Author: George Liacos
Better Impact: West Vic
Just last week community groups, local business and government came together to explore how they could collaborate to develop the townships in the Wimmera. It wasn’t a town hall talk fest, but rather a two-day Strategy and Innovation Masterclass coordinated by WestVic business and delivered by Spark Strategy. At the end of just two days, stunningly smart ideas had been developed, practical plans hatched, and new cross sector collaborations and friendships forged.
This group was wonderful. Amongst this group of curious and passionate local leaders there was a publican and a teacher, an entrepreneur and hotelier, a community leader and regulator. Day one was held in the community hall in Haven and day two in the big barn in the Agricultural Showgrounds in Horsham. The sustenance was all home-made and the sausages cooked up by volunteers and partners of people attending. This was real community coming together to find a progressive and exciting way forward for the businesses, precincts and people of some iconic Victorian townships.
When we deliver the innovation and ideation stages of a good social sector strategy, even with pre work and coaching, the start can stutter as people switch from operational thinking into creative thinking. Not this group.
From a cold start, six interesting and creative new experiences or services popped out immediately. This was not just that people were collaborating with people outside their usual worlds. This was evidence of people who have had to reinvent renovate or re-imagine their worlds for years. The ingenuity and tenacity of our regional and rural communities on show.
What did i see there?
I have facilitated literally thousands of workshops and hundreds of strategies and I know something special when I see it. This was special.
So, what did I see? I saw:
- Rapid idea generation and triage
- Fluid idea enhancement – “ ok if you do that and I add on this, then…”
- Comfort with Ambiguity – let the process unfold and we will see what happens
- The Golden Thread – an organic and unspoken recognition that the new ideas had to be tethered to the centre theme of the Masterclass
- Kindness – in how they collaborated but also in how they triaged their ideas.
If you are reading my book then some of these behaviours will be familiar to you. For me it was humbling and rewarding to learn from these wonderful humans. So what emerged? Without spoiling any surprises:
- Greater alignment towards the development of one of the community Hubs
- A plan to transform a 100 year old community institution
- An approach to township rejuvenation and how to scale it
- A tangible way to deliver more resources to mental health services
That’s because the right people in the room with the right intention and tools. Terrific !!
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