Synergy, overused but essential

There are always words, once apt and evocative, that get overused. They become lazy and ineffective shorthand for what someone is trying to say. Still, some people can't break from using them.

GOAT, plethora, and iconic get employed too frequently. The GOAT designee for most overused word is iconic. These days, so many people say so many things are iconic, but not everything is.

Wouldn't it be nice if every commentator or influencer received a punch card with eight slots for "iconic?" Once the card was fully punched, the commentator could pay $750 to use “Iconic” again.

Another overused word is synergy. I like synergy, though. Used deftly — illuminating something greater than the sum of its parts — it can describe a phenomenon magical, enriching, and worthwhile.

In communities, synergy can be one of our best friends.

Think of a small town of 900. A firefighters' pancake fundraising breakfast happens annually mid-April. A multiblock garage sale happens the first weekend in May. A brass band concert occurs on the Saturday before Memorial Day. What if instead of being insular and isolated events, those three happenings were fused into one calendar day, likely attracting more visitors and money spent?

One Saturday a decade ago, I had a small conundrum. I wanted to be in Iowa City to run a bunch of errands. I also wanted to attend the monthly fundraising breakfast for the opera house in Ainsworth as well as a grand opening, er, opening, for the restoration of the Bunker Mill Bridge — severely damaged by arson — between Kalona and Richmond. Because the errand running in Iowa City and the Washington County events were at basically the same time and a county apart, they were mutually exclusive.

Normally, I would have skipped the breakfast (they happened monthly) and run my errands. But the bridge open house was another overused word — a gamechanger. This event was a singular opportunity. Coupling the breakfast and open house, for me, created a connection and synergy. Though the two events were uncoordinated, their proximal presence created a momentum. A potential trip to Washington County, for me, would be greater than the sum of the two stops.

The synergy didn't stop there. In the area, why not take advantage of opportunities? I visited five county towns — Ainsworth, Riverside, Kalona, Washington and West Chester — spending small amounts of money in three of them at five total businesses. Favoring winds blew me farther south where I ended up in Keota (Keokuk County) and Fairfield (Jefferson County).

Had not both the breakfast and the open bridge been happening in the same county on the same day, I probably wouldn't have bothered. I would have stayed local to run errands. Instead I helped eleven businesses in seven towns in three counties add small amounts to their daily proceeds.

I encourage community engagement specialists, neighborhood cheerleaders, and cultural programmers to find inspiration and create synergetic events allowing participants to take "deep dives" into a "new normal." This practice can hardly be overused.

Patrick Muller lives in Hills.