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Learning how to build communities

The Okotoks and District Chamber of Commerce is inviting business owners and residents to learn how Okotoks could be sabotaging its own success. Former Alberta MLA Doug Griffiths will be in town on Oct.
Doug Griffiths, centre, chats with High River councillors Kathy Couey and Peter Loran prior to his presentation in High River on Oct. 1.
Doug Griffiths, centre, chats with High River councillors Kathy Couey and Peter Loran prior to his presentation in High River on Oct. 1.

The Okotoks and District Chamber of Commerce is inviting business owners and residents to learn how Okotoks could be sabotaging its own success.

Former Alberta MLA Doug Griffiths will be in town on Oct. 21, during small business week, to make a presentation based on his book, “13 Ways to Kill Your Community.”

Okotoks Chamber chief executive officer Cheryl Actemichuk said the presentation comes at the right time for Okotoks as it works with Roger Brooks to rebrand downtown.

“I thought it would be a nice addition to have him come and talk about what we may be doing and where we could be going,” said Actemichuk. “Some of the things in his 13 ways are things we talk about all the time in Okotoks, like water and tourism.”

Once a junior high teacher and rancher in rural Alberta, Griffiths became concerned about the three rural communities in which most of his business was done. He began working on community development and served as a provincial MLA from 2002 to 2015. He was Alberta’s municipal affairs minister before resigning in January.

As a cabinet minister he co-wrote a rural strategy report listing 72 recommendations on issues like the economy, health care, tourism, marketing, infrastructure, education, arts and culture, and the environment.

“I traveled all over to research and talk to people,” said Griffiths. “And then I had a re-epiphany.”

His first epiphany had come when he was talking to high school students years before. He would list ways to be successful in life and know they walked away without his words having made an impact.

“One day, between opening the door going into a classroom and closing it behind me I had this epiphany,” he said. “I had been asking those students the wrong question.”

Rather than list ways to be successful, Griffiths had the students tell him ways they could fail in their lives.

Once he had compiled a list of things students could possibly do to fail in life, like become a drug addict or get pregnant, he would have them tell him what they would do right now to make those failures a reality, like smoking marijuana or having sex.

“You could see them all realize they were doing things that could destroy their lives,” Griffiths said. “It was effective, coming at it from a different angle.”

The “re-epiphany” occurred when he was traveling to a town to speak for the third time about the 72 recommendations for making a community strong.

“I started to think instead about the things I’d seen communities doing to sabotage their success,” he said. “There were 10 things in 10 minutes.”

Griffiths was asked to write a column based on his “10 things,” and once he began documenting them he realized there were 13 attitudes that lead to failure.

With each presentation he gave, people would offer stories about ways their community had sabotaged its own success. Griffiths incorporated those stories into what became an hour-and-a-half presentation.

Now, he travels to communities to present his 13 ways communities inhibit their own success and his team can help those towns overcome their weaknesses following the presentation.

“We invented tools to develop strategies for communities,” said Griffiths. “Any consultant can write a strategy for a community, but we help with one step before that, with figuring out what’s sabotaging the success first.”

Though he recognizes the concept and title of his presentation sounds dire, Griffiths assures his audiences the stories he tells are true and aim to help communities address any mistakes they are making.

The names of towns are never mentioned in his presentations, though Griffiths said the concepts and issues are often universal and people see their own towns in the ones he holds up as an example.

“Sometimes people see their towns in examples I give, like a woman who swore I had described her hometown in Texas,” he said. “When I told her I’d never been to Texas, she called me a liar because I had described to a tee what had happened there.”

Griffiths said his goal is to entertain his audiences while allowing community members to see any potential weaknesses mirrored in their own towns.

When people can laugh at their problems, it is much easier to address those problems and turn them around, he said.

“I was never as interested in politics as I was in building communities,” said Griffiths. “Helping people overcome their difficulties and build up their towns, it’s much more satisfying than politics ever was.”

Tickets for the dinner and presentation at D’Arcy Ranch are $50 and available at www.okotokschamber.ca.

For more information contact the Okotoks and District Chamber of Commerce at 403-938-2848.

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