Engaging Communities Through Issues Forums

The case study activity primed parti cipants for the Strategic Doing™ activity that followed. As participants were able to see how they could work with other community members and organizations, they could reimagine how working together they could collaboratively make a difference in the lives of farms, farm families and their communities.

3. Moving from Ideas to Actions - Strategic Doing™

Several approaches, techniques, methods for helping a group move to action were included in the “What is a Forum” section of this how-to guide. Our community issues forums were designed for collaborative group action. To move toward action, our team decided to use the Strategic Doing™ process that engages community members in resource sharing, brainstorming short term actions, and prioritizing to move forward in creating change.

Vermont 2016 Summit

Using the Str ategic Doing™ process, participants quickly focus on the ‘doable’ using step by step guidance and well-defined timeframes per step. They will walk away with simple action steps they have the capacity to complete immediately or in the short term. After the report-outs, all the participants walk away with new collaborations that strategically connect existing resources and assets to address the sub-topic area. See Appendix 9: Strategic Doing Flyer that you can use to help explain this process to your planning committee members. What you’ll need: You will need to identify 4 -5 sub-issues based on your research. An audience of at least 20 (for say, five groups of four), a large group facilitator, small group facilitators (one per group), note takers (one per group), a step-by-step guide/process to lead groups to actionable outcomes using the Strategic Doing™ format.

Timeframe : 2-2.5 hours, including time for group report-outs

What is Strategic Doing™?

Strategic Doing™ is a problem -solving process developed by Ed Morrison at the Purdue Center for Economic Development. It is “fast, iterative, and learn.” (Morrison, 2018). It uses appreciative inquiry as a foundation and formalizes seven successful strategies for community impact: ● Build on existing assets ● Operate with a network organizational structure that connected those assets ● Use an iterative planning and implementation process ● Decentralize implementation responsibilities among multiple organizations ● Move forward with a progression of shorter-term goals ● Use metrics to learn what works and adjust along the way ● Demonstrate high levels of trust and a readiness for change among those engaged

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