UMN Extension Community Development

📌🗓️ Are you an emerging leader in Northwest Minnesota who wants to make a difference in your community? If so, we invite you to apply for our next Growing Local Leadership program. (And if you know someone with the potential to lead, you can nominate them!) You'll learn how to become a changemaker in your community and build a strong leadership network. Applications due Tuesday, Sept. 1! z.umn.edu/growinglocalleadership

Transitioning your business—or stepping into one someone else has built—is more than a transaction. It's a deeply personal process with many moving parts. Extension recently asked business owners what it really looks like to hand off, or take over, a business. Join us Thursday, July 16 at noon (CST) to find out what they learned.

Stories of business transition from Minnesota – good and not-so-good Passing a business to a new owner or stepping into someone else's is more than a financial transaction. Join us as we dig into recent case studies of business owners and learn what worked for them – and what didn't.

About two-thirds of rural grocery owners expect to leave the business within the next decade—and many lack succession plans. MANNA Food Co-op uses a model that offers not only buying power but also shared knowledge. Owner Ryan Pesch hopes this approach helps keep the store open for years to come.

Rural Minnesota's grocery stores are changing plans, hands • Minnesota Reformer Ryan Pesch: "You just get the impression like it's just a desolate wasteland, people are hooked on opioids, everybody else is unemployed. And I just don't think that's true."

Extension community economics educator Rani Bhattacharyya says manufacturers are increasingly using technology to improve wages and skills for employees—as well as increasing productivity. "Employers are looking to augment their workforces, not replace them," she says. https://z.umn.edu/bcsh

The process of redesigning and innovating can feel daunting when working with partners on long-term impact. Extension's leadership and civic engagement staff worked with community program coordinators and local leadership to complete a multi-year "reimagining" of its county-based leadership cohorts. Here are four key lessons we learned for leading a community or program through a transition.

Reimagining the path: Four lessons for navigating change While the process to redesign and innovate may be daunting, change is often necessary when working with partners on long-term projects or impact. Discover helpful tips for leading a community or program through a transition.