What’s the next step for the last brick flour mill in the province? That’s the question for the Yorkton Brick Mill Heritage Society, and in a public meeting, the group received advice on how to focus, move forward, and accomplish their goals.
Consultant Cherylynn Walters, Chair/CEO of the Marieval Enterprise Center Inc. presented at a public meeting to talk about how they can focus, get fresh ideas and keep the project moving.
The core of her philosophy is the 30/60/90 day plan. Every task should have something underway in either 30, 60 or 90 days, and all tasks are divided up between members of the board, who report back after that period of time. If they can’t be done, it’s time to start rethinking and taking a different approach.
“It forces them to break the things that need to be done into smaller, doable steps. As long as they have 30, 60, 90 days, everything stays fresh... One thing could be a single phone call that needs to be made, it doesn’t have to be a whole proposal that needs to be done. It keeps people moving forward quickly, and it also tells them in a short period of time if there’s a problem and it’s not going to work... So they stop spinning their wheels.”
She calls it ‘strategic doing,’ because it’s a way to accomplish goals instead of just planning them out. She’s seen many communities have large strategic plans with no clear way to implement them.
“It takes that from that big, global picture - which is good, you have to have long-term goals - and brings it down to ‘what’s our first step.’”
She also encourages the group to brainstorm and start thinking outside the box on the project. The hope is that they can start thinking of fresh, new and exciting ideas that will not only draw people to the site, but have them coming back.
In terms of the mill itself, she’s excited to see what’s going to happen to the site.
“You have a piece of heritage, which is attractive. The story behind that, it will be interesting. I think there are ways to tie the education system into it. I think Saskatchewan Heritage will be behind you 100 per cent. SaskTourism will probably work with it... The fact that you’re looking at expanding the opportunity, creating the green space, telling the story of the history of Yorkton, and having all of these additional services and opportunities, I think it will be a huge success.”
