By Jackson Swearer
Leadership Reno County kicked off last Thursday and Friday with a retreat in Hesston. I am one of the co-facilitators for the eight-session leadership training that begins at the Dyck Arboretum for two days.
I first attended as a participant back in 2017, and it is an honor to return for my fourth year as a facilitator.
For the past several years, I have had a side-hustle facilitating leadership trainings and consulting for non-profit organizations. I have stepped back from most of that work while launching the newspaper, but I could not skip out on Leadership Reno County.
At one point in life, I really wanted to be a teacher. I deeply enjoy getting to work with groups of people and helping them learn and grow.
As an aside, I think that explains how much I am enjoying working with the team that we are building at The Hutchinson Tribune.
Back to the retreat — Leadership Reno County scratches an itch that I enjoy, and the thirty-one participants in this year’s class make it even more enjoyable.
Every year, I am amazed at the group of people who join the class because of their dedication to making our community a better place. They share that dedication despite coming from many different walks of life and professional situations.
Confidentiality is a big part of what we do there, so I can’t share much about specifically what happened at the retreat. I can share that one of the leadership competencies that we teach is about working across factions.
Among other things, factions are groups that share a set of values. It can be hard for people who have different values to work together. All too often, they end up just talking past each other.
It can help to start from a shared purpose. In the case of the class participants, they are all there to learn about leadership together. Sometimes, just having a goal to work toward together is enough common ground to begin working with people who are different from you.
Another key skill is to stay present in the conversation even when you get frustrated when another person’s values clash with yours. That is often easier said than done, in my own experience, but it is a good practice nonetheless.
When we can remain open and curious and listen to someone who has a different perspective, that can open up new ways of thinking. Often when we are working on our toughest challenges, we get stuck, and a new point of view is just what we need if we can be open to it.
I will say that I am encouraged by the skill of the class participants — they give me hope that our community can come together to address some of our most daunting challenges, together.
The next time you are listening or reading something that you find you disagree with, pause before you argue back. Get curious about the point of view of the other person, and try to look for where there might be some common ground that you can build from. You never know what new path forward you may uncover.
Jackson Swearer is the publisher and managing editor of The Hutchinson Tribune and can be reached at jackson@hutchtribune.com.