17 October 2010
Models for Changing the Conversation
Posted by Admin under: Economy; Energy; Events; Forum; Future; Inspiration; Leadership; Organization; Policy; Sustainability .
We had a very interesting discussion at our first “challenge and strategy” session on October 16. It was a large and energized group that focused on to move the dialog forward around the paper issued through the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise at Fairleigh Dickinson University on “Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Growth Strategy for New Jersey.”
In order to present the paper, I extracted key highlights for a slide presentation (which we also distributed as a handout), and then Rob Benjamin and I invited people to think about how we could go about having a major impact on policy and public discourse in this area. In particular, we asked them to consider
- Who are the audiences?
- What data do we need?
- How do we engineer the change?
- How do we handle breakdowns?
By way of context, we also discussed:
- Ways of Managing the Conversation
- Models of Effective Communication
- The Language of Policy Discourse
- The Role of the Institute (ISE) as Catalyst
We then broke into small groups, and asked the groups to report back. Remarkably, the five groups had many common recommendations, and essentially shared the view that it was important to build public awareness and support for a strong advocacy effort to support our policy assessments. Some of the specific ideas included
- using social media to “go viral”
- getting ten thousand signatures on the discussion paper
- visiting state legislators
- getting local people to be spokespersons at the community level
- creating a coalition or common meeting ground for environmental, social justice, and community groups to come together around a common agenda for a sustainable future
- creating a meetup so that we could spawn multiple discussion groups
- working with service clubs such as Rotary, NJFuture, chambers of commerce, the League of Municipalities, etc.
- creating a speakers’ bureau
- creating a Wikipedia page
- crowdsourcing a logo
- having a message that is clear, hip, and attractive to young people
While these may seem daunting, there was at least one participant who indicated that he could create and manage such a campaign if we could get funding for it; and several others who volunteered to help with it in various ways.
In the earlier discussion, there was also a concern expressed about restoring faith and trust in government, especially at a local level; the temptation for corruption because individuals are underpaid to manage large budgets; and about the issue of how we measure prosperity and sustainability. Peter Burgess asked, “what are we doing about Value Accounting?” — accounting, that is, that looks at some underlying measure of real value to the community — and this may well be the basis for a follow-on discussion, hosted either by SLF or by the ISE.
In the end, because there were so many new faces, there may have been some commingling between the role of the SLF and that of the ISE, but I believe this is an area of common interest and commitment for us. I invited the participants to assist us in hosting additional events to present the paper, and to dialog about “changing the conversation” in New Jersey, and several agreed to do so. Several also agreed to join SLF as volunteers and members.
If you’re interested in being involved in further discussions and action around the development of a sustainable growth strategy for New Jersey, I invite you to join our email list, come to one of our meetings (or agree to host one and invite us to lead it in your area), or contact us directly. One of the things that the SLF can become is a coalition, a voice, a common meeting-ground for a wide variety of groups and individuals. We have a holistic, “post-partisan” perspective; a transformational model and mission; and a practical, action-oriented vision. Join now by going to Join Us, and stay in touch for more events and programs of interest to those committed to fostering sustainability initiatives in their communities and organizations.