What we are learning

"We're not the change makers, we are the ones creating the conditions for the change to occur"
Mark Cabaj of Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement

For most of us our change efforts in the past have been focused on creating the change itself. Our focus in Inspiring Communities is instead on creating the conditions that will allow the change to occur based on each each community of place defining for themselves the changes they want. The questions that guide our learning are: what are the conditions for change we are attempting to create? what are we doing to support or erode these conditions? and how do we know things are changing for the better?

With these questions in mind, this is a taste of what we are learning:

Working together and across traditional boundaries is about far more than just working together and, as Mark Cabaj puts it, "is brutally hard work" for everyone involved. It requires developing a common language and common understanding of co-creation and working with these understandings together over time. Trust sits at the heart of true collaboration - trust that we are all acting for the common good. Trust takes time to develop. As Mark put it, the result is "faster alone but further together".