's where many communities go wrong. They hold meetings. They form committees. They draft plans. They stay busy — and they mistake that motion for momentum. It isn't.  According to a Gallup study, only 23% of employees worldwide feel strongly engaged at work, and local civic engagement numbers aren't much better. Effort without direction is one of the most expensive mistakes a community can make — it drains volunteers, burns out leaders, and produces nothing measurable.

The hard question every community must ask is: Are we doing the right things, or just the comfortable things? There is a significant difference. Doing the comfortable thing — hosting the same annual events, running the same promotions, attending the same networking breakfasts — keeps people busy without moving the needle. Real progress requires stepping into uncomfortable territory: new partnerships, new models, new asks.

The innovators dilemma is your dilemma.  Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen introduced the concept of the "innovator's dilemma" — the idea that successful organizations often fail precisely because they keep doing what made them successful, even as the world around them shifts. Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975, then shelved it to protect film sales. Blockbuster had the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000 and passed. Both companies no longer exist.

Your community faces the same fork in the road. The question isn't whether change is coming — it is. The question is whether you'll be the one steering it or the one flattened by it.  The potential is already there.  Across the country, local communities are overflowing with creativity, pride, and entrepreneurial spirit. The raw ingredients for success exist nearly everywhere. What's missing in most cases isn't vision — it's execution, and the courage to act on that vision together.

Awareness is the first step. Acceptance follows. But action is what changes the trajectory. The storm clouds are visible on the horizon. The only question left is: will your community harness the storm, or wait to get soaked?

John Newby, Pineville, MO., is a nationally recognized publisher, community, business and media consultant, & speaker. His columns appear in communities nationwide. He is currently the CEO of the McDonald County Chamber and the founder of Truly-Local, dedicated to helping communities create excitement, energy, and capture the synergies needed to thrive in an ever increasingly complicated environment. He can be reached at John@Truly-Local.org.