In our experiment to use space to bring together people to develop projects to help tackle the climate crisis, we’re thinking about how we support collaborations. We don’t just want to help people develop projects to tackle the climate crisis, we want to use the diversity of networks using the space to connect projects, ideas & people to develop collaborations that can turn into movements! I’ve written about the different ways you can run these types of activities from ad-hoc events to sustained programmes.
What do we want to test?
Every Saturday morning in November and December, we’re hosting Think, Do and Make, an incubator for collaborations.
We want to help people develop projects together, connect with other people around common challenges and help them take forward collaborations together.
What will we have
Ideas that people have thought about through being in the space. We’re using the activities and the design of the space to get people imagining ways to tackle the climate crisis in their neighbourhood, so there will be ideas developed through the activities and ideas that have popped into people’s heads that they can post on our Ideas Wall
Ideas which have been tested and become projects. We’re inviting people who are already running activities and projects to tackle the climate crisis. They may be running sessions in the space or may be ideas tested locally.
Projects which have been going for a while. These will mature projects which may have defined ways of tackling an issue and doing things. They will benefit from that exposure and reach but could benefit from some external challenge to help them pivot or improve.
Projects which have turned into networks or organisations. These will groups of people who initially worked on a project and that scaled up to such an extent that it gave birth to new projects and ideas so they’ve taken the step to organise the community. They will be cohesive groups and could benefit from learning from other communities.
Who do we want to come?
People with ideas. These people will want other people to believe in their ideas and help to take them forward. We need to listen to what motivates them and how the spirit & methods they’re using could be connected into other ideas or projects on a similar theme, without everyone trying to advance only their idea at the expense of other people’s.
People who want to come up with ideas. These people will want the opportunity to brainstorm ideas with other people. We need to create the space for them to connect with other people and bounce off each other.
People who want to test ideas. These people are ready and eager to make their ideas turn into reality. They may need specific help like design, communications, space, equipment, technology and other people to form a group. We need to connect them to those people and also identify what is the hypothesis they want to test to connect them to people tackling similar issues.
People who want to facilitate collaboration. These people are less about promoting individual ideas and more about how to support people to collaborate. They will need people who want to collaborate and who have a common interest. We need to support these people to facilitate and create questions that can help them guide people towards collaborating.
People who want to promote their ideas or projects. These people may have already implemented their ideas or projects and now want an audience to use or take part in them. We need to connect them to different audiences and to people with similar ideas or projects so they can promote a wider movement than just their idea.
People who want to connect people & ideas around a similar theme. These people love connecting people and creating movements. They will need people who share a common need or interest and who’ve got the energy and networks to make it happen. We need to support them to get in between the facilitated sessions and more open spaces to be able to do the connections and share their stories.
People who want to scale. These people see projects all around them work really well and then not be able to grow and sustain. They want to bring their skills to help projects scale in different ways. We need to identify people with different skills & experiences of scaling to help people developing collaborative projects to think about how to sustain the energy.
Curating journey of systems change
We’re thematising each week around a stage in the journey of systems change for this space. Every Saturday morning, we’ll help people develop collaborations, focused on the stage in the journey we’re on and the themes that have risen to the surface.
We’ll first check in and help people get to know each other. We’ll then share what people have learnt over the week through the different feedback and stories we’ve got to set the context and connect their creativity to create collaborations with all the activity that’s taken place over the week. A long tail of insights and action if you will!
Before we get into creating collaborations, we want to open up people’s imaginations in different and radical ways, to challenge and inspire them. There are many methods of creating change and we’ve got the diversity of people and experiences that people can learn new methods every week.
We’ll then get practical and have different facilitators to help people collaborate. In advance, we’ll have clustered ideas and projects people have put forward into themes. We’ll then group people by those themes and support them to collaborate.
- What’s the common challenge your ideas/projects are trying to tackle?
- What elements of your ideas & projects can you mutualise to form one collaborative project
- What skill & resource can you each bring to make this a sustainable project?
- What could you test over the next week to see how well it’s tackling the issue and what you need to work on next weekend?
We’ll then provide exercises & methods that help people take forward the collaboration in between sessions. That way we hope to build energy & momentum in between the Think, Do & Makes!
Think, Do & Pledge
Would you be up for facilitating one or more of these sessions? Would you be up for connecting people to develop collaborations? Would you be up for sharing methods you’ve used to help people develop, test or scale projects?
