Today’s Lesson from the Coffee Shop

First posted on LinkedIn in October 2025.

So I am in a coffee shop again today doing some work. And the group next to me is discussing chickens.

I can’t really overhear the whole conversation, and even if I could I would not share it in this public forum (or anywhere, actually), but what I’ve gathered from local news sources is that current city codes do not allow residents to keep chickens. And a small group of residents would like to change this.

I admittedly know very little about this small but passionate cohort of chicken fans. But what strikes me about this group is that they found an opportunity in their community to affect change for the common good and they went out there and started trying to make it happen.

Most of us spend a lot of time complaining about things we don’t like or dreaming up solutions to problems, both big and small, but few of us actually step up and try to do something about it. It turns out it’s not really that hard to make change happen. Oftentimes it just requires us to take action, any action, to get the ball rolling.

So today I am reminding myself that change does not need to be big, or hard, or performed with fancy programs and expensive budgets. It can happen through face-to-face conversations with our neighbors, friends, and colleagues, over coffee at the local shop, or at our kids’ sports practices and ballet rehearsals. We just need to be brave enough to speak up, to take a stand, and to start the conversation. And then we need to actually turn talk into action. Any of us can do it if we really want to. We just need to start.