RTV #31 - Find What Binds You!

A Year of Raising the Village: Week #31: Find What Binds US Together!

What binds us together?

Great question to ask when making summer time S’mores or a great question to ask a team, organization or group when they want to find out what the glue is that holds them together. Often the bind is found in a common purpose or cause that each person finds relevant on an individual or collective level. Once this is found, people tend to reach out to include others in the common cause (much like the marshmallow working with the tasty duo of wafers and chocolate).

In his book Exploiting Chaos: 150 ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change, Jeremy Gutsche talks about engaging people with four levels of messages and impact. This ultimately leads to the change we seek.

The four levels of impact are at the:

1. Functional level: directs people what to do (i.e. don’t litter)
2. Incentive level: offers a compelling reason (if you litter you will be fined or we will reward people who report littering)
3. Emotional level: helps people remember your cause – keep the memory of your message alive. (Connect the emotions via a story or describe the personal impact that litter has).
4. Cultural level: goes beyond being remembered and gets to the actual action, engagement and change. This includes getting to know your stakeholder view intimately (i.e. in Texas they trademarked a slogan “Don’t mess with Texas” which appealed to the people living there - reducing litter by a whopping 72% over five years. 10-15% was originally projected as an ambitious target).

A cultural connection becomes a reflection of your group’s lifestyle. It aligns with the identity and beliefs of the people you are working with. What you create and what you offer speaks WITH people (not at) and empowers people to use their own voice to forward the movement. It binds you together with one common and compelling vision and helps people champion your work. And in the case of S’mores...it’s a delicious and satisfying blend of oozy-gooey goodness!

Like this? Post your comment here, or give it the juicy thumbs up on the RTV facebook or twitter page. Help Raising the Village become a tasty cultural connection!

Village Raising Question: What binds you with community and has you get involved?

RTV# 30 - Have you tried the chicken-scratch napkin approach?

A Year of Raising the Village, Week #30.

Group Brainstorm: the chicken-scratch-napkin way! Ideas becoming collaborative!

You are about to hold a brainstorm session and expect a real free-for-all in the idea generation department. You're armed with multi-colored pens, energy galore and loads of flipchart paper. You open the space, ask for group guidelines and cheer “let’s brainstorm”. A pin drops...and you hear it. Yikes. In idea generation, this happens from time to time. We have facilitated boisterous brainstorm sessions and the slower, quieter kind.

Here’s one way to boost creativity and expression in your next group brainstorm session:

Hold a chicken-scratch napkin idea festival! Hand out napkins to all participants (possibly several per person). Ask each person to chicken-scratch down all of their ideas for the topic/issue/project at hand. Go around the room and ask people to share their chicken scratch ideas and then toss the napkin into a basket in the centre of your room.

Why would this help a brainstorming session? It invites...

• The sharing of undeveloped thoughts
• More full-bodied uninhibited responses
• Open feedback – both to receive AND give (really, the ideas are quickly jotted on a napkin, how attached are we going to be?)
• A “letting go” of our ideas and the collaborative gathering of many ideas.
• Many great innovative ideas start as a chicken-scratch kind of note - so be open to great potential here!

We are busy writing our RTV activity books which are overflowing with group process ideas, including other ways to extend brainstorming. Can’t wait to share them with you! In the meantime, help fuel the collaborative idea-fire and share YOUR ideas with us: e-mail, facebook or tweet your favourite brainstorming technique.

RTV #29 Are you up for a 30 Day Challenge?

A Year of Raising the Village - week #29:  Try a 30 day challenge.

They say that if you do something (or stop something) everyday for 30 days you can start to form (or break) a habit. Matt Cutts, seen in this short TED talk, did a series of 30 day challenges - always something new, sometimes little and sometimes significant. He offers 3 important lessons from the experience.

1.  Time was memorable. With a focus on the challenge, those 30 days don't just blend into all the other months of the year - they become purposeful and defined by the experiences that were created during the challenge.

2.  Challenges increase self-confidence and spirit of adventure. Cutts found that after a few 30 day challenges under his belt, he became bolder and keen to try challenges that pushed him out of his comfort zone.

3.  The small challenges are sustainable - the big, hard, crazy ones aren't.  What a good community development lesson here! We've seen community builders try to pull off BIG massive changes when the little things are the actions that might actually stick around long enough to truly make a difference!

Consider doing a 30 day challenge of your own, or buddy up with a friend or colleague, or go a bit bigger and engage an entire community collaborative in a challenge. Need some ideas? Take a photograph everyday for 30 days, bike to work everyday, write a book (1,666 words per day for 30 days and you've got yourself a 50,000 word novel) or cruise through past Raising the Village blogs to find some community building ideas: could you pick up litter, connect with a friend, say hi to a stranger, talk to a business about being family friendly, eat local, carpool, share stories, dance, eat with your family.... for 30 days?

We are in for the challenge.  We at Raising the Village plan to take a photo about "collaboration" everyday for 30 days starting today (July 18 - August 16th)!  Follow our pics on Facebook (click here to go to FB and like our page).

What 30 day challenge will you do?

RTV #28 The trust building tango.

A year of Raising the Village - week #28: The trust building tango!

In the late 1800's the tango was the dance craze of the working class. A combination of latin, european and african influences, it is a dance that is filled with dynamic balance, turning, moving at a variety of speeds and, of course, a little romance.  The colloquialism, "it takes two to tango" is as appropriate on the dance floor as it is in community.

Village raising is a dance of action, process, balance and, like tango partners, trust. The trust between two dancers has always been intriguing. When there is an obvious level of trust between partners, a feeling of ease exudes. In our context, the work of building community partnerships and collaboration happens with that same sense of ease only when trust is present among those involved. Whether you are the one taking the "lead" or "following"  (oh my, the fun of a metaphor), there are things you can do to support the trust building process.

In the lead?

• share what you know...be transparent
• deliver on your promises 
• empower others to make decisions and represent the group
• be open and listen to everyone's opinions
• ask for feedback
• assume that others will do what they commit to doing without checking up on them 
• provide appropriate credit and recognition
• admit your own mistakes, errors in judgement and inability to meet commitments, every dancer steps on toes sometimes!

In the role of following?

• accept action items and timelines only when you know you can deliver
• be a staunch supporter of professionalism and confidentiality 
• disagreements happen, always treat other's opinions with respect
• be honest (enough said)
• don't take all the credit in a collaborative group
• lead from wherever you are (reality is that we all have leadership roles - particularly in a collaborative process!)

To build trust - you have to trust and be trusted. Take these ideas for a spin around the dance floor.  The ideas have been inspired by Glenn Parker and Robert Hoffman's book Meeting Excellence as well as tips gleaned from recent dance partners.

RTV # 27 Make A Movement - your way!

A year of Raising the Village - week #27: Make a Movement - your way!

We love how any opportunity (like watching summer shirtless dancers) is an opportunity to learn about leadership and social movements! Watch this clip and then come back and tell us what kind of mover and shaker you are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ

So...fun, right? And thought provoking?

Are you:
a) The guts (the gutsy 1st dancing leader)
b) The transformer (the 1st follower who transforms a lone nut into a leader)
c) The connector (the 2nd follower who takes the movement public and brings in more people)
d) The tipper (part of the tipping point, the crowd, who follows and believes in the movement/moment)

How do you typically react? To have a movement – we need it all! Want a little more depth to your mover and shaker style? Go to our main page for your free leadership style quiz http://www.raisingthevillage.ca/

RTV#26 Locate your Playing Field!

A Year of Raising the Village . RTV #26: Locate your Playing Field!

4 ways to stop taking work & life so seriously!

Stop taking village-raising seriously? Seriously? Yup. That’s the spirit we are in after a RTV interview with Vince Gowmon (founder of Remembering to Play Events http://www.rememberingtoplay.com ). Vince stands as a reminder to build our sense of community by bringing PLAY into work and life. We will share the full interview at a later time, but for now, enjoy an adapted taste of the spirit of play.

Four ways to stop taking work/life so seriously:

1. Soothe your SAS (serious adult syndrome). Is life/work heavy? Find joy in the lighter side!
2. Expand your concept of play. It is more than an activity! (hmmm-what is it then?)
3. Shake yourself out of monotony and routines!
4. Be real – take a risk to be authentic – shed inhibitions!

We would love to hear your ideas on how communities can expand into playing fields! Coming later in the week... playful questions.

RTV #25 Creative Give-a-ways!

A Year of Raising the Village
Week 25: Creative Give-a-ways!


There are people in every community that are in need. It might be money, food, safety, opportunity, or friendship. In fact, it would be pretty safe to say that everyone in a community is in need of something!


In terms of charity, most places have people or organizations that help take things from the "giver" and pass them along to the "receiver." It is a system that makes sense and works, with benefits to both those who have something to offer and those who have a need. Undeniably, there are also barriers and challenges to the traditional donation processes. Pride, access and equity are among them.


Our community was a recipient to a very generous donation of little girl blouses. Our issue was that these shirts were so dated (nearing ugly) and there were SO many of them that we resisted just "giving" them away in the traditional sense. The shirts would have been like a uniform for the poor - which was not what was intended!! Instead, we arranged to have them all distributed among child care facilitates as painting smocks. Now all the children's clothes (whether they have a big or small wardrobe selection) are protected during messy play.


We are curious to discover more creative, low barrier ways to get free "stuff" to the people who need it.


Here is an idea from North Carolina that made us smile...


“Sock It To Me” Wed with the Alexander County Partnership for Children
The Partnership for Children received a donation of over 600 pairs of socks including socks for men, women, and children. They advertised for people to bring a bag and pick out and up to seven pairs of free socks per person (socks for a week)! They were available on a first come first serve basis.


How about giving away warm pj's and books at an evening story-time?
What about food to celebrate - not just to fill empty stomachs?
In what ways can you help connect people who can barter?


Have some more???