Thorny Questions in Your Side? Get the Community Clippers!

We just came off of a thought provoking Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP website) webinar, hosted by Joanne Schroeder and guest presenter Paul Kershaw, titled Influencing Public Policy: Tips and Traps.  What drew us into the call was our quest to learn more about how community can take action, impact policy changes and engage with people at a local level and beyond. Trust us, they delivered, so if you missed the call watch for the archive of this presentation on the HELP website.

Joanne discussed thorny questions – the barriers that get in the way of people participating in change efforts. See if you can identify with any of these prickly scenarios:

“We just can’t seem to agree on the action/priorities.”

“We can’t endorse that piece of work.”

“What difference will it make?  Will we really have any impact?”

Lo and behold, village raisers, you will be impressed (and likely not surprised) with Joanne’s response to the above thorns. Yes, get your community clippers out and take heed that the answer seems to circle back to the power of community collaboratives and participatory processes.

Here are some collaborative shearing tips:

• Be clear on your group’s definition of advocacy. What’s the difference between influence and advocacy?
• Base your advocacy conversations on research and fact rather than opinion. Ask people “What do we know to be true?”
• Use consensus building processes to work through the fact of life that people have different opinions.
• Connect with other communities – learn from and share with other groups to decrease isolation and increase shared power.
• Be a conduit for community voice with a pro-active planned strategy (include in your annual plans).
• Use a solution based focus - stay positive
• Find both quiet (building relationships, small conversations) and louder (rallies, big messaging) ways to advocate.
• Evaluate your impact

It seems that time and time again that to have impact and foster change, we need to use informed group processes that boost a collective empowerment. The thorny questions will arise – what we are after are the practices that help people move beyond the thorns into the further development of their working together initiatives.

Be directional - and use the right tools.

The most detailed map in the world will not be very helpful if the details don't tell you what you need to know. Consider kayaking through the broken group islands (gorgeous!) - if you grabbed an area map from the local gas station - you'd be in big trouble as you try to navigate between Dodd and Turtle islands - and all the rocks in the middle during a turning tide.   On the other hand if you had a navigational chart,  chances are you'd be safe in a kayak but get lost on the car ride home.

Consider the plethora of choices in choosing maps and charts. Knowing what you are going to do with data and information is half the battle - are you driving, hiking, boating, star gazing or drilling for oil?

In a recent survey of workshop participants hoping to increase their knowledge and skills around using data for community planning, a question was asked about HOW they typically used information. The responses described:

1. Making decisions about program priorities and project directions
2. Writing funding applications (justifying the "ask")
3. Seeing trends - how the context in which we work changes
4. Creating an advocacy arsenal in order to effect change with policy makers
5. Informing best practices
6. Celebrating success

Each use is different. Not every piece of information you unearth will be applicable for every purpose.

If information is causing you to be dazed and confused, do a double check. Check your sources. Is it enough?  Sometimes it is a matter of adding additional information to create the whole picture.  Is the information relevant? Other times, you need to be honest and not force a piece of data into a puzzle it doesn't belong in.

Be clear from the start - what are you hoping to do with what you learn?
And..at the risk of getting data obsessed, consider an evaluation process of your data exploration.  Learning from your experiences of what works and what doesn't as you gather, make sense of and apply information can be very useful learning!

Data Fog

. One of the passages from our book, more than any other, captures the feeling of collaborative inquiry.

Sleeves rolled up, furrowed brows, slumped shoulders, a heaviness in the air…Weighted down with an all-consuming sense of responsibility, everyone involved was focused, intense, and determined to wade through the fog and confusion…. The overwhelming task before them was to make sense of data, agree on key issues and make a plan.

Sound familiar? 

While we know that it is important to make plans and decisions based on good information, it can feel more like a journey through pea-soup fog. Finding a process to guide a group through the murky, complex world of data so that people emerge feeling informed and cohesive is the key.

Data helps us to give issues and opportunities colour and detail and depth. Data enables us to make new connections and informed decisions. In fact, true innovation emerges during this journey, even when what we don’t know still exceeds what we do. The journey demands risk taking, being open to getting it wrong, and a persistent inquisitive spirit.

Raising the Village will be focusing our blogs this month on getting through the data fog.

What are the essential elements of a group process that will lead to clarity (rather than spinning in circles, getting lost and disoriented)?

How can we avoid data becoming something to fear or defend against?

Can we actually have fun doing this too???

Then when we make it through… find clarity and meaning (having a good time along the way) – we stand on a precipice yet again.  This one is the gap between knowing and doing…but we’ll save that for a future set of blog posts.  :)

Take our challenge this month:

Think of an issue or opportunity that you are currently facing. Ask yourself:

What are some predictions you have about the situation?

What are some questions you need to ask?

What are some possibilities for learning that this situation presents?

What kind of data do you currently have access to that might shed some light on the topic?

Gather your answers and be ready to dive into the fog with us!