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Sustainable RacineFall, 1997 through Summer, 1998Sustainable Racine in Racine, Wisconsin is a community building effort founded on the three sustainability principles of economic health, environmental health, and social equity. RKI worked with a core group of Racine area citizens to design a series of public events and to prepare volunteer facilitators to run the significant number of public meetings Sustainable Racine launched on January 31, 1998. In addition, we guided the ongoing development of a facilitator core group that included more than 100 citizen volunteers. Visit the Sustainable Racine website for more information. More about RKI's work with Sustainable Racine: Background BackgroundSustainable Racine began in 1996 through the leadership of Sam Johnson, the CEO of SC Johnson Wax, who served on the White House Council on Sustainability. Sustainable Racine received initial funding from the Johnson Foundation, located in the Racine area. In its first year, dedicated Board and Committee members conducted a large town hall meeting with national guests, carried out a series of more than 20 structured conversations with small groups recruited to reflect Racine's diversity, developed a communication plan, and hired the first Executive Director, Ron Thomas. Ron began work in July, 1997. He expressed an early interest in fostering facilitated process as the Sustainable Racine way of doing business. He wanted to recruit a large number of volunteer facilitators, offer them lots of enriching development opportunities, put them to work whenever Sustainable Racine engaged the public, and ultimately change the way such public work happens throughout Racine. RKI began visiting Racine in early September, 1997. We helped design and implement a major piece of public work, completed in the summer of 1998, that involved developing a community-based vision for a sustainable future for the Racine area. Sustainable Racine launched this work with 23 simultaneous public meetings and an interactive cable-cast on the morning of Saturday, January 31, 1998. Each of the 23 groups identified community treasures they wanted to sustain for at least three generations, and developed visions of things not presently in existence – "rainbows" – they want to put in place for the long term. Participants also chose delegates to the Sustainable Racine "Vision Council," and, if they wished, signed up for Community Organizing Committees intended to work on local improvements neighbors could carry out together. Over several sessions, RKI trained the facilitators, recorders, and hosts for the 23 sessions. In June, 1998 the 150 member-Vision Council "unveiled" its integrated vision for the Racine area's sustainable future. The unveiling was the centerpiece of a community celebration. The Facilitation StorySeptember – October, 1997 In September, Sustainable Racine staff began recruiting people interested in facilitating. At a minimum we needed about 75 people who would agree to spend about 20 hours both learning and performing facilitation in the next eight months, until the completion of the vision phase. Staff advertised, wrote letters of invitation, and called people. They invited everyone to a "what is this all about" session at a local high school on a weeknight in October. About 80 people came, listened as a handful of the core group members described the upcoming process as best they could (its design was still being developed), and asked questions. We invited people to sign up that night, or to send in information over the next few weeks. December, 1997 Staff kept up their recruiting efforts, and at the first facilitator development session in early December, more than 100 people showed up to begin the process. The first session was a 2.5 hour orientation to each other, to the facilitation development crew who would be their guides, and to the vision development process – as much as we could tell them. You guessed it – we were still working on the design for the January 31 event even as we launched the first facilitator development session. At the orientation we used one device and one worthwhile process other people might like to use. The device related to name tags. Staff prepared name tags, and put all of them in a basket. As people arrived, each drew a name tag and then went to find that person and introduce her or himself. We wanted each person to have a personal conversation with at least two other people before the session began, and we wanted to "mix up" the usual clusters of people who gravitate, quite humanly, to those people they already know. This name tag device added to the good energy people brought with them to this first session. The worthwhile process we used was human spectrums. Early in the orientation we devoted about 25 minutes to getting all 100+ people on their feet and into one long continuous line, in response to prompts we gave them. The first prompt was for fun, and asked people to organize themselves according to their birth month and day, from January 1 on the extreme left to December 31 on the extreme right. (This was not about age. YEAR of birth did not count.) People had to talk to each other informally to make this happen, and once they were in place, we encouraged them to greet any people within easy reach who were new to them. After the birthday spectrum, we used several spectrums that reflected preferences and gave people a chance to see easily some interesting features of their group. We love to use spectrums early in our work with groups. Spectrums build energy, engage people, and give every person a common framework for later work together. Read more about how to set up and use Human Spectrums in the Fall, 1998 issue of Best Practices, RKI's newsletter. People left the orientation in good spirits and we felt confident we would see all of them again at the more intensive January sessions. We were right. People came back, and even a few more joined. January 17, 1998 On Saturday, January 17, we offered a full-day training focused on five basic facilitation principles:
We also tested the "heart" of the treasures and rainbows process we intended to use on January 31. We asked for feedback and we got it. People told us in considerable detail what we should change and what they needed in order to be prepared to facilitate the process in two weeks. We heard them. The facilitator development crew caucused briefly and decided which set of suggestions to accept. RKI took responsibility for preparing the final facilitators' guide for January 31, to be handed out at the next facilitator development session on January 22. People had told us they wanted specifics and examples, which the guide now provided. It also provided a column of verbatim text for the entire 3.5 hour session, an outline of each part of the session, and a set of instructions for both lead facilitators and the support facilitators who were to record and provide a variety of types of assistance during the sessions. January 22, 1998 The January 22 session was a turning point in facilitator development, for two reasons. First, the fledgling facilitators saw their ideas reflected back to them in the new, complete facilitators' guide for the January 31 session (146 KB, pdf). They assumed a new attitude – an owners' attitude – based on their strong influence on the shape of the design. Second, facilitators met their whole teams for the first time. Sustainable Racine staff put the teams together based on people's preferences, as much as possible. Each team had at least three members. Some teams had eight or nine members. After meeting each other, many teams began scheduling separate sessions to practice together, develop each person's specific role, and get as ready as possible for January 31. January 31, 1998 For facilitators, the weekend of January 31 was quite a moment for civic investment. First, they gathered for their third development session on Friday night. We devoted that session to underscoring the facilitation principles, inviting teams to practice, and holding an extended question and answer session. By the end of this session, after their first 13 hours or so of development, every one of the 23 teams felt confident about their work the next day. The forums on January 31 began at 8:30 A.M., with facilitators arriving at 7:30. Forums ended at 12:00 noon, and most facilitators came back to a central location for lunch and storytelling. During the storytelling, we asked that each team send one person to the front of the room to say what had worked well, what had surprised them, and how many people had participated at that site. We also asked the whole group three questions:
February – May, 1998 With the big January 31 event behind them, the facilitators' roles and their development process began to change. Some facilitators agreed to facilitate the ongoing meetings of a particular Community Organizing Committee. At least 40 facilitators agreed to facilitate sessions of the Vision Council, which divided into these ten work groups to accomplish its task:
We set up regular facilitator development sessions through the end of May, 1998. These sessions were open to all facilitators, but focused most closely on continuing to develop the skills of people guiding the Vision Council's sessions. The scheduled topics were based on expressed facilitator interest. Each session began with peer learning: questions, answers, and ideas based on what the facilitators had been experiencing in their groups. We then focused on the scheduled topic. We closed by explaining as much as we could about the upcoming Vision Council sessions and the phase of work each work group should be entering. RKI continued to develop facilitator guides throughout the spring of 1998, available here in pdf format:
We also developed a guide (64 KB, pdf) that suggested to the facilitator teams some useful processes they may use to shape their own agendas to assist the Vision Council work groups in moving through the major phases of their work. The Sustainable Racine work was full of innovation and invention, rich in promise. We are excited about Sustainable Racine's deep commitment to facilitated process, and we are gratified by the rewarding work with so many interesting, capable Racine citizens. 
Visit other descriptions of our work in the area of community change and citizen engagement and sustainable community development.
Learn more about RKI's work with large group processes. Compliments for RKI's work with Sustainable RacineFrom a Sustainable Racine Board member: February 18, 1998 "Dear Rona and Steve: The Sustainable Racine initiative is off to a great start – thanks, in no small way, to both of you! The facilitator training you provided was critical to the day's success. With your guidance, our facilitators were excited about the day's activities. Frankly, we couldn't have done it without you. Your commitment and passion for community process brought wonderful energy to the forums. We are in your debt." |
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