LOCAL SOLUTIONS FIRST!
BUILDING WHAT NO ONE HAS SEEN
WORKBOOK
JUNE 1, 2017
John Johnston
Katy, Texas
[email protected]
LOCAL SOLUTIONS FIRST!
BUILDING WHAT NO ONE HAS SEEN
WORKBOOK
INTRODUCTION
3
CHAPTER 1
THE WHY, WHAT, AND HOW OF CHANGE
5
CHAPTER 2
WHY CHANGE?
7
CHAPTER 3
WHAT WOULD BE BETTER?
11
CHAPTER 4
HOW WILL THIS ALTERNATIVE BE PUT IN PLACE?
13
CHAPTER 5
THE THA CHANGE STORY
33
CHAPTER 6
CHANGE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
36
CHAPTER 7
CAPACITY BUILDING
40
CHAPTER 8
CREATING A MOVEMENT
50
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LOCAL SOLUTIONS FIRST!
BUILDING WHAT NO ONE HAS SEEN
INTRODUCTION
A. LOCAL SOLUTIONS FIRST!---IN 200 WORDS
After decades of neglect the Topeka Housing Authority (THA) in Topeka, Kansas
was bankrupt, poorly run, and operating under court order. Pine Ridge, THA’s 207 unit
apartment complex, was a dangerous place, and THA’s nearby office was no safer.
To change this, a new THA management team began a Local Solutions First!
initiative, and joined with the Topeka School District and the United Way to transform
the Pine Ridge neighborhood.
Dozens of new and different programs and projects are now underway at Pine
Ridge involving more than a thousand people annually. Organizations and businesses
offer Local Solutions First! and transformation support without being asked. For the first
time in decades families are decorating their homes on holidays, kids are trick or
treating on Halloween, and making snow sculptures in the winter. Pine Ridge residents
are participating in neighborhood events, spring and fall clean-up and beautification
days, recreation activities, and educational programs. When surveyed recently the two
words residents most often used to describe Pine Ridge were “safe” and “quiet.”
This transformation also benefits THA. Support for change initiatives at other
THA housing complexes is growing. Capable people from respected organizations call
and drop by to ask about working at THA.
B. THE CHOICE IS YOURS
Any urban neighborhood or rural community that shares a version of the seven
Why, What, and How assumptions listed below can use the ideas, insights, and tools
this Workbook to start and sustain a Local Solutions First! initiative. The choice is
yours.
C. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Most of the ideas, insights, and tools in this Workbook either come from or were
inspired by the people involved in creating a Local Solutions First! initiative in the Pine
Ridge neighborhood of Topeka, Kansas. Much of what appears in Chapter 6, Change
in Rural Communities, emerged during discussions with the Board of Directors of
BASEC, a non-profit rural development organization in Doland, South Dakota.
It is difficult to attribute insights and ideas in this Workbook to specific individuals
because change initiatives do not work this way. Almost always, a number of people
working together offer insights and ideas that are bits and pieces of answers to Why,
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What, and How questions. In time, these answers grow and crystalize then become
widely accepted and used.
Without naming them then, special thanks go to all of the people in Kansas and
South Dakota who contributed to this Workbook.
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CHAPTER 1
THE WHY, WHAT, AND HOW OF CHANGE
And now for something completely different…
---The Monty Python Troupe
A. CHANGE
Change is three step process. Step 1 is understanding Why change is
necessary. Step 2 is determining What would be better. Step 3 is deciding How to put
this better alternative in place. More often than not change efforts garble or omit one or
two of these three steps.
B. ASSUMPTIONS
This Workbook is based on seven assumptions. Three of these assumptions
relate to Change Step 1. One assumption relates to Change Step 2. Three
assumptions relate to Change Step 3.
WHY CHANGE?
1. There are Americans at all income levels who are afraid, angry, insecure, and
stressed.
2. This fear, anger, insecurity, and stress is driving growing environmental, peace,
justice, and economic opportunity problems.
3. Current efforts to address environmental, peace, justice, and economic opportunity
problems are not solving them. Some aspects of these problems are growing, not
shrinking.
WHAT WOULD BE BETTER?
4. Local Solutions First! would be better. This new, different approach to addressing
environmental, peace, justice, and economic opportunity problems will do the
following:
a) Reduce the fear, anger, insecurity and stress people are feeling;
b) Make urban neighborhoods and rural communities substantially better
places to live and work; and,
c) Build a foundation for creating state, national, and international solutions
for environmental, peace, justice, and economic opportunity problems.
HOW WILL THIS BETTER ALTERNATIVE BE PUT IN PLACE?
5. To get to the point of creating Local Solutions First! urban neighborhoods, rural
communities, and the organizations that work in them must be transformed.
6. These transformations must involve moving through five levels of treating everyone
with dignity and respect, and doing the right thing right, the first time, every time.
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7. It will take the following or a similar multi-step change process to drive and shape
this five level journey.
Nine Change Steps
Step 1 Decide to build what no one has seen
Step 2 Start using Big Picture thinking
Step 3 Build a Change Mechanism
Step 4 Adopt a Change Process
Step 5 Get clear on A---On where you are
Step 6 Get clear on B---On where you want to go
Step 7 Build capacity
Step 8 Set out on the journey
Step 9 Analyze progress, improve, repeat Steps 1-9
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CHAPTER 2
WHY CHANGE?
“You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change
something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
R. Buckminster Fuller
A. ASSUMPTIONS
1. There are Americans at all income levels who are afraid, angry, insecure, and
stressed.
2. This fear, anger, insecurity, and stress is driving growing environmental,
peace, justice, and economic opportunity problems.
3. Current efforts to address environmental, peace, justice, and economic
opportunity problems are not solving them. Some aspects of these problems
are growing, not shrinking.
B. THE STARTING POINT
The starting point for building a new model that makes the existing model
obsolete, is exploring the existing reality---what people are thinking and doing now. Six
features of America’s current culture are noteworthy.
WEALTH AND POWER
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
These truths may have been self-evident in 1776 but relatively few colonists
enjoyed the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. There
were exceptions, but generally only free, adult, male, landowners, who were members
of the dominant church in a colony could vote and hold office, and only they had an
expectation of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness that involved any degree of
security and comfort.
There are now and have always been people who believe that all means all---that
all Americans should enjoy the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness. Some may even have signed the Declaration of Independence. These
people have been working for 241 years to make this happen, but America is not there
yet. It is clear that a different, better way to close the unalienable Rights gap is needed.
A Local Solutions First! initiative is one way to do this.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
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People oppose change for a number of reasons, one of which is that they know
most change efforts fail. Individuals that set out to change something about themselves
or their lives rarely succeed in doing so, at least in the long term. Most organizations
have a history of failed change efforts, and all they have to show for them are unused
strategic plans, consultant reports that were ignored, and to-do lists with very little
checked off. Initiatives designed to improve poorly run organizations and problem
ridden urban neighborhoods and deteriorating rural communities are particularly prone
to failure.
To make the existing model obsolete it will be necessary to move people beyond
their reluctance to change. Offering them the opportunity to join with their neighbors in
the challenge of building what no one has seen is one way to do this.
PUSH-BACK BY WEALTHY AND POWERFUL PEOPLE
In the early 1970s wealthy and powerful Americans began to push back against
the accomplishments of the Civil Rights movement of the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s
and anti-poverty initiatives of the mid-1960s. This push back was framed as an effort to
preserve and enhance the free enterprise system, but it also had to do with creating
conditions in which people who were wealthy and powerful could get wealthier and
more powerful. Clearly, this effort has been successful. Inequality is growing, and the
free enterprise system is now a primary source of values and a mechanism for
sanctioning and apportioning wealth.
Local Solutions First! and urban neighborhood and rural community
transformation are based on different values, and they offer a different, more equitable
way to apportion financial and non-financial wealth across neighborhoods and
communities. They reduce the fear, anger, insecurity, and stress people are feeling,
and free residents to create a new culture based on caring, sharing, and wellness.
PUSH-BACK BY LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME PEOPLE---PART 1
Adjusted for inflation the incomes of low and middle income households today
are essentially what they were forty years ago. Despite this, millions of low and middle
income Americans share the conviction of wealthy people that an economy unfettered
by government taxation, environmental protection requirements, responsibility for the
social costs of doing business, and transparency is more likely to produce economic
benefits for everyone than an economy with these characteristics. Unfortunately, there
is substantial evidence that this economic model: reduces the quality of life of low and
middle income people; makes them fearful, angry, insecure, and stressed; and, reduces
their upward mobility prospects.
Talk will not encourage low and middle income Americans to abandon their
support for an economic system and a role for government that is not in their best
interests. They will need to see and experience first-hand the benefits of putting Local
Solutions First!, and urban neighborhood and rural community transformation. The key
to making this happen lies in involving residents in creating local solutions, and in
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insuring that the organizations that work in these neighborhoods and communities treat
people with dignity and respect and do the right thing right, the first time, every time.
PUSH-BACK BY LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME PEOPLE---PART 2
Many low and middle income people share the belief that the Civil Rights, social
issues, and anti-poverty initiatives and programs of the past 60 years are a threat to
them, their families, friends, and neighbors.
They believe that they are not being treated with the dignity and respect, and that
they are being unfairly labeled as racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic. Given
the chance as voters, candidates for office, and office holders, these Americans who
feel they are aggrieved waste no time quickly and systematically punishing the people
they perceive have punished and disadvantaged them for decades.
The key to overcoming this fear, anger, insecurity and stress lies in involving
residents in creating local solutions, and in insuring that the organizations that work in
these neighborhoods and communities treat people with dignity and respect and do the
right thing right, the first time, every time. If they are involved in it, people soon
recognize that unlike the current economic and political system Local Solutions First!,
and urban neighborhood and rural community transformation is a way forward in which
everyone wins.
POLITICAL REALITIES
Elected officials who run on a platform of letting free enterprise and the traits of
individuals determine economic winners and losers have little to offer low and middle
income persons that is of financial benefit. If individual worth and initiative are the
criteria for financial and social success there is no reason to offer government
assistance to anyone.
However, these candidates for office and elected officials can and do offer low
and moderate income people a variety of non-financial benefits. These include:
supporting social issues legislation; providing scapegoats---government employees,
professors, terrorists, immigrants, minorities, welfare queens, tree huggers, abortionists,
hippies, gays, and more; and, punishing the people these candidates for office and
elected officials have encouraged low and moderate income people to fear and dislike.
Local Solutions First! and urban neighborhood and rural community
transformation reduce the fear, anger, insecurity, and stress people are feeling. This
makes possible local initiatives that protect the environment, promote peace, reduce
injustice, and expand economic opportunities.
C. A NEW FOCUS---NEIGHBORS AND NEIGHBORHOODS
In the past, families at all income levels assumed primary responsibility for
addressing their hopes and dreams, but in varying degrees they received direct and
indirect assistance from their neighbors, government, and non-profit organizations.
Now, in the face of growing fear, anger, insecurity, and stress low and middle income
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families are more scattered than before, less well off, and by themselves incapable of
addressing the growing challenges they face. At the same time, government agencies
and non-profit organizations have less capacity to assist them.
This leaves urban neighborhoods and rural communities as the most likely
locations for, sponsors of, and sources of support for efforts to build a new model that
makes the existing model obsolete. For this to happen, these neighborhoods and
communities will need launch a Local Solutions First! initiative, and work through a
transformation process to put this initiative in place.
D. THE FIVE CHANGE ROLES
There are five roles to be played in any change effort: sponsor; champion; minichampions; front-line workers; and, technical experts. Sponsors are people at the top of
organizations who create the space for and shield the work of champions. Champions
are all-in, all the time. They eat, sleep, and breathe transformation. Mini-champions
are on board, but they are less assertive than champions, and they come from a
different perspective. Their contribution is to squash negativity whenever they
encounter it---in the hallway, breakroom, parking lot, grocery store or wherever it arises.
“No, this is important and it will work.” “We can do this.” “This is not another strategic
planning effort. It is different.” Front-line workers must buy into treating people with
dignity and respect, and doing the right thing right, the first time, every time. Technical
experts can insure that change effort is focused on and successfully addressing key
challenges and opportunities.
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CHAPTER 3
WHAT WOULD BE BETTER?
A. ASSUMPTION
4. Local Solutions First! is better. This new, different approach to addressing
environmental, peace, justice, and economic opportunity problems:
a) Reduces the fear, anger, insecurity and stress people are feeling;
b) Makes urban neighborhoods and rural communities substantially better
places to live and work; and,
c) Builds a foundation for creating state, national, and international
solutions for environmental, peace, justice, and economic opportunity
problems.
B. LOCAL SOLUTIONS FIRST! INITIATIVES
There are two types of Local Solutions First! initiatives. It takes Big Picture
thinking to produce both. One consists of new forms of old programs and services--forms that are locally designed and locally delivered. These new forms make old
programs and services obsolete because they produce solutions faster, generate
commitment to and enthusiasm for additional problem solving, and are cheaper to
implement. The other is a local economy that benefits all residents, not just some. Both
approaches attract people and resources that can be used to produce solutions to still
more problems.
Any local group will have no trouble using George Monbiot’s 4.5 minute “How
Wolves Change Rivers” video (see page 14), the following examples, and Big Picture
thinking to come up with dozens of potential Local Solutions First! initiatives.
New Forms of Old Programs and Services
Instead of preparing students to live and work in the suburbs, schools in urban
neighborhoods could prepare them to stay and transform their neighborhoods.
(Page 24)
Instead of preparing students to live and work in cities, schools in rural areas could
prepare them to stay and transform their communities. (Page 38)
Most trash in yards is a 50 foot problem, not a 15 mile problem. If it is bagged and
moved to the curb or alley on the right day it disappears. (Page 21)
Getting clear on four insights---the 4 Ps---is an effective employment, anti-crime,
domestic violence, and anti-drug strategy. (Page 31)
Most barking dogs are a problem for neighborhoods to solve, not local
government. (Page 21)
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With some support from health care professionals a university’s nursing school and
business school students can operate a health clinic, pharmacy, and lab in a Public
Housing complex. (Page 22)
Cinnamon, the horse, has the ability and desire to keep vacant lots from getting
overgrown. (Page 22)
Local Economy Examples
In a local economy a $100 deposit that is returned can generate hundreds of
dollars of local economic activity. (Pages 22-23)
Local youth and elderly or disabled people can operate micro-businesses in
partnership. (Page 39)
Local residents and non-profit organizations can operate micro-businesses in
partnership. (Pages 37, 38)
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CHAPTER 4
HOW WILL THIS BETTER ALTERNATIVE BE PUT IN PLACE?
A. ASSUMPTIONS
5. To get to the point of creating Local Solutions First! urban neighborhoods,
rural communities, and the organizations that work in them must be
transformed.
6. These transformations must involve moving through five levels of treating
everyone with dignity and respect, and doing the right thing right, the first
time, every time.
7. It will take the following or a similar multi-step change process to drive and
shape this five level journey.
Nine Change Steps
Step 1 Decide to build what no one has seen
Step 2 Start using Big Picture thinking
Step 3 Build a Change Mechanism
Step 4 Adopt a Change Process
Step 5 Get clear on A---On where you are
Step 6 Get clear on B---On where you want to go
Step 7 Build capacity
Step 8 Set out on the journey
Step 9 Analyze progress, improve, repeat Steps 1-9
B. STEP 1 DECIDE TO BUILD WHAT NO ONE HAS SEEN
In 2009 “what we are doing is not working and is not going to work” light bulbs
started going on across the government, non-profit, business, and foundation world in
Topeka, Kansas. An increasing number of people were coming to a shared sense that
20th Century strategies to promote environmental sustainability, encourage peace,
provide justice, and insure that low and moderate income people have economic
opportunities were not working and were not going to work in the 21st Century.
In the spring 2010 the Topeka Housing Authority (THA), the Greater Topeka
United Way, and Topeka School District staff set out on a journey to build something no
one had seen using tools that did not exist. The site they chose for this initiative was
Pine Ridge, a 207 unit Public Housing complex where the average household income is
less than $10,000. At any point in time ten percent of these households have zero
income. The people leading this effort were convinced that they could create a different
and better change model, and that they could attract whatever additional partners and
resources they would need to put this model in place.
By 2013 dozens of new forms of old programs and services and new local
economy initiatives were underway in the Pine Ridge neighborhood that involved more
than a thousand people annually from this neighborhood and across the community.
This outpouring of support suggests that people across the community shared a sense
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that programs that had been operating in Topeka for decades were not effective, and
that a very different way forward was needed. All it took was for a few people to step
up, say this, and begin building a new model. Once they did, people began signing on
to build something none of them had seen, and a Local Solutions First! initiative that
included the transformation of Pine Ridge took off.
C. STEP 2 START USING BIG PICTURE THINKING
Hundreds of years ago three stone masons were working side-by-side.
When asked what they were doing…
The first one said, “I am turning stones into blocks.”
The second one said, “I am putting up a wall.”
The third one said, “I am building a cathedral.”
An old, much told story
INTRODUCTION
People will shape stones if they have to, but they’d prefer to build a wall. Given
the choice between building a wall and building a cathedral almost everyone will choose
to build a cathedral. People just need to be given this option. Big Picture thinking--thinking at the level of building cathedrals---is easily the most important part of any
Local Solutions First! initiative. If the people involved do not change what they think and
how they think, a Local Solutions First! initiative will not succeed.
The easiest, fastest way to introduce people to Big Picture thinking is to have
them watch George Monbiot’s 4.5 minute “How Wolves Change Rivers” video.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-wolves-change-rivers/#.Uv-6bfojUYR.facebook
This video does not answer questions about what a Local Solutions First!
Initiative might look like or how to put this in place, but it makes it clear that these efforts
will fail if the people engaged in them ask questions that are too small.
There are three powerful forces that keep people from doing Big Picture thinking.
The dominant culture defines past, present, and future in a way that suits its needs.
Adults serve their needs when communicating with children and other adults. The free
enterprise system reflects the values of the people who benefit the most from it, and
have the resources and capacity to maintain their dominant role in it. The insights that
follow neutralize these forces, and make Big Picture thinking possible.
THE DOMINANT CULTURE
The dominant culture uses the power and considerable resources it possesses to
define the past, present and future in ways that serve its needs.
“Who controls the present controls the past.”
“Who controls the past controls the future.”
George Orwell, “1984”
“The past is never dead. It is not even past.”
William Faulkner, “Requiem for a Nun”
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It is a simple matter to confirm this. Ask any group of people to fill in the blank in
this sentence. Christopher Columbus ______________ America in 1492. Almost
everyone will give the same one word answer; “discovered.” The islands Columbus
reached in 1492 are now known as the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola. There were
people living on these islands when Columbus arrived in 1492. If there were people
living there, what sense does it make to suggest that he “discovered” these islands?
Clearly, he did not.
Just as clearly, this version of the past has served the needs of the dominant
culture for centuries by minimizing the rights and accomplishments of first peoples,
thereby opening them to domination and their lands to expropriation.
The antidote to this is straightforward. When they understand that the dominant
culture reaches from the present back into a past it imagines for its benefit, and then
uses this imagined past as the basis for creating a remembered future that is also
favorable to them people understand that this is not the best way forward. They also
understand that a quality future for everyone must be created, not remembered.
FEAR, STRESS, AND INSECURITY
Many adults feel better about themselves, more powerful, and more secure if
they are able to encourage children and other adults to feel worse about themselves,
less powerful, and less secure. They do this in four ways---the Four Ps.
They encourage children and other adults to take Personally what is not
personal. Your teacher can’t say that to you…That driver cut you off. They insist that
others Perform at a level that is better than their best. That little boy needs to be nicer
to you…Your teacher needs to explain things better…Your neighbor needs to take
better care of his yard…He needs to lose weight…She needs to quit smoking. They
believe it is helpful to inflict emotional and physical Pain. I hope that comment
hurt…That decision will haunt you forever…How could you be so stupid…That was your
fault. You should not have made me mad. They rob children and adults of their Past,
present and future. You are wrong. I know what happened back then…I was
there…You did not understand it then, and you don’t now….I know how your decision is
going to work out…You are always wrong about things like this.
This disconnect between what children and adults see and experience and what
many adults in their lives tell them they saw and experienced or will see and experience
creates fear, anger, insecurity, and stress. People of any age who are fearful, angry,
insecure, and stressed are in no position to do Big Picture thinking, and thus not able to
contribute substantively to an effort to seek Local Solutions First! in urban
neighborhoods and rural communities.
The antidote to this particular onslaught on sound thinking is common sense.
The driver had no way of knowing who he or she cut off. How was this personal? Of
course a teacher or boss can say something like that. They do, and they probably have
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been making that or similar comments dozens of times a day for years. They would
have made the same comment to or about anyone who happened to be there at the
time. That is who they are. That is what they say. This is not personal.
It may not be very good, but people do their best. People can change their
behavior, but it is not easy and it takes time. People are complicated. Life is
complicated. What possible reason is there to assume that children or adults can and
will change patterns of behavior as easily as they change shoes? Insisting that they
can leads them away from rather than toward wellness, Big Picture thinking, and Local
Solutions First!.
In the moment, inflicting emotional or physical pain seems helpful and
empowering to the persons who do this. In the long run, it disempowers and damages
them, and it is never helpful to persons on the receiving end. If there is no benefit to
anyone, what sense does this sort of behavior make? This too leads away from rather
than toward wellness, Big Picture thinking, and Local Solutions First!.
People “remember” the past, present, and future, and this invariably produces
confusion and robs people of wellness. No one’s memory of the past was the past. It
is only a version of the past. No two people experience the present the same way.
Consider something as simple as two brothers growing up in the same household. The
older of the two is growing up in a household in which he has a younger brother. The
younger of the two is growing up in a household in which he has an older brother. Their
lives are different and, their sense of the past, present, and future will be different.
Remembering the future will not work. The surest way to have a healthy, positive future
is to create one.
3. The Free Enterprise System and Local Economies
Increasingly, the U.S. free enterprise system has become a source of social
values in addition to serving as a mechanism for apportioning and sanctioning wealth.
Without exception, these values serve the interests of wealthy people at the expense of
everyone else. If you work hard you will succeed. If you succeed you are a good
person. If you did not succeed you did not work hard, and you are a bad person. If you
are a bad person there is no reason for anyone to help you.
It is impossible to square these assertions with data relating to pay for women,
minority participation in the work force, disparities in public schools and student scores,
access to quality health care, public health and environmental challenges in low income
communities, shrinking upward mobility in the U.S. over the past forty years, and a wide
range of other matters.
In addition to providing a justification for inequality this well organized, wellfunded, decades long effort to ground economic and political decisions in the U.S. in the
core assumptions of a global free enterprise system has squeezed out serious
consideration of the benefits of local economies for low and middle income families.
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D. STEP 3 BUILD A CHANGE MECHANISM
ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS
Early in the effort to put Local Solutions First! and to transform Pine Ridge the
people involved realized that they needed a Change Mechanism. This led to the
creation of the Pine Ridge Partnership. The Partnership is used to generate ideas,
mobilize resources, and pursue opportunities. And, not incidentally, it is used to shelter
and protect the work of its members from old rules and old ways of thinking, and to
provide members the freedom to think and act differently when they are working on
Partnership initiatives.
RECRUITING MEMBERS
Do not just “round up the usual suspects.” Ask around. Look for people who are
out on the edge of what is being done now. Cross boundaries. Try to involve at least
some people who are active in a range of cutting edge environmental, peace, justice,
and economic opportunity initiatives. A mix of staff, volunteers, and neighborhood or
community residents is ideal.
There are three benefits to starting with at least some people who are engaged in
cutting edge efforts. They have experience with Big Picture Thinking. This produces a
diverse work group---no sector or segment of the population has a monopoly on
innovation and change. These people quickly attract other like-minded people.
FEATURES
Change Mechanisms that produce dynamic results feature Big Picture thinking.
The people involved share an unshakeable conviction that a new model is needed. A
wide range of partners---businesses, non-profits, and public entities---support and
participate in the work being done. They have an identity independent of any of the
partners. They operate with no hierarchy and few rules. The roles people play change
easily and often. It does not matter who comes up with the ideas that drive the
transformation forward--the best ideas win. It also does not matter who makes
decisions so long as these ideas and decisions contribute to the success of the
transformation effort. They feature intense, sustained learning and idea sharing.
There are ten indicators of the quality of Change Mechanisms: the excitement
they generate; support from across the community; the number of innovators they
attract; the number of innovations they produce; a social media presence larger than the
community; the support of the full range of local decision makers; organizations and
people contributing resources without being asked; passionate, enthusiastic advocates;
an ever expanding number of partners; and, an ever expanding number of people and
organizations that deserve and are given credit for transformation accomplishments.
OPERATIONS
The key to creating a successful Change Mechanism is not finding change
oriented people. They will find their way to such an effort. For these people the
opportunity to get in at the start of creating something new, entirely different, and better
is irresistible. The key is welcoming and empowering them when they show up at the
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door. They will disappear in the face of any effort to defend and reinforce the use of
current models, ideas, and practices.
The location of a neighborhood or community Change Mechanism should have
large and small features that are new to the urban neighborhood or rural community
and, to the extent possible, new to the larger community---aquaponics tanks, a born
learning trail, play spaces, gazebos, wall murals, a place to borrow toys and games, a
24/7 mini-library, etc.
Within a few months community support for the initiatives of the Pine Ridge
Partnership began to grow and broaden inside and outside the Pine Ride neighborhood.
People from across the community offered support and assistance, some after they
were asked to do so, but most without being asked. Partnership initiatives surfaced and
were completed without anyone being sure how they happened. It is reasonable to
assume that other neighborhood transformation efforts will have the same experience.
The Pine Ridge change effort gained momentum so quickly that the people
involved did not have time to figure out why. The Why that has emerged has three
elements.
The time was right. From the beginning the people involved in the Pine Ridge
Partnership made it clear that they were convinced that the current model was not
working and would never work, and that they were about the task of building a new
model---a model no one had ever seen or could describe. To their surprise this turned
out to be a form of “the emperor has no clothes” statement. No one wanted to be the
first to say this, but once someone did it turned out that people across the community
agreed that the current model was not working, and that something different was
needed.
People said yes. Without knowing why this was important or how it contributed
to the success of the effort, the people involved in the Pine Ridge Partnership
understood that building something no one has seen is a matter of saying “yes” whether
or not anyone knows how to make ”yes” happen.
The best ideas won. In any change effort the best ideas must win. Titles,
experience, affiliations, and access to funding suggest only that people are good at the
current model. This should carry no weight when it comes to producing something no
one has seen.
E. STEP 4 ADOPT A CHANGE PROCESS
NINE CHANGE STEPS
The Pine Ridge Partnership’s Change Process is one THA has been using since
1999. It has been modified over time, but currently this process includes the following
nine steps.
Nine Change Steps
Step 1 Decide to build something no one has seen
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Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
Step 9
Start doing Big Picture thinking
Build a Change Mechanism
Adopt a Change Process
Get clear on A---On where you are
Get clear on B---On where you want to go
Build capacity
Set out on the journey
Analyze progress, improve, repeat Steps 1-9
The number of steps in a Change Process is not important. What is important is
that these steps include both change elements (Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and the last part of
9) and planning elements (Steps 5, 6, 8, and the first two parts of 9).
Whatever form a Change Process takes, the people using it should assume that
every step involves learning, and that each step must be repeated multiple times. Using
a Change Process is a journey, not a destination. Another important insight is that in a
relatively short time the people involved in any transformation effort will find that they
are doing all nine steps all of the time.
F. STEP 5 GET CLEAR ON A---ON WHERE YOU ARE
“My flight gets into Kansas City at 10:30 tonight.
Is there a chance I can get in earlier?”
“That depends, sir.”
“On what?”
“On where you are now.”
Call to an airline reservation agent, 1987
THE BASICS
Where you are is almost surely not where you think you are. It is not possible to
Get Clear on A---On Where You Are, without doing sustained Big Picture thinking.
To make sense of A the people and organizations in urban neighborhoods and
rural communities engaged in change efforts will need to clarify both what they are for
and what they are against. They will need to distinguish between what is being done to
people and what is wrong with people. They will need to compare the utility of
strategies that help everyone and strategies that help only some people. They will need
to identify systemic barriers to change. And, finally, they will need to assess the
negative impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress on urban
neighborhood and rural community residents.
CUTTING EDGE THINKING ABOUT A
Some Big Picture thinking about A is so far out on the edge that there are no
right answers; only intriguing questions. Exploring what people assume city
government is and does is one of many possible examples. In the last decade cities
have responded to shrinking revenues and increasing costs by raising a broad range of
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fees and charges, and by requiring that residents pay these steadily increasing fees and
charges during hours, at locations, and on terms cities find convenient. At the same
time, cities have responded to evidence of the shrinking economic fortunes of city
residents---unmown lawns, deteriorating houses, cracked sidewalks, animals running
loose, graffiti, unregistered cars, neighborhood crime, and more with increased
enforcement.
The key get clear on A questions here are straightforward. Who are the
residents cities are billing and jailing over traffic and parking tickets, missed court
appearances, an inability to make bail, sidewalk repair, housing and nuisance code
violations, and animal control? Are they disproportionately poor, homebound, elderly,
single mothers, minorities, and persons with disabilities? Are these people not
complying with city requirements because they refuse, find it inconvenient, or because
they cannot do so? Do these systems produce compliance and make the city whole
financially? Or, do they antagonize middle income people, pauperize poor people,
deplete city budgets, and endanger City employees?
EVENT MECHANICS
Careful thought should be given to What is A event mechanics. It is not a simple
matter for people to detach themselves from the past, and check their egos at the door.
Variations of the following activities can help them do this. Buy What is A hats or Tshirts for everyone for meetings and events. After everyone is seated, ask them to get
up, put on the shirts and hats, and switch chairs. Suggest that it does not matter who
they were or who they represented when they came in the room. Everyone involved
needs to be detached from the past to be able to take an objective look at the present.
Or, after everyone is seated, randomly divide them into groups of 4 to 6, ask them to get
up and walk down the hall to a different room, preferably one with a different view and
sit at tables with their randomly assigned tablemates. It is likely that What is A meetings
will be held in rooms that contain plaques, pictures, awards, and similar reminders of
the past. Without explaining why, hand out pieces of tape and blank flip chart sheets,
and ask people to tape the sheets over all of these plaques, pictures, and awards.
When they have finished ask why you had them to do this. Sooner or later someone
will say, correctly, that none of what they covered up matters given that the way forward
is to build something no one has seen.
G. STEP 6 GET CLEAR ON B---ON WHERE YOU WANT TO GO
A NEW MODEL THAT MAKES THE EXISTING MODEL OBSOLETE
What R. Buckminster Fuller was contemplating---a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete---is not anything being done now. To be different enough and
powerful enough to make the existing model obsolete this new model must be a new,
different, and better way forward. In combination, the What of Local Solutions First!
and the How of urban neighborhood and rural community transformation meet this test.
Local Solutions First! and urban neighborhood and rural community
transformation minimizes anger, fear, insecurity and stress. Some or even much of
every household’s basic financial and non-financial resources come from and through
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the commons. Residents have and share a sense well-being. They live sustainably
and promote environmental sustainability. They live in peace and promote peace.
They treat each other right. They work together to create economic opportunities for
their neighborhood or community and each other.
LOCAL SOLUTIONS FIRST! EXAMPLES
New Forms of Old Programs and Services
Old Rex
Rex is an outdoor dog. He used to have the run of his fenced yard, and barked
only occasionally. Last week a driver jumped the curb, knocked down part of the fence
around Rex’s yard, backed up, and drove off. Rex’s owner does not have the tools and
cannot afford to pay someone to repair the fence so now she ties Rex up outside before
she leaves for work at 10:30 pm. He barks until she returns at 7:30 the next morning.
Neighbors up and down the street find this extremely annoying. The neighborhood can
consider Rex to be a problem for the neighborhood to solve or a problem for local
government to solve. It is much more satisfying for everyone if Rex is viewed as a
neighborhood problem.
Anyone walking down the alley behind Rex’s back yard will see fence posts lying
on the ground or piled in yards in that block, at least some of which are free for the
asking, especially if this will contribute to keeping Rex quiet at night. Forty-five minutes
later, three or four neighbors, a half box of nails, and half a dozen of these posts would
be enough to rebuild Rex’s fence. This is considerably less time than it would take local
government to address this problem. There is no expense to taxpayers. The solution
will be satisfying for everyone involved. Rex’s owner will be appreciative as will the
neighbors and, presumably, Rex. The folks who do this work will feel good. And,
significantly, the next Local Solutions First! project will involve even more people.
Most Trash Is a 50 Foot Problem, Not a 15 Mile Problem
Cities tend to view getting trash, bags of trash, dead limbs, and assorted junk out
of yards as a fifteen mile problem---or whatever the distance is to the local landfill.
When voluntary compliance is not enough they use nuisance codes, city employees,
and contractors to pick up and send trash on this fifteen mile journey. Much of the
burden of this enforcement falls on the population of the city that is least able physically
and financially to comply with these codes---widows, single mothers, shut-ins, people
with disabilities, and low income people.
In most instances, when city code enforcement staff cite people for having trash
in their yard the homeowner, landlord, or tenant has paid for trash service. If the trash
in question had been in the proper bags or containers and placed at the curb or in the
alley on the right day of the week it would have been picked up. Viewed this way, trash
is, at most, a 50 foot problem, not a 15 mile problem.
Neighbors and neighborhoods cannot solve 15 mile trash problems, but they can
solve 50 foot trash problems. For far less than their code enforcement efforts cost them
cities could make contributions to neighborhood associations that organize volunteers
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who get trash to curbs or alleys in the proper way on the right day. These associations
could use these funds to support a broad range of neighborhood activities, events, and
celebrations that would build neighborhood cohesiveness and expand the support
neighborhood residents provide each other.
Health Care
There is a bus stop at Pine Ridge, and a County Health Clinic several miles, two
bus transfers, and more than an hour away that provides health care to low income
people. Having heard from a number of single mothers that this bus ride is a daunting
challenge with a sick child or children THA set to find a way to address this problem. At
the same time, officials at the Washburn University School of Nursing in Topeka were
looking for an approach to training nurses that would give students real, hands-on
nursing experience in a setting that provided the maximum possible benefit to the
Topeka community. It was also looking for real, hands-on projects for students in its
Business School.
This turned into the Pine Ridge Primary Care Clinic in the middle of the Pine
Ridge Public Housing Complex. With support from a variety of funding sources and onsite health care professionals students from the University’s Nursing and Business
Schools have taken on the task of staffing the Clinic, developing a business plan, doing
public relations work, writing grants, and surveying the health care needs of area
residents. This is a win-win-win-win-win arrangement for Pine Ridge residents,
Washburn students, Washburn University, the Topeka community, and THA.
Iris, Lilacs, Redbud Trees, Vegetables, and Motion Lights
An urban neighborhood or rural community could announce and celebrate its
cohesiveness and self-reliance at minimal cost. Highly visible flowers, bushes, and
trees could be planted the same distance from the street in every yard on a block or
blocks. These rows of plantings would tie every neighbor to every other neighbor. It
would also be possible to plant, raise, and share vegetables and fruit in a way that ties
neighbors together. The residents in every house on a block could raise different
vegetables and fruits, and share their produce with their neighbors. Motion lights in
alleys is another way to tie neighbors together. These lights could be placed so that
alleys light up from end to end as someone walks or drives down them.
When residents care about and are looking out for each other, neighborhoods
are more safe and secure than when they are not.
Cinnamon
A city was having getting vacant lots it owned mowed in a timely manner. In
looking into this matter a newspaper reporter found a block where city owned lots were
not overgrown. A horse named Cinnamon was the reason. Cinnamon’s owner turns
him out to graze in nearby city owned lots when the grass there gets high.
Local Economies
The $100 Deposit That Was Returned
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A family planned a picnic to honor its oldest member who would soon to turn 100.
One member contacted a neighbor who was a baker. The baker agreed to do the
baking for the event which was a month away, but asked for a $100 deposit. The family
member gave her a $100 bill. The baker used this $100 bill to pay a neighbor to install
brake pads on her car. The driveway mechanic used the $100 bill to pay a neighbor for
vegetables, fruit, and honey for a Quinceañera party for his daughter. The gardener
and beekeeper used the $100 bill to pay a neighbor to braid her hair and her daughter’s
hair. The hair braider gave her neighbors, the cake baker and her husband, the $100
bill to cut up, remove, and haul off a huge tree branch that had fallen on her roof.
When the 100 year old family member died unexpectedly, the person who had
contacted the baker stopped by her house and asked for the $100 deposit back. The
baker said: “Sure. I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother. I am just glad I have
the $100. I didn’t until yesterday when my husband and I got paid for doing some work
for Mrs. Jones down the street.”
It did not take neighbors long to figure out that the matriarch had given the
neighborhood one last gift---an understanding of the power of local economies.
OUT ON THE EDGE THINKING ABOUT B
Some Big Picture thinking about B is so far out on the edge that the ideas this
produces seem too ridiculous to consider seriously. It is worth keeping in mind that
people laughed at the early work of all successful social thinkers and inventors.
500 Artists
In the community development world, much is made of the need to attract young
professionals, and the importance of the arts in doing so. Creating jobs is a difficult,
expensive, and unsure task, and there is no guarantee that young, mobile professionals
will choose to live in the cities that succeed in doing this. Attracting artists is not nearly
as difficult. It is possible that a program that offers free rent for a period of time---one
year, two years, three years---would encourage 500 artists to relocate to a community at
an annual cost of $2.5 million. After an initial period of free housing, these artists could
be guaranteed affordable housing---housing that costs 30% of their adjusted income.
A 500 strong colony of musicians, singers, dancers, writers, painters and
sculptors living and working in the immediate vicinity of a downtown would become a
major attraction and a source of revenue for themselves, area businesses, and local
governments. These people would do creative things to their studios, houses, yards,
and neighborhoods further adding value to the community. Young professionals would
soon follow.
2,500 Households
Assume there are approximately 2,500 cost-burdened renter households in a city
with annual incomes under $20,000, and that it would take about $12 million a year to
provide rent subsidies that would make their housing affordable.
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Members of many of these households cycle through the criminal justice system,
the welfare system, the mental health care system, hospital emergency rooms,
homeless shelters, food pantries, etc. No one knows how much money in the budgets
of the police department, fire department, code enforcement, welfare department, nonprofits, hospitals, school districts, etc. is spent assisting these households, but it is likely
that the total greatly exceeds $12 million. To find out, a sample of the treatment,
education, and services needs of renter households with incomes under $20,000 that
have affordable housing could be compared with the treatment, education, and services
needs of a sample of the renter households with incomes under $20,000 that do not.
It might be that this city could save more than $12 million annually, perhaps far
more, by providing these 2,500 households affordable housing. If so, it would it be
possible to reduce local taxes, thereby benefiting all residents.
City Enforcement of Laws and Codes
The Pine Ridge transformation initiative suggests that cities might benefit from
changing their laws, codes, policies, and practices so that all city residents have the
capacity to comply with all city requirements. This might reduce city operating costs,
make cities safer for residents and city employees, make police and fire protection
easier to do, safer, less expensive, and more effective, and allow city offices and
employees to move out from behind security guards and locked doors.
K-12 Schools
Urban schools prepare students to live in the suburbs, and encourage them to do
so in a variety of ways. If they prepared them to create Local Solutions First! and to
transform urban neighborhoods some young people would stay and do this.
BARRIER REMOVAL
Whatever else the people engaged in Local Solutions First! and urban
neighborhood and rural community transformation initiatives decide about B, some part
of B must be barrier removal. Transformation initiatives will succeed only if the
organizations working in urban neighborhoods and rural communities systematically
remove the barriers between their organizations and residents, and between residents
and residents. Left unaddressed, these barriers only grow larger. This increases the
fear, anger, and stress staff members and neighborhood residents feel, and reduces the
effectiveness of transformation initiatives and programs.
Organizations that have internalized treating everyone with dignity and respect,
and doing the right thing right, the first time, every time will find barrier removal easy
and natural. Organizations that have not will find barrier removal difficult at first, but
easier over time to the extent that they begin treating everyone with dignity and respect
and start doing the right thing right, the first time, every time.
Every organization has created dozens of barriers between its programs and
the people it serves. It takes Big Picture thinking and a deep concern and respect for
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neighborhood residents to identify them. Here are two examples of barrier removal
from the Pine Ridge Prep Pre-School.
Something as innocent appearing as a volunteer sign-in sheet can create a
barrier between a program and program participants. The Topeka School District, the
United Way, and Pine Ridge Prep itself have good reasons to track the number of Pine
Ridge Prep volunteers and the hours they work, so it is not surprising that there is a
sign-in sheet for volunteers just inside the front door at Pine Ridge Prep. After watching
a new parent bring his daughter to school and pick her up every day for two weeks
without moving past the sign-in sheet and into the classroom the Site Director gently
took him aside and after some careful exploring learned that he could not write his
name. After she arranged a “signing the sign-in sheet” practice session for him in her
office, the sign-in sheet ceased to be a barrier to his participation, and he became an
active volunteer.
The handouts that school districts provide low income parents relating to sending
a child to school with a fever can have negative, unintended consequences. The school
district has good reason to do this, but it creates barriers between the district and
parents. Pine Ridge Prep pre-school staff visit the home of every child who is absent.
A child that had not been absent before “fever” materials were sent home with the
children was absent the day afterward, and a staff person stopped by her home to talk
with the mother. It took some gentle probing, but after a while the staff person figured
out that mother had kept the child home because she did not have a thermometer, did
not know if her child had a fever but thought she might, and did not want to jeopardize
her child’s participation in Pine Ridge Prep if she did. That afternoon Pine Ridge Prep
staff sent a thermometer home with every child.
Barrier removal is a key element in changing the culture of urban neighborhoods
and rural communities. In turn, culture change is a key element in the transformation of
these neighborhoods and communities. Barrier removal must be a priority for the
boards and staffs of organizations working to transform neighborhoods and
communities, and this work needs to assigned, tracked, and rewarded. It helps a great
deal if neighborhood residents are substantively involved in all aspects of barrier
identification and removal.
To turn barrier removal into an every-day part of the operation of any program
start where you are. Give residents and staff some examples then ask them if they
know of barriers to program participation. Ask small groups to start looking for barriers
and have them share their findings at regular intervals. Engage these groups in
removing the barriers they identify.
TRANSFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
There must be at least one major partner in every transformation initiative that
makes a sustained effort to treat everyone with dignity and respect, and do the right
thing right, the first time, every time. The people who live in a transforming urban
neighborhood or rural community must trust each other and the people who work there.
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For this to be the case they need to be reminded on a daily basis that they are
interacting with competent people of character. Minor transformation partners need not
transform themselves to this point---there are reasons why this is too much to ask or
expect---but any organizational transformation efforts they make are helpful.
At a minimum, every partner in a transformation effort needs to be in the habit of
saying yes, and they need to work systematically to eliminate the dozens of barriers
between their organizations and the people they serve. Every movement, organization,
and agency can develop the capacity to do both.
H. STEP 7 BUILD CAPACITY
CAPACITY BUILDING TARGETS
Local Solutions First! and urban neighborhood and rural community
transformation focuses on changing the culture and appearance of urban
neighborhoods and rural communities, and altering the roles residents play in their local
economy. They also involve the unconventional design and delivery of a broad range of
conventional and unconventional programs and initiatives.
Every family, urban neighborhood, rural community, and organization produces
exactly what it has the capacity to produce, no more and no less. Any effort to
transform any of the four will succeed in direct proportion to the success of the capacity
building efforts that accompany this effort.
ORGANIZING CAPACITY BUILDING INTIATIVES
The residents and people from organizations that work in urban neighborhoods
and rural communities can identify major capacity building targets, set objectives, and
sketch out the major capacity building events and activities for whatever period of time
seems reasonable. Early on in the transformation process the timeframe for these
events may be limited to a few months. Later, it can stretch out to six months or a year.
Early in the transformation process neighborhood residents and the boards and
staffs of organizations that work in the neighborhood should take part in an orientation
to Local Solutions First! and neighborhood transformation. The setting for these events
should be a pleasant and non-threatening, and all activities should be hands-on and
enjoyable.
After a round of orientation events and activities, a small team of interested
persons can help neighborhood residents develop events and activities that address
high priority capacity building targets. The Nine Transformation Steps can be used to
structure and organize this work.
PAYING FOR CAPACITY BUILDING
A rule of thumb in the total quality management world is that it is possible to
reduce operating costs in an organization by 40% in a relatively short time using a
readily available set of tactics and tools (see Chapter 5, Part B). Over a ten year period
program and services providers in a city of 100,000 could use these tactics and tools to
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add the equivalent of $100 million in additional funding to their anti-poverty, human
service, social service, housing, community development and family development
efforts. This infusion of resources would pay for transformation capacity building with
millions of dollars left over for transformation initiatives and programs.
LEADERSHIP
The people who design and carry out Local Solutions First!, and who lead urban
neighborhood and rural community transformations have different leadership skills than
the people who lead hierarchical organizations. An essential part of capacity building is
finding and providing support to leaders who do the following.
Share key habits
They routinely invite people to build something no one has seen---and are
continually surprised by how many people sign on. They freely acknowledge that no
one knows how to do this---and are continually surprised by how quickly this produces
the hundreds of ideas and suggestions needed to make this happen. They say yes to
everyone and to every idea that surfaces, and they give everyone involved in the effort
permission to do so as well.
Treat people right
They value everyone, treat everyone with dignity and respect, and do not label
people. They encourage others to do the same.
Do the right thing right, the first time, every time
They understand that this evolving challenge promotes cultural change that
produces powerful results. This challenge never leaves them, and they never quit
affirming it in what they say and do.
Share key traits
They are honest and humble. They do not take credit; they give it away. They
talk less and work more. They focus and work on what is important. They have fun,
and make sure that everyone else does as well.
Build their capacity and the capacity of the people around them
They make each other and everyone else better. They encourage and support
the efforts of everyone to do Big Picture thinking. They value and expect everyone to
develop and use “uncommon sense,” and to develop and use moral will and moral skill.
They mentor and they are mentored. They are teachers and learners.
Remove barriers to success
They continually work to identify and remove barriers between organizations and
neighborhood residents, neighborhood residents and neighborhood residents, and
organizations and organizations.
There are prospective transformation leaders in every urban neighborhood, rural
community, and organization who will step forward given the opportunity. Typically,
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they are not visible because there is little demand for them in most communities and
organizations. Fortunately, any serious discussion about deciding to build something no
one has seen (Step 1) will attract people with the capacity to lead a transformation. By
the time a group is doing Big Picture thinking (Step 2) leaders will have emerged.
I. STEP 8 SET OUT ON THE JOURNEY
THE FIVE TRANSFORMATION LEVELS
The effort to transform the Pine Ridge neighborhood of Topeka, Kansas is
described in detail in Chapter 5. Briefly, this journey has involved progressing through
five increasingly sophisticated levels of (a) treating everyone with dignity and respect,
and, (b) doing the right thing right, the first time, every time. This produced, in order,
Competence, Excellence, Freedom, Neighborhood Transformation, and Neighborhood
Ownership.
THA went from an administrative and program disaster to Competence (Level 1)
and from Competence to Excellence (Level 2) in roughly two years. This changed the
culture of THA, the neighborhood, and the community. Staff felt good about working at
THA, and it showed in the way they treated people and in the quality of the work they
did. When residents and people in the community interacted with THA's staff and Board
their experiences were uniformly positive. The anger, fear, stress, and disappointment
staff felt working for the old THA began to disappear as did the anger, fear, stress, and
disappointment residents and people in the community felt in dealing with the old THA.
This gave both THA and the neighborhood a positive image in the community.
In combination, this culture change was extensive enough to give people at THA
and in the neighborhood the Freedom (Level 3) to move out to the edge where new
ways of thinking and innovative ideas are to be found. In particular, these new ways of
thinking produced a steady stream of Local Solutions First! ideas and initiatives. This
made Neighborhood Transformation (Level 4) and even more Local Solutions First!
possible. Pine Ridge has changed enough that the two words residents used most
often in in a recent survey to describe their neighborhood were "safe" and "quiet." No
one would have said this five years earlier. The people involved in transforming Pine
Ridge are now beginning to explore Neighborhood Ownership of transformation
programs and activities (Level 5) as the next level of treating everyone with dignity and
respect and doing the right thing right, the first time, every time.
This journey has produced a steadily improving quality of life in the Pine Ridge
neighborhood, and a neighborhood that is serving as an incubator, safe haven, and
base of support for a broad range of transformation ideas and initiatives across Topeka.
Any urban neighborhood or rural community interested in making a similar five
level transition journey can make effective use of the knowledge generated and tools
developed at Pine Ridge that are described in this Workbook. A special thank you goes
to the residents and the staffs of the organizations that provide programs there for
sharing what they have learned.
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LOCAL SOLUTIONS FIRST! AND TRANSFORMATION ALSO JUST HAPPENS
The efforts of the Pine Ridge Partnership gained momentum so quickly that it
surprised everyone involved, and support for the Partnership continues to grow inside
and outside the Pine Ridge neighborhood. Currently, there are more than 100 public,
non-profit, and private agencies, organizations, and businesses contributing to
Partnership initiatives, and more than 1,000 people participate in Partnership initiatives
annually. Most Pine Ridge Partnership programs and projects simply happen. It is
reasonable to assume that other Local Solutions First! and urban neighborhood or rural
community transformation efforts will have the same experience.
There is no way of predicting in advance, knowing, or measuring the impact of
any particular transformation initiative. It is clear, though, that every such effort makes a
difference to somebody, and that some efforts make a difference to a lot of people. It is
also clear that treating everyone with dignity and respect and doing the right thing right,
the first time, every time changes the culture of the neighborhood, organizations
working in the neighborhood, and, ultimately, the entire community.
THE IMPORTANCE OF STORY TELLING
Do not underestimate the power and importance of stories. They are a key
component of any Local Solutions First! and transformation effort. For thousands of
years stories have played a primary role in creating and changing the culture of groups
and communities.
Early on, the people working to transform the Pine Ridge neighborhood found
that an easy and effective way to track progress was to share stories, some funny and
some not, about their experiences. Without intending this or even knowing it was
happening these stories began to flow out into the community. To the surprise of the
people working at Pine Ridge, offers of help began to flow back into the neighborhood.
For example, during a presentation in a nearby city a person active in the
transformation effort at Pine Ridge shared a story about kids trick or treating at Pine
Ridge for the first time in decades. After her presentation a member of the audience
stood up and thanked her for telling this story. He told the group that he had grown up
at Pine Ridge 20 years earlier, and then added that if he and his friends had done that
“we’d have been shot.” It was not long before both stories were circulating. The
following Halloween and every Halloween since then a civic club and local businesses
have sponsored a gala Halloween party for all the kids in the Pine Ridge neighborhood.
Cathedral builders are a particularly important source of stories that promote and
support neighborhood transformation. Most management systems do not identify or
reward these people. To find them you have to ask. A THA manager sat down with
THA’s custodians and told them the story about the three cathedral builders. He then
asked them to distinguish between what they do every day---their assigned tasks---and
the difference they make in the lives of residents. It took a while for this discussion to
take off, but when it did one of them said: “The difference I make is that I am the THA
employee most responsible for the health and safety of the 100 people in this high rise.”
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This insight was added to the job description of every custodian, and shortly thereafter
staff suggestions were used as the basis for a “what difference I make in the lives of
residents and program participants” section that was added to every THA job
description.
Collecting and sharing stories is important enough to justify encouraging a group
of people to assume responsibility for making sure this happens. Start with a few
people interested in this, and work out from there adding interested people from a
number of organizations. This team might do any of the following in any combination.
Encourage storytelling. Collect and share stories. Encourage organizations to include
stories in newsletters and written materials. Provide stories and pictures that
organizations can put on websites and distribute via social media. Be sure that
storytelling is a part of all community events and activities. Seek out and share
transformation related stories that are out there but not circulating broadly. Include
stories in training and training materials.
J. STEP 9 ANALYZE PROGRESS, IMPROVE, REPEAT STEPS 1-9
SCOREKEEPING
The Pine Ridge Partnership scorekeeping system has confirmation and
transformation elements. The Partnership uses data to confirm that it is making
scheduled progress from A to B, and it uses stories to track the transformation of the
neighborhood and the organizations that work there. Of the two, stories are far more
useful and powerful.
Most A to B scorekeeping measures for Partnership initiatives have been
selected in advance by funding sources outside the neighborhood for use outside the
neighborhood. Very few of these measures relate even indirectly to neighborhood
transformation. This form of scorekeeping is important, but it has limitations. Most
notably, it generally focuses on fixing individuals and families, and ignores or largely
ignores what is being done to them.
Neighborhood transformation scorekeeping involves capturing changes in the
culture of a neighborhood. These changes are not difficult to recognize, but it is difficult
to predict in advance what form they will take. The Pine Ridge Partnership knew that
Pine Ridge was transforming when the following happened.
 Holiday decorations started appearing on Pine Ridge homes
 Kids went trick or treating in Pine Ridge
 The neighborhood largely took responsibility for enrollment at the Pine
Ridge Prep pre-school
 Snowmen, women, and snow families began appearing in front yards
 When surveyed, Pine Ridge residents said that what they like best
about the Pine Ridge neighborhood is that it is “safe” and “quiet”
Organizational transformation scorekeeping involves capturing changes in the
culture of organizations rather than the culture of neighborhoods. Again, these changes
are not difficult to recognize, but it is difficult to predict what form they will take. Who
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would have predicted, for example, that something so simple as removing the
“Reserved for Executive Director” sign from the parking spot next to the front door and
insisting that staff park in the last row of the parking lot as far from the front door as
possible would have a significant effect on THA staff and program participants.
Similarly, who would have predicted that Pine Ridge Prep pre-school staff would
enthusiastically join the effort to systematically remove barriers between the pre-school
and Pine Ridge residents.
STORIES
Local Solutions First! and urban neighborhood and rural community
transformation are built on a foundation of cultural change. The best way to track and
promote cultural change is to tell stories. Here are some examples from Pine Ridge.
The woman who works at the front desk at THA’s office has internalized treating
people with dignity and respect, and doing the right thing right the first time, every time.
She is able to do this both over the phone and in person, in Spanish and English. One
day a person arrived at and left THA angry. As he left he made some extremely unkind
comments to her, to which she responded with her usual caring and kindness. She
watched him storm out of the building and get in his car. After starting to drive off he
pulled back into the parking space, got out of his car, returned to the building, and
apologized to her for what he had said.
The Pine Ridge Partnership has held a number of events to help Pine Ridge
residents and organization staff resist the 4 Ps---taking things personally that are not
personal, expecting people to do better than their best, resisting the efforts of people to
inflict pain, and not letting others own the past, present and future. The morning of the
second day of a two day training event a young woman announced to her coparticipants that “It works!” The person leading the session asked her to explain and
this was her story.
My husband is out of work, and has quit looking for a job. All he does is
sit at home and play video games. I come home from work worn out, and
he expects me to fix dinner, and clean up afterward. Usually we end up
shouting at each other.
Last night I decided to use what we learned yesterday. I did not take his
sitting there personally---he would be doing that no matter who he was
married to. I also told myself he was doing his best. It was not very good,
but it was his best. I did not blow up, and on his own he started talking
about finding a job.
The first year the Pine Ridge Prep pre-school offered a summer program it was
funded, designed, and implemented in a matter of days. Most of the applicants for the
newly opened positions had worked at Pine Ridge Prep during the school year, so they
were familiar with the school and the children. During the job interviews one of these
applicants was asked: “Why do you want to work here this summer?” She said nothing
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for several moments, then tears began to stream down her face. After she composed
herself she said: “These children have nothing.”
An executive of an insurance company in Topeka called the Director of Pine
Ridge Prep and offered to buy shoes and coats for the 51 three and four year olds
there. When an employee of the shoe store the insurance company contacted came to
Pine Ridge to measure the children’s feet almost every child “scrunched up” their toes.
The shoe store employee could not figure out why, but the Pine Ridge Prep staff person
helping him knew instantly. Almost every child at Pine Ridge Prep was wearing shoes
that were too small, and the children assumed this is how shoes fit.
And then there is the story of the “meatloaf” lady. After spending the afternoon in
a 4 Ps workshop this resident approached a THA staff member and said that she
wanted to talk about the meal served at a THA training session held at a local hotel four
years earlier. “That was the worst meatloaf I have every eaten. I still don’t understand
why you had them serve that.”
One person saw treating people with dignity and respect change someone in a
matter of minutes. Another person used ideas about not taking things personally that
are not personal and not expecting people to do better than their best to change her life
and potentially the life of her husband. Another person is so committed to the children
at Pine Ridge Prep that tears stream down her face just thinking about them. Children
who think shoes should scrunch up their toes are delighted to find this is not true. After
4 years a person is still taking meatloaf personally. They are all good stories.
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CHAPTER 5
THE THA CHANGE STORY
A. THE STARTING POINT
The people who began the Pine Ridge transformation journey were not notable
for what they knew about transforming an urban neighborhood. They knew almost
nothing when they started. They are notable because they set out to build something
that none of them had seen or could fully imagine. They are succeeding because they
have never doubted that they could and would transform THA and Pine Ridge. There is
nothing special about these traits. People in every neighborhood, community and
organization have them.
If they had understood at the outset that their transformation efforts would involve
progressing through five levels there is a lot that THA staff could have done better and
more quickly. It would also have helped if they had understood that each level involves
an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how essential it is to treat everyone with
dignity and respect, and to do the right thing right, the first time, every time.
In January of 1999 the Topeka Housing Authority (THA) was effectively bankrupt,
poorly run, and operating under court order. Pine Ridge, a 207 unit THA apartment
complex, was a dangerous place, and THA’s main office a half mile away was no safer.
The Topeka Police Department routinely sent two cars to calls at Pine Ridge. One
answered the call. The other provided backup, and kept the first car from being
vandalized. All THA management systems were in shambles. Very little of what THA
staff did was the right thing to do, and even less was done right. THA was serving
households with an average annual income of less than $10,000 which is stressful
enough. Living in THA housing that was poorly maintained, crime ridden, and badly
managed only made a bad situation worse for residents.
When a new management team arrived at the Topeka Housing Authority (THA)
in February of 1999 there were so many things wrong that it was difficult to know where
to begin. The team settled on treating everyone with dignity and respect, and doing the
right thing right, the first time, every time. This turned out to be a more powerful and
dynamic way of framing transformation efforts than anyone understood at the time.
The first work assignment the team made was to ask a maintenance worker to
remove the “Reserved for Executive Director” sign in front of the parking spot closest to
the front door. The second was to ask all staff members to go out and move their cars
to the row in the parking lot farthest from the building leaving the spaces closest to the
front door for applicants and program participants. When they returned to the building
the management team told everyone that going forward every THA staff member would
treat everyone with dignity and respect, and do the right thing, the first time, every time.
Hundreds of similar changes were made in the months and years that followed and the
results surprised the management team and everyone else, inside and outside THA.
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B. TRANSFORMATION LEVELS
THA’s journey through Level 1, Competence, during 1999 and 2000 was a first
try at treating people with dignity and respect, and doing the right thing right, the first
time, every time. This Competence extended to how staff thought about people,
interacted with them, and provided program services. Strategically, THA focused on the
problems and needs of individuals and families. Tactically, THA refined every
management system a number of times, refined every policy and administrative
document multiple times, and steadily improved every THA program.
From an organizational perspective Competence is zero. It does not take an
organization anywhere. However, it does defuse the anger and suspicion of program
participants, neighborhood residents, and the community, and it opens staff to the
possibility of organizational and neighborhood transformation.
At the end of 2000 THA’s operating costs were 41% lower than two years earlier,
and the number of families THA housed had increased 62% (from 950 to 1,540). At the
same time, stories from a variety of sources suggested that the culture of THA, the Pine
Ridge neighborhood, and the community had begun to change in a matter of months.
THA staff began taking pride in their work and in THA programs. People in the
neighborhood quit shooting at and throwing rocks through the windows of THA units
and THA’s office. Pine Ridge residents were saying good things about THA.
Community leaders were stopping THA Board members and employees at meetings
and events and saying versions of “I don’t know what it is, but whatever you are doing
over there is working.”
From 2001 through 2007 THA’s vision of treating people with dignity and respect,
and doing the right thing right, the first time, every time moved beyond Competence to
Level 2, Excellence, organization wide. Strategically, THA was concerned with what
was being done to people, and the stress this generates. Tactically, THA worked to
improve its relationships with organizations providing services in Pine Ridge, remove
barriers between THA and neighborhood residents and between neighborhood
residents and area service providers, and mobilize needed resources and services for
neighborhood residents.
Excellence moves organizations in a positive direction. It motivates staff, opens
doors in the community, frees up and generates resources, and encourages
neighborhood residents to become involved in and contribute to the success of
neighborhood initiatives.
At the end of 2007 THA was providing housing to 2,012 families, more than
double the 950 families THA provided housing in 1999, and THA had received many
awards for its programs and initiatives. Staff were urging friends and family members to
apply for jobs at THA. A steadily growing number of Pine Ridge residents were
participating in neighborhood events and get-togethers, spring and fall clean-up and
beautification days, recreation activities, and educational programs. Capable people at
well-respected organizations in town had begun calling and dropping by the office to ask
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about working at THA. When THA staff wore shirts or jackets out in the community with
THA’s logo on them people complimented them.
From 2008 through 2012 THA’s commitment to treating people with dignity and
respect, and doing the right thing right, the first time, every time, moved beyond a focus
on excellence to Level 3, Freedom. At this level the dozens of partners and hundreds of
volunteers involved in the work at Pine Ridge felt free to do big picture thinking and
actively explore Local Solutions First! and innovative neighborhood transformation
models and strategies. Strategically, these people were helping everyone in the
neighborhood rather than only some people, and supporting neighbors in their efforts to
work together to realize their hopes and dreams. Tactically, this involved the creation
and use of a transformation mechanism, the Pine Ridge Partnership, and the use of a
nine step transformation process.
Freedom allows communities, neighborhoods, organizations, and people to move
out to the edge where new and better ideas, innovative ways of pursuing opportunities,
and models different enough and powerful enough to make existing models obsolete
are found. Freedom excites and motivates people. People line up to sign up---to get
involved in something new, different, and better---and why not? They want to see and
play a part in good things happening in their neighborhood and community.
Since 2013 THA’s vision of treating people with dignity and respect, and doing
the right thing right, the first time, every time, has moved beyond exploring what is out at
the edge to Level 4, Neighborhood Transformation. THA is working in partnership with
dozens of agencies and organizations to substantively change the Pine Ridge
neighborhood. Strategically, THA and scores of partners are now working cooperatively
to design and implement new Local Solutions First! programs and projects that
systematically address hopes and dreams and environment, peace, justice, and
economic opportunity challenges in the Pine Ridge neighborhood.
Local Solutions First! and Transformation is a systemic solution to systemic
problems. It expands horizons and creates possibilities. It frees communities,
neighborhoods, organizations, and people from repeating what has not worked. It
makes it possible to create a new, different, and better future for families,
neighborhoods, and the community.
The Pine Ridge Partnership is now edging into Level 5, Neighborhood
Ownership. At this level treating people with dignity and respect, and doing the right
thing right, the first time, every time, is a matter of creating neighborhood based and
operated programs and services, the creation and nurturing of a local economy, and the
creation of combined neighborhood/rural economies. Tactically, the Partnership is
moving toward Local Solutions First!---the design and delivery of programs and services
at the neighborhood level by neighbors, and retaining consumer dollars in the
neighborhood. Level 5 projects to date include community gardens and a 600 square
foot aquaponics operation staffed by neighborhood high school students.
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THA staff did not envision that there were Levels 2, 3, 4, and 5 when they set out
to make THA a competent organization. If a successively deeper understanding of
treating people with dignity and respect, and doing the right thing right, the first time,
every time, can carry THA and its many partners through five transformation levels
there is no reason why it cannot do the same for the people engaged in Local Solutions
First! and transformation efforts in other neighborhoods and communities.
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CHAPTER 6
CHANGE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
A. OVERVIEW
The rural population is shrinking. On-farm income is down as is on-farm
employment. Urban income is greater than high density rural income which, in turn, is
greater than low density rural income, and the disparity between the three is growing.
Educational levels in rural areas are falling behind those of urban areas. The cost of
health care is higher and access to doctors and health services lower in rural areas, and
this is contributing to higher rural mortality rates.
At the same time, there is much about rural America that makes in Local
Solutions First! and transforming rural communities possible. Residents know each
other, and have a shared sense of the common good. Most of the insights and
discussion in this Workbook relating to urban neighborhoods can be used in the same
or modified form in transforming rural communities. The ideas that follow relate directly
to rural communities.
B. EVOLVING ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
In rural community transformation efforts the long accepted roles of the private,
non-profit, and public sectors are evolving, and will need to involve more. In most
instances in Local Solutions First! and transformation initiatives are now carried out by
two or three of these sectors working in partnership in new ways. Here is an example of
evolving roles from a small Midwestern town.
A Cafe as a Successful Private Business---The local cafe in the small town was
never hugely profitable, but for decades it was a successful venture that produced a fair
living for its owners and created part-time employment for local residents. During this
time the local bank provided financing for a number of owners.
A Cafe Subsidized by Local “Investors”---After years of declining revenues and
rising expenses the cafe had reached the point of producing an income for its owners
that was roughly $10,000 short of providing a fair return on the owner’s investment. The
local banker approached 50 local residents and asked each of them to invest $200
annually in the venture guaranteeing them they would lose their money. The alternative
was to have the cafe close leaving residents a 24 mile round trip to buy a cup of coffee.
This annual infusion of cash worked for a while, but this financing arrangement could
not be sustained indefinitely.
A Cafe as a Civic Club Activity---The local banker arranged to have the cafe
donated to a local civic club on the condition that the club would open it from 6 to 10
every morning to serve breakfast. Town residents still have a place to meet and talk,
and with an all-volunteer staff the cafe generates enough revenue to cover expenses
and to support civic club projects.
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C. IDEAS
K-12 Schools---Rural communities tax themselves to operate K-12 schools that
provide students knowledge, skills, and attitudes that can only be used outside these
communities. When students graduate from high school many of these communities
collect private money to pay them to leave---in the form of college scholarships. Rural
K-12 schools could provide students in Local Solutions First! and transformation
knowledge, skills and attitudes that would strengthen the local economy, make the area
more attractive to young people, and reverse outmigration. (Note: urban schools do
much the same thing, only they prepare students to live in the suburbs.)
Affordable Housing---A small town could create its own campground. This could
include pre-built and build your own cabins and micro-homes, outdoor games and play
areas, a community room with games and indoor recreation opportunities, garden
areas, workshops, a kitchen, a dining area, and bathroom/shower facilities. It could also
include a RV park. Local people could live there year around at very reasonable rates.
Visiting family members and friends from out of the area could stay there, and it would
attract travelers.
Aquaponics---There is indoor space in every town that could be used for an
aquaponics operation---fish tanks and plants grown in symbiotic combination. School
staff and partners (USDA, Extension Office, local garden club, etc.) could recruit and
support the efforts of 14 to 18 year olds who would “own” and operate this project. The
project would be a multi-faceted learning tool as the youth would be involved in every
aspect of it. Some food would be sold and some would be given away to area elderly
and disabled persons. Most of the sales proceeds would go back into the project, but
some money could be set aside for stipends for participating youth. After high school
graduation some of these youth could start a business venture or ventures installing and
maintaining similar operations. This might generate enough capacity to make possible
contracts to provide herbs, vegetables, and fish to high end restaurants in urban areas.
Solar Greenhouses---The price of solar panels has dropped to the point that with
some local support, it is possible to build and operate financially viable solar green
houses. (See the Aquaponics description, above.)
Community Gardens---Local governments working with area non-profits could
provide water, space, supplies, and equipment for community gardens. This could
include a community canning site, and a Farmers Market.
Grocery Store---A town that no longer has a grocery store could open one, hire
people to staff it, buy the food sold there locally to the extent possible, and “give away”
groceries to locals. (Note: this assumes it is possible to use home rule options to levy a
fee or tax equal to the dollar amount of groceries families receive. If this is possible, this
arrangement would create local jobs and have tax advantages for local residents.)
Urban Area Time Shares---It is common for people who live in rural areas to
occasionally spend weekends in an urban area within reasonable driving distance.
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They also travel to urban areas for health care, to visit children, and for other reasons.
A town or local non-profit could buy and offer residents the opportunity to spend time in
a condo in a nearby large city at below market rates. It might also be possible for
residents of the town who stay in one of these units to make an agreed on, tax free, per
night donation to the town or non-profit. This would generate a tax write off rather than
a vacation expense, thereby further reducing lodging costs for these trips.
Cafes, Bars, Restaurants---There are now a variety of cafes, bars, and
restaurants in small towns that are owned and operated either by local governments or
by non-profits and staffed largely or entirely by volunteers.
Once a Month Gourmet Dinner---Many residents of rural areas drive to a large
city to have dinner occasionally. Volunteers could turn an existing local building,
preferably one with some character, into a fancy restaurant. The community could also
use this space for meetings and other purposes. One night a month a fixed price
gourmet meal could be prepared there by a visiting chef. This could be the same chef
or one of a rotating number of chefs. The town or a local non-profit could make all the
arrangements, take reservations, and arrange for the wait staff. The chef would only
need to show up, prepare the meal, and collect his or her fee.
Technology Access---A civic group could take on the task of providing internet
access, laptops, cell phones, etc. and technical support to elderly and disabled area
residents that would allow them to communicate electronically with each other and with
friends and family members across the country. Local high school students could help
their neighbors use this technology. The friends and family members across the
country who participate could make tax free contributions to this project to cover its
operating costs, and, potentially, to make community improvements of interest and
benefit to the participating youth.
Expanded Library Services---There is no limit to what a small town library could
make available for check out to local residents. In addition to checking out books, CDs,
etc. a library could check out boats, cars, trucks, lawnmowers, snow blowers, health
care equipment, art work, camping trailers and equipment, etc. There could be fees
sufficient to cover costs associated with checking out these items. It might also be
possible for borrowers to make tax free donations to the library to cover these costs.
Family Rooms---It is a lot easier to raise children in a small house if they have
easy access to a large, open space where they can jump and play. Empty schools,
churches, or commercial space could be converted to family rooms open to area
residents. Different family rooms could be designed and developed for different age
groups. Volunteers could take turns opening and closing these sites.
Play and Fitness Space---A rural community could use existing indoor and
outdoor space to house
a climbing wall, bounce house, putt-putt golf course,
croquet court, weight room, splash-park, driving range, putting green, horseshoe pit,
bocce court, handicrafts and hobbies area, fitness center, and more.
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CHAPTER 7
CAPACITY BUILDING
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its
creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of
brotherhood…I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi…will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I Have a Dream” speech
August 28, 1963
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a
nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from
a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and
computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than
people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being
conquered.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech
April 4, 1967
A. INTRODUCTION
Examples of a variety of types of useful and enjoyable group exercises that build
Local Solutions First! and transformation knowledge, skills, and attitudes follow. There
is no limit to the number of learning opportunities large and small groups can explore.
Big Picture thinking plays an essential role in any transformation process, and this
should also be an important part of Local Solutions First! and transformation learning.
Beyond this, the easiest way to find out what people are interested in learning more
about is to ask them. Then, encourage them to join with others in exxploring the topics
that interest them most.
B. TECHNIQUES
The following techniques contribute to the success of large and small Local
Solutions First! and transformation capacity building events and activities.
Minimize the input of talkers and maximize the input of non-talkers by finding
ways for every participant to provide input for every topic addressed. For example,
hand out slips of paper or half page surveys, have people write their responses, collect
them, then aggregate the results on flip chart paper or a whiteboard at the front of the
room. Involve non-talkers by asking them to help with aggregating the responses.
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Do not let more than ten minutes go by without finding ways for people to move
around. One way to do this is to put surveys or short questionnaires on flip chart paper
or a whiteboard at the front of the room and have people come up and write in their
answers.
Have people work in small groups so they get to know each other. Change the
composition of these groups often. This will allow people to get to know and interact
with each other.
Take advantage of the “research” capacity of cell phones and other electronic
devices. Everyone will not have one, so divide people into the smallest groups possible
with at least one person who does.
They do not have to share them---early on in the capacity building work before
people have gotten to know each other it may be better if they do not---but whenever
possible have people write down their “guesstimates” of the answers to questions that
have specific answers before these topics are explored. When they compare their
answers with the “research” answers people will begin to realize that much of what they
“know” is not correct. Some people will find humor in their stunningly inaccurate
answers. If so, enjoy this with them.
Have fun.
C. REMOVING BARRIERS BETWEEN PEOPLE
The barriers between people can be immense which complicates building the
foundation of culture change that underlies Local Solutions First! and transformation
efforts. Neighbors and the staffs of organizations that work in neighborhoods need
knowledge, skills and attitudes that will help them treat everyone with dignity and
respect, and do the right thing right, the first time every time.
An obvious but often ignored starting point for removing barriers is that people
change. The person someone else is today is not the person he or she will be
tomorrow. This suggests that disagreements today should not be taken too seriously.
They may not be disagreements tomorrow.
Exercise #1 Martin Luther King, Jr. (Large or small groups that report to the large
group)
The quotations that open this Chapter suggest how much Martin Luther King,
Jr.’s thinking changed in less than four years. What are the major differences between
the two quotations? How did people inside the Civil Rights Movement react after King
gave his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech?
Note: This can be done with or without “research” by asking small groups to
discuss these two questions and then report their conclusions to the large
group, or it can be done as a large group discussion.
Exercise #2 Stages of Development
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How many stages of youth development did Jean Piaget identify? _____
How many stages of social development did Erik Erikson identify? _____
How many stages of moral development did Lawrence Kohlberg identify? _____
Note: This can be done by asking small groups to “research” these questions
and then report their findings to the large group, or it can be done as a large
group “research” and discussion effort.
What is the underlying human phenomenon that Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg
are addressing?
Note: This can be done by asking small groups to discuss this question and
then report their conclusions to the large group, or it can be done as a large
group discussion.
Exercise #3 The Richest 1%
Anyone in the U.S. who has a net worth of more than $6.9 million is in the top 1%
in terms of wealth. What is the net worth of the following radio and TV talk show hosts,
political commentators, and pundits? Feel free to add names to the list.
Anderson Cooper
Ann Coulter
Bill O’Reilly
Charles Krauthammer
Greta Van Susteren
Laura Ingraham
Megan Kelly
Rachel Maddow
Rob Lowe
Rush Limbaugh
Sean Hannity
Tucker Carlson
Wolf Blitzer
_______________
_______________
_______________
Your Guess
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
“Research” Number
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
$____________
Note: Be sure to guess first---either as individuals or as the consensus of a
small group. Then, small groups can “research” these questions and report
their findings to the large group. This can also be done as a large group
“research” and discussion effort. (Hint: Type “net worth of (name)” into any
search engine.)
What if anything, does this suggest about why these people choose to cover the
topics they do, avoid the topics they avoid, and what they say or do not say about
them?
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Note: This can be done by asking small groups to discuss this question and
then report their conclusions to the large group, or it can be done as a large
group discussion.
D. THE THREE CHANGE QUESTIONS
Exercise #4 Why is change necessary?
What do you, your small group, the entire group, think are the most important
reasons change is necessary in urban neighborhoods and rural communities?
Note: This can be done by asking small groups to come up with 3-5 reasons
why they think transformation is necessary. These small groups can then
report their conclusions to the large group. As the small groups report to the
large group, consolidate the answers that address the same topic. One
interesting option is to ask people to rank the topics on the final list from Most
Important to Least Important.
Exercise #5 What would be better?
Local Solutions First! may be a What that is unfamiliar to you and your group.
Work with others to think through the benefits and features of this approach.
Note: Features and benefits are the building blocks for advertisements.
Explore examples of both so the group gets an idea of what is involved Then,
ask small groups to come up with 3-5 key benefits and 3-5 key features of a
Local Solutions First! initiative. These small groups can report their
conclusions to the large group. As the small groups report to the large group,
consolidate the responses that address the same topic.
Exercise #6 How will this better alternative be put in place?
Urban neighborhood and rural community transformation may be a How that is
unfamiliar to you and your group. Think and talk through five levels of treating everyone
with dignity and respect, and doing the right thing right, the first time, every time. Has
your organization or any organization you are familiar with tried this? How did it work?
Think and talk through the Nine Change Steps. What seems right about them?
What does not? What Steps are familiar to you What Steps are not? What is
missing? Small groups can report their conclusions to the large group. As the small
groups report to the large group, consolidate the answers that address the same topic,
and discuss issues of most concern to participants.
E. BIG PICTURE THINKING
No urban neighborhood or rural community transformation will succeed if the
people involved do not do Big Picture thinking. It is not possible to do too many Big
Picture thinking exercises.
Exercise #7 The Declaration of Independence
The “unalienable” rights that “all men” enjoy as described in the Declaration of
Independence can be a five minute “research” project. Ask participants to find most or
all of the answers to the following questions. How many signers were there? How
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many were men and how many were women? How many were people of color? How
many were slave holders? How many were land owners? How many were not? How
many were wealthy? How many were of limited financial means? Who could vote and
hold office in 1776? Estimate what percentage of the colonial population in 1776 had a
realistic expectation of enjoying the unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness?
Note: This can be done by asking small groups to “research” one or more of
these questions, and then report their findings conclusions to the large group.
Every small group should be asked to come up with an answer to the last
question. The large group can then discuss the products of this “research,”
particularly the answer to the last question.
Exercise #8 Christopher Columbus ______________ America in 1492.
Put this sentence on a flip chart at the front of the room. Hand each participant a
sticky note and ask them to write one word on it that fills in this blank. Ask them to
come up and put their sticky note on the blank. Most people in the room will write the
word “discovered.”
Note: Small groups of participants can be assigned five minute “research”
projects that involve finding answers to the following questions.
The islands Columbus reached in 1492 are now known as the Bahamas,
Cuba, and Hispaniola. Were there people living on these islands in 1492? If
so, how many? How long had they and their ancestors been there? Did
Columbus see and meet with them? What happened?
Were there people living on the continent of North America in 1492? If so,
how many, and how long had they and their ancestors been there?
After small groups have shared their “research” results the large group can
explore the following questions. If people had lived in America for hundreds
of years before he arrived, why do people use the word “discover” to describe
what Columbus did in America in 1492?
What impact has this version of the past had on people living in the Bahamas,
Cuba, Hispaniola, and on the continent of North America? What impact is it
having now? What impact will it have in the future?
Exercise #9 Creating Personal, Performance, Pain, and Past (4 Ps) Work Teams
Participants can discuss how best to create and support a number of
neighborhood groups that meet regularly to help member understand and act on four
insights. (See Chapter 2, A) No one should take things personally that are not
Personal. No one can Perform at a level that is better than their best. People do not
have to live with physical and emotional Pain directed toward them. No one should rob
children and other adults of their Past, present and future. These ideas can then be
shared with the large group.
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At their meetings these groups can share positive and negative examples of
“Personal, Performance, Pain, and Past/present/future” comments they have heard
since the group’s last meeting. Anyone who listens for them will hear examples
everywhere.
Group members can also share comments they made the previous week that
promote wellness in response to 4 Ps comments directed toward them or said in their
presence that did not. When the group feels comfortable doing this, start sharing
successes in terms of getting neighbors to respond positively rather than negatively to
“Personal, Performance, Pain, and Past/present/future” comments.
Exercise #10 The $100 Deposit That Was Returned
Review the $100 Deposit Story (see pages 22-23).
Questions for today---What were the economic benefits to the neighborhood of
the $100 deposit that was returned? Were there non-economic benefits? If so what
were they? What products and services are available now in the neighborhood? What
additional products and services could be available next year at this time? Who wants
to serve on a work group to expand the local economy?
Questions for tomorrow---Any neighborhood that sets out to expand its local
economy will quickly find that the established economic system exercises a substantial
amount of control over local economies through both tax and regulatory policies. This is
not an insurmountable barrier to success, but it does need to be addressed. Over time,
local economies will need to become increasingly sophisticated to avoid tax and
regulatory enforcement policies that threaten their existence. What are some potential
threats and some possible responses in this regard?
Note: Small groups can address these questions, then share their
conclusions with the large group for a broader discussion.
Exercise #11 “Old Rex”
If large or small groups are having difficulty discussing Big Picture thinking it may
help to give them structured ways to think about the issues involved. It is a simple
matter to come up with handouts with questions like those below to get discussions
started (see page 21).
OLD REX---GUESSES
Public Employees
1) How many elected officials and public employees will it take to get Old Rex to stop
barking at night? ___________
2) How long will it take them? __________________
3) On a scale of 1 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (very satisfied) how satisfied will the
homeowner ____ and neighbors _____ be at the end of this process?
4) How much will this cost taxpayers? $__________ The owner? ___________
Neighbors
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1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
How likely is it that neighbors walking down the alley on Old Rex’s block will see
unused fence posts and fencing that people would give away, particularly if they
knew it would be used to keep Old Rex quiet at night?
How many neighbors will it take to use these materials to fix Old Rex’s fence
______?
How long will it take them? ______________
On a scale of 1 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (very satisfied) how satisfied will the
homeowner ____ and neighbors be at the end of this process? ____
What is a reasonable estimate of the total (direct and indirect costs) that this
solution will cost taxpayers? $__________
When this story gets out, how likely is it that more neighbors will be involved in the
next Old Rex type project?
Exercise #12 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
In the mid-1990s Vincent Felitti led a team that identified and studied the impact
of ten Adverse Childhood Experiences on 17,000 mostly white, professional adults. The
ten are…
1. Emotional abuse
6. Domestic violence
2. Physical abuse
7. Household substance abuse
3. Sexual abuse
8. Household mental illness
4. Emotional neglect
9. Parental separation or divorce
5. Physical neglect
10. An incarcerated household member
Felitti’s team found that as children 13% of the 17,000 adults in this study had 4
or more of the 10 ACEs. These adults differed from adults who had one or two ACEs
as children in that they were…
3 Times more likely to be chronically depressed
2 Times more likely to be smokers
2 Times more likely to miss two or more days of work a month
2 Times more likely to experience serious financial problems
9 Times more likely to attempt suicide
2 Times more likely to be teen parents
2 Times more likely more likely (women) and 4 times more likely
(men) to perpetrate domestic violence
2 Times more likely to experience adult alcoholism
Generally speaking, the more Adverse Childhood Experiences a person has the
worse these numbers are. The average annual income of the households whose
children attend the Pine Ridge Prep pre-school is a bit less than $10,000. Two-thirds of
these children face at least 4 forms of Adverse Childhood Experiences every day, and a
third face 7 or more.
When they hear about the ACEs Survey, people will want to complete it. It only
takes a few minutes. A word of caution, though. Some people will want to talk about
their score. Some will not. It is important not to single out anyone, make anyone feel
uncomfortable, or violate anyone’s confidentiality. Here is the survey.
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ACES SURVEY
PRIOR TO YOUR 18TH BIRTHDAY…
1. Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often….
Swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? OR,
Act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt?
If yes enter 1 _____
2. Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often…..
Push, grab, slap, or throw something at you? OR, Ever hit you so
hard that you had marks or were injured?
If yes enter 1 _____
3. Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever….
Touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way? OR,
Attempt or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you?
If yes enter 1 _____
4. Did you often or very often feel that…..
No one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special? OR,
Your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support
each other?
If yes enter 1 _____
5. Did you often or very often feel that.....
You didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to
protect you? OR, Your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take
you to the doctor if you needed it?
If yes enter 1 _____
6. Was a biological parent ever lost to you through divorce, abandonment, or other
reason?
If yes enter 1 _____
7. Was your mother or stepmother:
Often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her?
OR, Sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with
something hard? OR, Ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or
threatened with a gun or knife?
If yes enter 1 _____
8. Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic or who used
street drugs?
If yes enter 1 _____
9. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill or did a household member
attempt suicide?
If yes enter 1 _____
10. Did a household member go to prison?
If yes enter 1 _____
Total Yes
_____
This is your ACEs score
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There are many ways to compare anonymously the results of a local group
taking the ACEs Survey with the 17,000 people in the original ACEs study. If the group
is small members can write their score on a card and drop it in a box or basket. The
discussion leader can then take out the cards, total them, and provide the group its
average score. If the group is large enough to protect the anonymity of group members,
cards collected anonymously and a sheet of flip chart paper with the numbers 1 to 10
written across the top can be used to compare the range of scores in the group and the
percent of group members with any score with the results of the 17,000 person study.
It is helpful to suggest to any group using the ACEs Survey that providing people
the tools to overcome ACEs will be a key feature of any transformation effort. At least
some people present will want to begin working on this immediately. They should be
encouraged to do so.
Exercise #13 Change Mechanisms
It is helpful to review the features of an effective Change Mechanism before
creating one. The following survey can be used for this purpose. After a Change
Mechanism is in place, this survey can be used to assess its effectiveness.
TRANSFORMATION MECHANISM QUIZ
A. CHARACTERISTICS
Yes
Does your Transformation Mechanism…
Have the support of key local decision makers?
Have an identity independent of the Partners involved?
Operate very differently than any Partner organization?
Generate excitement and support across the community?
Have a social media presence larger than the community?
Rely on “Big Picture” thinking?
Act as a magnet for innovators in the community?
B. SHARED PASSION AND ENTHUSIASM
Are the people involved eager to share stories, learning, ideas?
When they ask each other for help, do they need this help…
Within a week?
In less than an hour?
C. FAMILIARITY AND TRUST
Do several Partners have keys/codes to transformation sites?
Do the staff of Partners know/greet the staff of other Partners?
When Partners speak publically are they confident they have
the support and backing of other Partners?
D. LEADERSHIP AND DECISION MAKING
Is decision making and leadership routinely shared across Partners
without regard for hierarchy and titles?
Does responsibility for leadership and decision making shift easily
from person to person and across Partner organizations?
E. RESOURCES
Is it common for more than one organization to offer to pay
No
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for consultants, materials, supplies, fees, etc.?
Do organizations/people contribute resources without being asked?
F. BOARD INVOLVEMENT
Do Board members of Partners…
Participate in transformation activities and decision making?
Know and interact with members of other Partner Boards?
Know and interact with staff of other Partner organizations?
G. OPERATIONS
Do people say “yes” first then figure how to make “yes” happen?
Has saying “yes” produced a mistake that is now a laugh line?
Can a $1k+ item be in use 30 minutes after the decision to buy it?
Score
0-4
5-12
13-19
20-23
This is…
Business as usual
A start, but not much of a start
Moving toward a Change Mechanism
You have a Change Mechanism
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CHAPTER 8
CREATING A MOVEMENT
A. LOOKING FORWARD
Growing inequality is making it increasingly difficult for families to meet their
basic needs, and they are finding it even more difficult to fulfill their hopes and dreams.
Some progress is being made, but in general environmental, peace, justice, and
economic opportunity movements and initiatives are struggling. Given the broad arc of
change in the U.S. economic and political systems over the past several decades it
seems more likely than not that the Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness
of the bottom 99% of the U.S. population will contract over the next generation rather
than expand. This suggests that something very different must be done to produce a
different, more equitable outcome, and it raises three questions.
Can the people who live and work in urban neighborhoods and rural communities
use the ideas, learning, and experiences described in this Workbook to design and
implement Local Solutions First! and transform their neighborhoods and communities?
The work done at Pine Ridge suggests that the answer to this question is yes. There
are people in every urban neighborhood and rural community who have the capacity to
drive and shape a similar two part initiative.
Will they? The answer to this question is not as clear. Getting started is the
hardest part. After that, a Local Solutions First! and transformation effort that cycles
through the Nine Transformation steps creates its own momentum.
Will people who live and work in urban neighborhoods and rural communities use
the ideas, learning, and experiences described in this Workbook to design and carry out
enough successful Local Solutions First! and transformation efforts in enough urban
neighborhoods and rural communities across the country to bend the arc of change
toward rather than away from Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness for
the bottom 99% of the U.S. population? The answer to this question is a question. Is
there a better alternative?
B. MOVING FORWARD
It is fair to point out that there are missing pieces of the urban neighborhood and
rural community Local Solutions First! and transformation puzzle. There are very few
places where people from a number of organizations have joined in partnership to work
through the five levels of treating everyone with dignity and respect and doing the right
thing right, the first time, every time described in this Workbook. Similarly, there are
very few places where people from a number of organizations have joined in
partnership to use a multi-step transformation process that begins with a commitment to
build something no one has seen, and requires sustained Big Picture thinking. Finally,
there are few places where people have had the opportunity to develop, practice and
refine the Local Solutions First! and transformation leadership skills described above.
(Page 26)
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The transformation experiences at Pine Ridge suggest that these missing puzzle
pieces are only temporary barriers to success. Wherever a few people step up and say
any version of “we need to build something none of us has seen,” there will be other
people who are quick to agree. With a bit of nurturing these can be the starting point for
Local Solutions First! and for transformation efforts, and the people involved will find this
Workbook useful. People with transformation leadership skills will emerge if they are
given the freedom to use the skills they possess but have not opportunity to apply in
hierarchical organizations. These additional Local Solutions First! and transformation
efforts will produce the missing pieces of the transformation puzzle.
C. CREATING A NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT
There are thousands of Public Housing Authorities, Community Mental Health
Centers, Community Action Agencies, public and private pre-schools and schools,
community development organizations, affordable housing providers, and similar
entities in thousands of communities that have tens of thousands of employees who
provide assistance to millions of households. There are people at all levels of these
networks who have: created and maintained websites and electronic forums; produced
and distributed all manner of position papers, policy documents, training materials, howto manuals, newsletters, and magazines; done fund raising; done public speaking;
provided training and done consulting; provided legal support to fledgling organizations;
and, engaged in other Transformation Movement related activities.
There are dozens of national associations that provide their members in-depth
information and sophisticated support. Currently, little of this information sharing and
support focuses on transforming urban neighborhoods and rural communities, but this
could easily be added to what is being done now. Association websites could have
sections devoted to transformation learning, problem solving, and idea sharing.
Transformation challenges and issues could be a regular topic of discussion at state,
regional, and national association meetings and events. Associations could sponsor or
co-sponsor transformation training, and they could mobilize resources for transformation
efforts. Staff members from a number of associations could form an inter-association
work group to promote and coordinate transformation support efforts across a variety of
associations. Finally, there are foundations that provide financial support and
assistance to cutting edge initiatives, organizations, and groups. It would take only a
small fraction of these people, organizations, and resources to create a national
transformation movement.
The Next Steps path is straightforward. The Local Solutions First! and Nine Step
Change Process described in this Workbook can be modified as necessary for use in
similar efforts in urban neighborhoods and rural communities across the country. There
are people in every state doing important Local Solutions First! and transformation
related work, but they have no practical way to identify, get in touch with, learn from,
and support each other’s efforts. Associations could fill this gap. Specifically, they
could jump-start this process by using their communications networks to identify and
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connect people across the country who have decided that it is time to build something
no one has seen (Step 1), and to start doing sustained Big Picture thinking (Step 2).
This will create enough momentum to allow hundreds of new Local Solutions
First! and transformation initiatives to move on to building change mechanisms (Step 3),
adopting a Change Process (Step 4), and getting clear on A (Step 5) and B (Step 6).
These local initiatives and national association staff could jointly take on the challenges
of capacity building (Step 7), setting out on the journey, (Step 8) and analyzing
progress, making refinements, and repeating steps 1-9 (Step 9).
Could all this happen in the next five years? Sure. Why not? Is this a way
forward? Yes. Would this move family and neighborhood development, environmental,
peace, justice, and economic opportunity initiatives from playing defense to playing
offense; from taking what they can get to doing what needs to be done? Yes, it would.
The time is now. The choice is yours.
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