In his book “Community Conversations: Mobilizing the Ideas,
Skills, and Passion of Community Organizations, Governments, Businesses, and
People”, Paul Born argues that “effective community conversations are the means
by which CCIs [Comprehensive Community Initiatives] are more likely to be
successful” (4-5). In order to unpack
his thesis, we must first know what Born means when he talks about CCIs. Briefly put, CCIs are groups of
problem-solvers that seek to examine problems comprehensively, creating a
multi-faceted framework through which problems are examined, and hopefully
solved (4). In order to do this,1 Born
argues, they (CCIs) must know how to converse properly. This blog post will examine the first 5 steps
in Block’s 10-step how-to-hold-a-conversation methodology that he outlines within
his book, and next week I will discuss the final five.
1) Conversation Cafés
The first suggestion that Block has for us is to hold
something called a conversation café, which he defines as “an exchange of
ideas, feelings, and thoughts between people” (97), oddly enough, this sounds a
lot like how the word “conversation” is traditionally
defined, that is, as being an, “informal exchange of ideas by spoken words”. It
seems as though Block’s first suggestion on how to hold a community
conversation is to hold a conversation.
As the section progresses, Block offers six idea on how to
create an effective conversation / conversation café. These suggestions are, in order:
1) Give the room a fun feel.
2)
Choose the questions and create a menu.
3) Consider “wicked” questions
3 I think this is supposed to be 4) Follow a process
5) Enjoy!
6)
Debrief the event to gather information
From a glance, it seems as though the most important / interesting
suggestion Block offers here is the second on how to choose the proper
questions. However, there is not much in
this section outside of a plug for his website (tamarackcommunity.ca!) where
you can download a “conversation café menu template”, which sounds as if it
would be a great way to facilitate unique conversations. However, there are a
few suggestions for questions in this section, including, “Why does poverty
exist”, and why the people at the conversation cafe have attended the
conversation café, which they may be wondering themselves after being given an
official tamarackcommunity.ca conversation menu.
2) Peer to Peer
Conversations
Peer to peer conversations are defined as a way to “help
obtain input from a peer group in a relatively quick and structured way”
(107). Much like the conversation café,
Block has offered a step-by-step process on how to do this effectively:
1) Unpack
(twenty minutes)
2)
Question (twenty minutes)
3) Group
discussion (thirty minutes)
4)
Reflection (five to ten minutes)
This seems a lot like conversation cafes, but without the
fun room. There’s nothing wrong with the
suggestion, but to me it seems like a fairly obvious thing to do when
problem-solving within an organization.
3) The Top 100
Partners Exercise
Paul Born begins this section by quoting himself, “Who
invited that schmuck” (115). The “Top
100 Partners Exercise” is an exercise that has you list potential partners for
whatever your CCIs cause is. Basically,
you divide a sheet of paper into four sections (only after writing the name of
the “collaborative” you are involved in, of course). These sections are: business, voluntary,
government, and people. You then list as
potential people and organizations as you can, trying to hit 100. From there you rank the people and
organizations by desirableness, and then figure out a way to get them to work
with you. Finally, you need to add all
of these names into a “relational database” so you can work with them in the
future.
I have no issues with this step, outside of being reminded
to put my name on my work. I agree with
Born on the importance of collaboration in solving complex problems such as
poverty, as no single organization is equipped to do so on its own. For example, the Waterloo Regional Food Bank
is made up of more than one hundred organizations that all help on the various
stages of the food supply-chain. Acting
alone, there is absolutely no way in which they could be as effective as they
currently are. The “Top 100 Partners”
exercise seems as though it would be an effective way for a new, non-profit
agency to create a rolodex of potential collaborators.
4) Future Search
Meetings
Future search meetings are defined as a “task focused” type
of meeting that “brings people from all walks of life into the same
conversation: those with resources, expertise, formal authority, and need”, and allows them to tell their stories in order
to “discover their common meaning through dialogue, which allows them to make
concrete action plans” (129). Again,
this is a fine suggestion, however, it is extremely similar to the first two steps
of the methodology, holding “conversation cafes”, and having “peer to peer
conversations, again telling us to make sure the room is nice, and making sure
we are asking the right questions.
5) Open Space
Conversations
The idea of open space meetings is to hold meetings with no
structure or authority, allowing people to “have their say on their terms”, by
allowing groups and conversations to form organically (139). This could be useful or chaotic, depending on
the issue being discussed and the people in attendance. For example, I doubt that this idea would
work particularly well at a meeting discussing emotionally charged issues such
as religion, race, etc, and would be just as likely to start fist-fights as to foster
meaningful dialogue. However, it could
be a useful tool in a more formal setting such as a conference, where there is
an assumed level of competency, knowledge, and (hopefully!) rationality in each
member of the conversation.
Next week I will discuss steps 6-10, and offer my thoughts on the methodology as a whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment