Herd Mentality Builds or Buries Communities!

Jim Hightower once said, "The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow."I have spent a lot of years watching communities fight for their own futures, and I have come to a conclusion that most civic leaders are not ready to hear. The herd mentality is not a personality flaw, a leadership failure, or a temporary phase. It is a force of nature. It is the single most powerful social current running through every community in America, and it does not care whether your town survives or disappears. What matters is one question: which direction is your herd moving?

Get that answer right, and you can build something extraordinary. Get it wrong, and you can watch a community quietly hollow out while everyone shakes their heads and wonders what happened.

Here is the hard truth about herd mentality. Most people in any community are not leaders, and they do not want to be. They are watchers. They scan the horizon for signals, wait to see which way the wind is blowing, and then they move with confidence once the direction feels certain. That instinct is not weakness. In many ways it is wisdom. But it also means that whoever sets the initial direction, whoever creates the first visible signal of momentum, is holding enormous power. The herd will follow. The only question is whether they are following someone building something or someone running away from it.

I have witnessed this play out in real communities with my own eyes. One mayor I know decided to streetscape a single block of a neglected downtown. Nothing dramatic, no grand announcement, just sidewalks, lighting, and a little landscaping. The following year, he did a second block. The year after that, a third. By year three, something unexpected happened. Private money began appearing in those empty storefronts. Investors who had sat on the sidelines for years started calling. The herd had spotted a signal, and the signal said this town is moving forward. What started as a modest public investment became a full downtown transformation because the herd mentality, so long the enemy, had switched sides.

That is a winning community understanding the assignment. They did not wait for unanimous agreement. They did not commission another study. They did not slow down once private money appeared, thinking their job was done. They doubled down. They kept the signal strong. They gave the herd nothing to doubt and nowhere else to go. Eight years later, that downtown is unrecognizable compared to what it was.

Now flip the picture and look at a losing community. Losing communities have shelves lined with planning reports no one implements. They launch initiatives with great fanfare and abandon them when resistance appears. They delay funding decisions for months while arguing over minor details, and by the time they act, the moment has passed. They prioritize who is first in line rather than what creates the fastest visible impact. They mistake motion for momentum and meetings for progress. The herd watches all of this, reads the signal clearly, and begins moving toward the exits.

The cruelest part is that losing communities rarely understand what signal they are sending. They believe they are being careful, responsible, deliberate. What the herd sees is hesitation, and hesitation in community development is contagious. One business decides not to open. Another investor takes their capital somewhere else. A talented young family chooses a different town. Each departure confirms the signal, and the herd accelerates in the wrong direction.

Here is what gives me genuine hope. The herd can be turned. The communities I have watched transform themselves were not always winning communities. Many of them had years of losing behind them before a small group of people refused to accept that as the permanent story. They stopped waiting for consensus and started creating visible progress. They made the signal unmistakable. The herd noticed, and it followed.

Your community has a herd. It is moving right now. The most important thing you can do this week is figure out which direction it is heading and whether the people in your local leadership circle have the courage to redirect it. Start a conversation with your mayor, your chamber director, or your city council member. Ask them what visible, tangible project is underway right now that sends an undeniable signal of forward momentum. If they cannot answer that question quickly and confidently, you already know which way your herd is walking.

John Newby, Pineville, MO., is a nationally recognized publisher, community, business and media consultant, & speaker. His column appears in communities nationwide. He is currently the CEO of the McDonald County Chamber and the founder of Truly-Local, dedicated to helping communities create excitement, energy, and capture the synergies needed to thrive in an ever increasingly complicated environment. He can be reached at [email protected].