Divided Communities – Part 3

Confronting a community divided within itself is a ticklish proposition. How do you begin? Who do you partner with? What is the agenda and protocol to follow? And how do we ultimately begin work and discussions that eventually will construct a bridge over which the community will travel toward a whole community?

We could also ask how long these tasks will take but I think that is unproductive effort and time spent. Better to focus on what we can do and with whom.

I write the following as a total invention. I am not an expert in these matters. I just know how organizations tend to work over time. I know how personalities help and hinder how those organizations work. And I have a keen vision of what I think a community would look like if it were not divided. What would be happening in such a community, how well it functions within itself, and the attitudes and sense of identify it has for itself. Those are the sort of things I conjure in my mind. And I think it is a great starting point in our journey. The steps on the journey include these:

1. Envisioning the Desired Outcome 

2. Identifying a trusted companion to involve in this journey, one who shares your same feelings and vision of the desired outcomes. 

3. Identifying a trusted person on the other side of the divide, someone who knows and understands the division well enough and who shares trust with you to discuss and explore all the facets of the problem. This person will do two things with you:
1. Help you define the problem to be fixed
2. Help you understand critical facets of the problem that will need attention
3. Help identify key people on both sides of the divide who can work together in addressing and fixing the problem
4. This trusted person may be with you for the entire journey; perhaps not. It is up to the person to decide the comfort level with his or her role 

4. Assembling the problem solvers. Sharing their joint purpose and discuss fully so they understand it well and agree to sign on to the role of the group and the task ahead for it 

5. Adjusting the problem solving group based on the previous step so the group has confidence it can work well together through the easy and hard steps on the journey 

6. Laying out the agenda of the group:
1. Definition of the problem to be fixed
2. Defining the scope (width, breadth and depth) of the issues in play
3. Agreeing on the final outcome desired by the group; this is their objective to be achieved by the group, its Mission!
4. Designing the process or logical steps to get from the starting point to the end point of the journey. This will be the outline of The Plan. This will also take research, patience, input from various specialists and institutions. It may be advisable to build a strong partnership with a research university with strengths in community development and social sciences. Plan protocols and authority levels need to be established to accompany The Plan.
5. Delegating leadership roles among the group to implement the various phases of the journey designed in the previous step. This may require recruitment of specialized leaders and partners to properly manage the phase.
6. Implement the various phases of the plan
7. Monitor and assess progress of all elements of the plan as it is operating toward the desired conclusion. Report results as available to all stakeholders involved with the project
8. Stakeholders to determine and declare when the project is completed and how the community can manage to maintain a healthy community without formation of future serious divisions. 

7. Implement all of the above 

8. Report on progress throughout to all stakeholders in the project and community. 

9. Celebrate conclusion when appropriate 

The project will need a steering committee or leadership group to get things underway. This may be the most ticklish part of the project. But it is a beginning. Later, groups and organizations throughout the community should be encouraged to adopt elements of the overall project to ensure they are part of the solution and not part of the problem. It is so easy to avoid difficult tasks in volunteer groups! Because of this avoidance we tend not to raise questions we know will upset some people and cause them to drop out of our valued volunteer corps.

But this threat must be lived through and championed if we are to make progress toward the goal.

Case studies will be valued tools in the work. There are many communities who have shared our problems or variants of the same challenges. How they handled those problems and solved them – or didn’t and went on to suffer terrible consequences – are all informative to us. Such case studies will help us persevere and invent our own solutions that will work in our community.

In public institutions and corporations succession planning is a major management task. It is not always tended to until its need is quite apparent. The business of management is to maintain consistent and successful operation of the entity. This requires that we understand tasks and who accomplishes them. Who understands the processes which support organizational success and prosperity? These processes and the leaders needed to operate them are critical elements the organization must replace over time to ensure their continued operation within the organization.

People get sick. Some people die while working with us. Some employees or volunteers retire and move away, or move away when the family is uprooted for a career change. Like all of life organizations are not static. They change dynamically and most often with subtlety. There are times we are unaware of the changes!

It pays for us to attend to succession issues continually. Here are key elements of a succession plan:

1. What roles/jobs are being performed and by whom?
2. Which people can be relied on for temporary backup should a key person become unable to perform his task? And long term replacement?
3. What job/task descriptions are presently documented and need to be?
4. What training to incumbents is provided and ought to be?
5. Are others in training to move into key roles in the future? Do we even know who represents such future talent for the organization?
6. Are leadership functions rotated among a key group of managers and leaders?
7. How can all of the above be organized to secure reasonable succession action when and if called upon? 

In volunteer organizations succession planning should be taking place. In fact, many ‘volunteer’ organizations are critically called into being as boards of directors, trustees and commissioners of public institutions and operations. Think of the libraries, park and recreation organizations and boards and commissions charged with doing the public’s work. Although some of these are elected by the voters, most are appointed. They are the community’s leaders with specialized knowledge and experience. And their value needs to be assured when they are no longer being of service. An orderly process is needed.

Case studies will tell us the stories of many communities and their challenges. If the population undergoes cultural change – from historically white to a mix of race and nationality – how will the interests of all the people in the community be included in the work of the community? Will the Library, for example, be bilingual? Will it have a collection of translated literature and classical books readable to all cultures contained within the community?

Will the Park District welcome people of all color, races and cultures? How will this be manifest? What programs will ensure inclusion? Does the attendance data confirm success or demonstrate failure to include?

Is the City Council a polyglot of people representative of the citizenry? Are local businesses bilingual and owned and operated by a broad cross section of the community? Are cultural events – parades, art exhibits, museum programs and exhibits, etc. – representative of the diversity of the community?

Accordingly, it is important that the steering community translate and communicate its work to all organizations within the community so inclusion becomes a common theme and objective for all functioning components of our complex communities.

More later as we work on this in more detail.

September 20, 2016