Leadership Toolbox: Tackling Tough Community Issues

A tough community issue is one that doesn’t yield to the usual leadership approaches and has a significant impact on the health of the community. As community leaders you have dealt with or are currently working on a tough community issue. There are three key characteristics of tough community issues:  greater complexity, longer term efforts, and higher risk. It has been said that tackling tough community issues are more about asking good questions than having the answers. Therefore, the following questions are meant to assist you in working through tough community issues.

1.    Creating Understanding of the Issue’s Complexity:

a.    Looking Inward:  What are your own assumptions about the issue? About
creating the change? What do you think makes this issue resistant to the usual approaches?

b.    Looking Outward:  What has already been done or is currently being
done around the issue? Do you see patterns in the community surrounding the issue involving stakeholders? Are the efforts aligned or can the connections be strengthened?

c.    Looking to the Future:  Are there voices missing? Is there current or
potential resistance to the issue? If so, where is it coming from? Have the resistant stakeholders been engaged in the change process?

2.    Preparing for the Long-Term Effort:

a.    Managing Tension:  Are you being intentional about managing tension
around the issue? Are you intentional about turning up the heat to create awareness and focus on the issue? Equally important, are you aware of when to turn down the heat to reduce counterproductive turmoil?

b.    Befriend Resistance:  How are you going to acknowledge and legitimize
resistance and loss surrounding the issue?

c.    Be Willing to Experiment:  What new things can you try? How do you
develop feedback loops and track results involving your efforts?

3.    Understanding the Higher Risk:

a.    Managing Expectations:  What are the personal and community risks
related to this issue? What expectations can you set for yourself and others that will help sustain the effort?

b.    Don’t Confuse Allies for Confidantes:  Allies share a common goal
which is issue specific.  Confidantes directly support you as a person; issue or no issue. Therefore, who can you count on to be in your corner throughout the project?

These questions are meant to provide community leaders a more reflective way to look at and address tough community issues. After all, “In every difficult situation is a potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it” (quote by Norman Vincent Peale).