The Joinery, LLC. The Greater Why of Community Action

For years we have been working to reduce the number of teens using alcohol and other drugs in our community. In fact we have come to be known as the anti alcohol people. And in a lot of respects it has been an uphill fight to get people to buy into our cause. Recently though, things have changed. More people are coming on board and we are getting a wider range of acceptance. Why? I think it is because we have discovered our “greater why”. What is a greater why? It is something that you believe in, it is something that others can believe in. It is the reason for people to put in the hard work to make things happen. When people believe in your why, they will do almost anything to make it happen. Not for you, but for themselves, because they believe what you believe and they want it too.

Reducing the usage numbers in teens is a “what” or an outcome, it is not “why” we do what we do. In fact, it is not what we believe at all. Reduced numbers of teens using alcohol does not mean that kids will succeed in life. But, this is what we were communicating for years even though many of our actions were more in line with our believes, almost all of our public communication was about reducing teen access to alcohol. In Wisconsin, where much of the culture is based around the use of alcohol to have a good time, this was not what most others believed and was not something they were going to fight for.

Over the past year our message has slowly changed and we are now more in line with our greater why. What we believe is that kids are 50% more likely to succeed if they are supported by the community, have a web of caring adults in their life, and feel like they belong. We believe that if kids feel like they belong they will be less likely to take part in unhealthy risky behaviors. These are beliefs that others what to see as well and they are willing to help us work to empower the youth. So we have gone from being the anti-alcohol people to being the empowering youth people.

Its easy for us to fall back on our measurements. We see numbers like fewer kids using alcohol as indicators for our success but mainly because it is hard to messure if a child feels like they belong. But we have to keep our greater why as the focus of every thing we do. Most of all we need to make sure that everyone hears our message and is enticed to help us change the community by being a part of our belief system.