Strategic Doing in Flint 2013
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Strategic Doing September 5, 2013 Bob Brown Michigan State University
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Bob Brown of Michigan State University is using Strategic Doing to assemble a core team of leaders to redevelop devastated neighborhoods in Flint, MI. In this presentation, Bob provides background to this work and explains why Strategic Doing works. According to Bob: "In neighborhoods besieged by complex, wicked problems, Strategic Doing creates hope through the power of taking action with the assets or gifts that we already possess. In that moment when we combine assets we begin to tell a new story of opportunity and possibility. Strategic Doing gives us the power to change our lives, our neighborhoods, and our communities."
Transcript of Strategic Doing in Flint 2013
Strategic Doing
September 5, 2013 Bob Brown
Michigan State University
The Big Picture
In Battle Creek, People Are Working to:
• Improve education and cut dropout rates • Create a zero tolerance for violence • Eliminate blight and create healthy green spaces • Help people achieve financial stability • Promote healthy behaviors • Reclaim neighborhoods and increase their
vitality
All of These Efforts Run Smack into Messes
The educational mess The poverty mess The healthcare mess The public safety mess
What’s a Mess?
Complex Messes
A system of interacting complex problems
Presenter
The picture of tangled up Christmas lights. We’ have all experienced the frustration and sometime despair with trying to untangle them.
Presenter
A mess is a system or a complex and dynamically interacting web of ill-defined or wicked problems, conundrums, paradoxes, puzzles, crises, and their solutions, as well as the stated and unstated, conscious and unconscious assumptions, beliefs, emotions, and values that underlie these problems and solutions.
The Long Standing Violence Mess
Domestic Violence
Battering of Children Insensitivity of court personnel (towards battering)
Rape
and
sexu
al a
ssau
lt
Mass media sensationalizes violence
Youth bitter and hopeless about future
Economic flight from distressed neighborhoods
Depressed economic conditions
Feelings of inequality and powerlessness brought on by racism, classism, age discrimination, ethnicity discrimination, cultural background discrimination
Physical and psychological abuse
Sense of isolation
Fear for one’s personal safety (inability to resolve conflict without violence)
Alcohol and violence
Historic underinvestment in poor neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color
Felonies
Misdemeanors
Increase in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by witnessing acts of violence
Overburdened hospital emergency rooms
No Jobs and Money
Unsafe Neighborhoods
Little or no Arts & Culture
Poor Housing
New Understandings: Complex problems behave in ways that make more
straightforward programmatic solutions less effective
The past does not necessarily predict the future. Small changes can create large and sometimes
unanticipated effects Preskill and Tanya, 2012
Presenter
the past does not necessarily predict the future. although we can make educated guesses about what might happen, the number of different factors and influences at play in complex problems makes it less likely that repeating a set of steps will produce the same results that they did the first time Small changes can create large and sometimes unanticipated effects because all of the interrelationships between parts and players in a system are difficult to untangle, it is impossible to know for sure - or whether – one change will ripple through to other players or change overall dynamics Systems are different from the sum of their parts because the parts interact with each other. Because of the interaction between the parts, systems and problems that might come out of these systems are dynamic. Thus, solutions should also be dynamic Parsimony and reductionism are not the guiding lights for fixing messes “A partial solution to a whole system of problems is better than whole solutions of each of its parts taken separately.” (Ackoff, 1999, p. 324)
New Understandings: Producing specific outcomes at a pre-determined
time (a grant period) is difficult
Predicting all possible outcomes that might occur (United Way funding proposals) is difficult
Sequencing outcomes in the same way that a well-tested, stable program intervention can (Logic Model) is difficult
Preskill and Tanya, 2012
Presenter
When many different independent individuals, organizations, and institutions affect a problem and its solution, it can be difficult to produce specific outcomes at a pre-determined time (a grant period) Nor at the outset can innovators predict all possible outcomes that might occur (United Way funding proposals) Innovators simply do not have enough control over the whole scope of factors or players to orchestrate outcomes in the same way that an implementer of a well-tested, stable program intervention often can (Logic Model)
A Challenge However Remains
Even with this increased understanding,
the challenge of working in messes remains: Getting from here to there without getting lost or overwhelmed
along the way
But Here Where It Gets Tricky
Within the pathways of dealing with messes not only do we take action to address:
• simple situations • complicated situations • complex situations • And potentially chaotic situations
Those taking the actions live in: – simple situations – complicated situations – complex situations – And potentially chaotic situations
Chaos
In chaotic situations people are just trying to survive, we do whatever it takes
Complicated
In complicated situations things are either socially complicated or technically complicated
When things are socially complicated we build
relationships and create common ground to increase our social agreement
When things are technically complicated we
experiment and coordinate expertise to increase our technical certainty
Simple
In simple situations we just trying to follow the recipe – evidence-based practices.
Complexity – the land of Messes Characterized by high uncertainty and high social conflict (high uncertainty
about how to produce a desired result fuels disagreement, and disagreement intensifies and expands the parameters of uncertainty.)
Complexity Causal connections are intertwined, entangled, and overlapping
Complex Situations
cause-effect relations are unknown and, in principle, unknowable before effects have emerged.
Complexity Uncertainty and unpredictability are part of the innovation process
•
Living in the Land of Complex Messes: Flint, Mi
The Zone of Complexity in Flint
Starting in the late 1960s Flint has
suffered from 50 years of disinvestment, deindustrialization, depopulation and urban decay, as well as high rates of crime, unemployment and poverty.
The Zone of Complexity in Flint
• 1978: 80,000 GM employees
• 2010: 8,000 GM employees
The Zone of Complexity in Flint
• May 2002, Ed Kurtz appointed as the city’s
1st Emergency Financial Manager
The Zone of Complexity in Flint
•2010 Headline: Flint still is number one for violent crime in the
nation
The Zone of Complexity in Flint
• November 2011: Governor Snyder appointed Michael
Brown as the city's 2nd Emergency Financial
Manager
• But we are numb to words and stats
• Here is the Zone of
Complexity in Flint – my city in pictures
Presenter
We’ve got complex mess in Flint! Educational outcomes for children, youth, and young adults in Flint aren’t good enough Not enough living-wage jobs, career paths & techniques to boost income Not enough entrepreneurial activity and small business growth Mass imprisonment, parole, detention keeps a very large number of African American men in a permanent state of disenfranchisement Struggling with ongoing foreclosure crisis, don’t have enough stable, affordable housing Racial and ethnic disparities in health status persist Neighborhoods are not safe enough Not enough arts in our neighborhoods Not enough safe gathering places, recreational facilities and sports opportunities for our young people. Better parks, better open space, more greening
But Most of Us Are Overwhelmed With the Sheer Scope and Complexities of
These Issues So we fall back on a set of rules and standard
operating procedures that predetermine what we will do
Effectively short circuits our ability to work across
simple to complicated to complex situations or messes
Patton, Developmental Evaluation, 2011
So What’s the Response – Is There a Key?
• We can address messes • But traditional programmatic approaches aren’t
creating impact • We need Social Innovation to impact messes
Preskill and Tanya, 2012
What is Social Innovation?
Novel solutions to social problems that: • Are more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than
present solutions • Creates value that accrues primarily to society as a
whole rather than individuals • Crosses sectors, • Involves changing the dynamics, roles, and
relationships between many players, • Challenges conventional wisdom about the nature of
the problem and its solutions
Preskill and Tanya, 2012
Presenter
It can take the form of new programs, products, laws, institutions, ideas, relationships or patterns of interaction (often a mix of many of these)
Your Social Innovation: Project 2020
• Working together, we champion ideas and initiatives that move this community toward excellence.
• We exist to create a coalition of groups and
individuals who are connected, coordinated, mutually supportive and working toward the greater good.
Project 2020 – a network of people
• Getting on the Same Page
• Moving Levers
• Changing Outcomes
Achieving Your Vision Will Require:
• Thinking Differently
• Behaving Differently
• Doing Differently
Strategic Doing
What is Strategic Doing?
� used to develop & implement strategy � based on collaboration and open networks � asset based (using what you have) � leads to shared, measurable outcomes and a roadmap to follow
Strategic Doing is being taught across the nation
The background and theory of change
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Hierarchies are limiting
Networks can help get things done
Networks are all around us
Wizard of Oz made in
1939 by ONE company
Spider Man 3 made by 56 companies in
a network
Who makes the iPhone?
A network made by
Apple
Moving from old to new
Strategic planning
Link, leverage and align
Paradigm shift
New ways of thinking
New thinking: the two economies
New thinking: the two economies
New thinking: understanding networks
Network structure & combining networks
How networks emerge and grow over time
New networks can move older assets to new opportunities
The network effect
New ways of behaving
Growing trust takes time
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Balance leadership and direction
We move in the direction of our conversations
Developing a civic space important
New ways of doing
Strategy
Strategic Doing
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Managing a network and getting things done
Build a strong foundation with a balanced civic portfolio
Choosing a strategy, evaluating complexity and payoff
Using Networks in Flint
“A partial solution to a whole system of problems is better than whole solutions of each of its parts taken separately.” (Ackoff, 1999, p. 324)
Elements of Healthy Neighborhoods
• According to the Institute for Comprehensive Community Development, “Neighborhoods are complex systems that require many elements to work well, from decent housing and safe streets to employment opportunities, good schools and access to shopping, health care and other services.
Responding to the Mess of Flint Neighborhoods
• Use a new, more holistic approach to community and neighborhood development. – Blends human, community, and economic development – Provides the supports needed for healthy transitions from birth
to adulthood – Is grounded in research – Acknowledges the natural challenges to healthy development
but recognizes that these challenges are more difficult without the proper supports
– Offers guidelines for realigning investments for collective well-being
• Facilitate a process that creates action based on available
resources and assets
Presenter
To address this over-arching goal by creating and sustaining neighborhood/community and family supports and improving systems, we will interweave the different but essential capabilities of neighborhood residents, local government, faith-based groups, charitable foundations, nonprofit providers, and grassroots organizations to address a spectrum of inter-connected needs through a new, more holistic approach to community and neighborhood development. We will facilitate a process that creates action based on available resources and assets. Ultimately to create/sustain community and family supports and to improve systems we will target systems change by integrating and improving existing systems for transition from early childhood to youth to young adulthood. We must work to form a seamless web of supports at key points in development focusing on all levels of community systems that support development – that is, families, neighborhoods, organizations, and community systems. Optimally, this web of support: Blends human, community, and economic development Focuses on providing the supports needed for healthy transitions from birth to adulthood Is grounded in research Acknowledges the natural challenges to healthy development from birth to adulthood but recognizes that these challenges are more difficult for those without the proper supports Offers guidelines for realigning investments in our collective well-bei
Goals 1.Improve communication among and between stakeholders at all levels. 2.Proactively address conditions in Flint neighborhoods that give rise to crime, social disorder and fear of crime. 1.Re-establish a city-wide sense of community with a shared responsibility.
Working to impact the lives of youth, and families by “Creating Community with a ZERO Tolerance for Violence” in neighborhoods of high need
Neighborhoods Without Borders
(NWB)
We are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, grandmothers and grandfathers, business people and pastors, educators and students, administrators and
workers coming together in a grassroots and community effort to significantly improve the over-
all quality of life in Flint neighborhoods.
In Flint, We Work to Link, Align, and Leverage Across Networks
Building Neighborhood
Capacity
Flint Neighborhoods
Community Action
Lifeline Ceasefire
Neighborhoods Without Borders
Flint Area Congregations
Together
Flint Neighborhoods
United
Edible Flint
