Last year, I had the chance to discover what happens when you crowdsource ideas for $1,000,000 to shape the future of a major metropolitan city, Los Angeles.  

In February of 2013, the Goldhirsh Foundation launched LA2050, a movement shaping and building the future of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a tale of two cities- breathtaking beauty, poisoning pollution, extraordinary wealth, dire poverty- the paradoxes abound.  

The LA2050 Report provided a snapshot of LA today across 8 indicators of wellbeing (arts & culture, education, environment, health, housing, income & employment, safety, social connectedness)  The LA2050 Report projected how LA might be in 2050 if things continued along the current trajectory. 

LA2050 sought to catalyze a different conversation- a new conversation- about how to bring Angelenos together to harness the creativity, passion and human capital to invent a new future for LA- a future that unleashes everyone's potential.  

LA2050's latest report: 

Unleashing the Potential of Los Angeles identifies themes and trends that emerged in the My LA2050 Grants Challenge. 

Highlights from the report:

1) Collaboration - overwhelmingly proposals came from partnerships and/or proposed partnerships to achieve social impact

2) Cross Indicator Themes emerged: 

1. Youth Engagement
2. Technology
3. Public Space
4. Pop up/Mobile
5. Design & Innovation
6. Transportation
7. The Sharing Economy
8. Social Enterprise & Artpreneurs
9. Storytelling 
10. LA2050 Amplifiers
    

3) Alternative Metrics for Impact: Appendix III

Appendix III shares interesting, innovative ways that projects proposed to evaluate their impact.  Measurement and evaluation are increasingly the focus in the impact sector. Better feedback leads to better results and identifying new metrics for impact may 

This post is one in a series of 5<5 posts that document pilot/prototype projects with the format 5 things that I wish someone had told me before I started in <5% of the time spent on the project.   

Cereal conversations was a 5 week pilot project to convene legal practitioners and strategy consultants at the intersection of law and business in the social enterprise sector.   

Background

In March 2011, I ran a HubLab on "For Profit or Not-for-Profit" with Inder Comer, Esq. at HubSOMA.  Intended for social entrepreneurs, the HubLab was also attended by lawyers, who often advised clients through this decision nexus.  Intrigued by this "unexpected" participant group, I kickstarted a "pilot" of breakfast conversations.  "Cereal conversations" gave legal practitioners at this nexus of law and enterprise for social impact a forum to discuss practice experiences and concerns.  Social enterprise law is largely unchartered legal terrain- full of "open" legal issues, which means that a court has not yet 'ruled' to decide the "law" on many issues that are emerging from social innovation.  Legal questions about liability and tax implications in the sharing economy, regulation of food production for microenterprise, employment status and compensation for passion equity, etc.  Typically, good legal advice steers a client away from uncertainty in favor of what is known, what is certain, and what is "settled" in the law.  Uncertainty is risky and potentially very expensive.  However, until people- clients and lawyers- push the edges of "certainty" into these open, untested areas- the status quo in business will not change.  

Cereal conversations brought practitioners together for peer learning and aimed to build a community of legal practitioners who want to push the edges of the law.  Drawing on a model from clinical medicine where clinicians make decisions even amidst uncertain outcomes based upon a bioethical, principled justification, I opined that perhaps a similar values-driven approach to decision making could govern and guide legal practitioners, provided that the involved parties gave fully informed consent to the risks.  My assumption was that if we built a community and developed a shared knowledge base, it would be sufficient to support legal practitioners ready to take this risky step to shift the status quo in how business operates.  My hope was to identify the key 'ingredients' necessary to seed a local legal community pf practice, to design a DIY 'cookbook' that other communities could use to kickstart local chapters globally, and to build a 'recipe' braintrust to which local practice groups could contribute that would inspire innovation in legal practices at the intersection of business for social impact. 

5 Things I Wish I Knew About Community Building Before I Started:

• 8am is too early for a meeting in San Francisco
• Building a community takes time.  5 times just gets things started.
• Meetings need to take place regularly.  To get work done- weekly is effective, to build community- monthly is sufficient. 
• Get a small group to share the organizing responsibility (2-3 is enough)
• For niche communities, keep the audience focused in order to maximize value to early participants. Here, it was more productive to have a majority of lawyers with only legally savvy strategy consultants, rather than a meeting with social entrepreneurs who seek information for their specific venture. 

Ultimately, cereal conversations was a prototype of a potential model.  It was a pilot test of assumptions.  The Bay Area group was the inaugural "Lucky Charms" group who pioneered the (ad)venture.  We learned a lot and we hope that the fruits of that learning shared here will strengthen the global community of legal practitioners active in this area. 

Why did we do it?

• To develop a community of practice to strengthen practice in the legal grey areas of this sector.
• To develop a format that provided value to satisfy the depth needed by legal eagles and practicality for social entrepreneurs
  
• To strengthen the social enterprise community's access to new paradigm approaches by engaging the legal community in conversations with social entrepreneurs, impact investors and business consultants.
• To kickstart a grassroots community generated knowledge commons on these emerging legal issues.
• To create a forum for collaboration and knowledge sharing among legal practitioners

Methods

What did we do?
A breakfast club to "Map the Terrain" and build an initial community of legal practitioners. In this 5 week pilot, we met over cereal for conversations to map the legal landscape at the intersection of business and social impact.  The topics that we covered included: the business judgment rule, new CA corporate forms, mapping issues, social enterprise partnerships, and alternative dispute resolution and conflict management in the socent sector.

Our short term aim was to have one concrete, practical project from each pilot.  Proposed projects included:  

• a model "founders/partnership agreement" for social entrepreneurs 
• a map/quick guide to identify how/when social impact focus may generate new/different legal issues
• a tactical considerations guide for the varying corporate forms
  
• an article on the role of ADR in social enterprise

Our long term aim was two-fold:
1. To develop a cookbook "how to start a SocEntStrategy community of practice in __(your area)__" 
2. To develop a grassroots, knowledge commons on these issues at the intersection of law, business and social impact

Our core commitment that all resources developed will be provided open access under a creative commons: attribution/non-commercial/share alike.  Any revenue generated from this initiative would be reinvested in the initiative's educational mission.

Who participated?
An open invitation was made to colleagues in this sector. We were generously hosted by HubSOMA. The SocEntStrategy Founding Alliance included:
Kate Michi Ettinger, Chef Converger of Cereal Conversations
Natalia Thurston, Social Venture Law Group 
Tony Lai, Law Gives
Inder Comar, Comar Law
Lina Constantinovici, President, Biomimicry Incubator


How? 
Doors open 7:45 (security can take awhile)
8 - 9 Legal Eagles Hour
30 min: in depth on legal topic + case presentation
20 min: discussion
10 min: map discussion and networking

9 - 9:30 Law for SocEnts
15 min: legal topic presented for Social Entrepreneurs
15 min: discussion

Results

• Of open invitation to 10 people directly and 10 people indirectly, we had a founding group of 5 people.  
  
• We met consistently for 5 weeks.  
  
• We shared knowledge, practice experience and developed a shared understanding of open issues within the sector.
  
• We identified opportunities for collaboration within the group; those collaborations continue to manifest.
  
• We experimented with and learned about technology that could support the group's work.  
• For details: Weekly Posts: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5  (currently in publication)

Learnings & Opportunities

1. There is a need for a community of practice among legal practitioners in this area.
2. The social enterprise ecosystem will benefit from having the legal community that serves it strengthened.
3. Building a community of practice takes time. Consistency is critical.  
4. Critical mass generates movement.  Self organization may be overrated. 
5. Engage one community at a time.  Clarity of purpose helps to respond to the diverse needs of why people show up.  If targeting lawyers, stick with lawyers to keep the focus on issues that yield value to attendees. 
6. Use the work products of the primary community to engage secondary communities.  
7. Choose technology that you can manage or have access to tech resources to administer the technology you want. 
8. 8am is too early for many people and does not accomodate the geographic diversity of SF Bay Area, where traffic prohibits participation by practitioners not in the specific location. 
9. Ideas take awhile to seed: People are ready now for an idea from 2 years ago that was prototyped 1 year ago.  
10. Business law and corporate structures are domestic/state law issues.  This invites a creative glocal solution to building this grassroots community. 
11. The effort to bring Cereal Conversations to Berlin resulted in identifying of a different doorway into the legal issues: case studies of pioneering social enterprises.  These case studies provide a simple framework through which to identify the open issues and to respond with how each could be addressed within one's jurisdiction.  These "Cases" become a common ground of understanding between geographic regions governed by different laws.  We are working to inspire the passion of the university students in law to explore social enterprise and business for social impact. 
12. The effort to bring Cereal Conversations to London/UK resulted in the idea of a legal "briefhack," by the brilliant Polina Hristova. The IDEA: One weekend at Hubs around the world. Gather local law students, attorneys and social entrepreneurs.  Have students interview social entrepreneurs to identify legal issues at the edges.  Students confer with social enterprise attorneys who review the cases collectively in a panel format.  The law students then "brief" the legal issues raised by the social enterprises.  The net result is law students have the "brief" as a work product to show future employers.  The social entrepreneurs have an understanding of the issues they need to address.  The attorneys deepen their practice around these open issues and contribute to building a the glocal knowledge base.   

Long Term Outcomes 

• Impact Law Forum, co-founded by Natalia Thurston of Social Venture Law Group and Zoe Hunton of Hunton Law, hosts a monthly meeting with speakers to strengthen the community of legal practitioners who work at the intersection of law and social enterprise. ILF rotates around the Bay Area.  

One of my favorite prototypes from the Macroscope Labs was a tool to organize all of the "activities" one engages in the workplace of the future.  Play. Projects. Ideas. Prototypes. Work. Creative.  The distinctions blur. 

Macroscope Labs Playhouse
~ producing the future, one play at a time ~

We tossed around the idea that Macroscope Labs would be a theatrical playhouse.  In our mL playhouse,  ideas and projects that we incubated would come to life similar to a play.  Each play has a particular stage of development (from open mike to post production).  Much like a summerstock playhouse, our role might vary on each play, from scriptwriter to actor to set designer to costumer to producer- depending upon what was needed to get the job done or to grow our learning edge.  Each activity requires something different and invites an unique blend of creative collaborators. 

7 steps:

     1.  Inventory ALL of your projects 
                  - one idea/project per post it
                  - sub-projects for one job = separate post-its
                  - suggestion: color code by theme or by paid/unpaid

     2. Organize the post-its according to the stage of development
                  - follow the stages noted above, I sometimes include an off broadway (between off-off and main stage)


     3. Notice where there is a high concentration of post-its 
                    - the distribution will help you see where you are spending time and energy 
                    - is this distribution congruent with your current needs or are you currently stressed
                    - if self-employed on project work, do you have an appropriate distribution of paid idea/projects
                    - if you have a lead role in more than 2-3 projects on the main stage, you might need a cardio stress test  

     4. Identify what is your role on the projects
                  - is it your idea? are you rallying the team?  are you a first follower? are you the broadcaster? 
                  - does the role play to your strengths? are you on your learning edge?
                  - how does the team on this project feel for you?

     5. Notice your roles
                  - are they always the same? do you feel more energized in some than others?
                  - are you building your craft/skills in each of the different roles?
                  - who do you want to be your mentor for each role?  

    6. Identify all of your current collaborators (cast & crew)
                  - put each by the respective project and identify their role on the project                 
                  - are all of the roles that need to be filled to complete the project full?
                  - is the team well aligned to deliver based on their skill strengths?
                  - what skills do you need to complement your role/skills to get this project to fly?
                  - where can you find people who are smarter than you are at this? do you know them already? 

     7. Fail often, early. Learn. Dive in or move ON!
                  - what is the next action step?  Put that onto whatever project software you use. i like wunderlist and asana*
                  - identify an end point for each stage, so that you know... when to stop and assess? 
                  - check out my 5*5 method posts for a systematic approach to move from idea incubation to explore/pilot 

Attract the Best Cast & Crew .... and enable excellence in their performance

• Hire people who are smarter than you are
• Communicate the vision 

               - on stage, that is a script & blocking,** what does your idea need?

• Allow the vision to live in dialogue with the creative genius of the team
• Trust the team to do their magic (you hired people who are smarter than you are)

IN ACTION: how it looks on the wall.  

You can create your own paper version for your wall.  A digital version,as below, is available for download as well.  You can play with this digital version in powerpoint: import the .png, create text boxes for each of your projects, lasso/copy the people and group each person with a name and move it around until it works for you.  If you have photoshop, it'll be even easier. 

Most of all, have fun! 

*these are two services that i have used and liked. i have no financial, professional or personal connection to either company. people are very particular about their project management software, enjoy whatever one works best for you to get things done!

** Ingmar Bergman and Creative Leadership by Bo Gyllenpalm, the most influential book I read in 2011. (apologies, I know that it is out of print and have asked Bo to consider republishing it as I find it more relevant than ever).

Dedicated to all those on the journey to be the change through creative lifestyle design, particularly the lovely Joep Kuijper,  Seb Paquet on a 100 day journey into creative economy and Jean Russell, life explorer of creative engagement.  May your project management always allow room for passionate play, creative inspiration and hacking!  

Thought Contributors: Idea developed in collaboration with the enchanting creative  Eddie Harran at a time when I was fascinated by Bo Gyllenpalm's book on the stage leadership of creative director, Ingmar Bergman: what better role model than someone who pulled career best performances from cast/crew night after night for years and imagine, he never returned to the theater after the curtain went up on opening night.).  The creative innovator and the person who turned me onto the power of Mastermind ever-inspiring Do More Great Work guru Michael Bungay Stanier of Box of Crayons.  Digital to wall/post-its thanks to the effervescent creative Loretta Rae. 

Have you ever experienced the confusion or frustration of having someone else define your identity for you?  Well, Global Culture Kids is a playground for you. 

Vision 
a playground for global culture kids! 
a place to play, learn, celebrate, explore...
a place to champion the awesome work by global culture kids!
... and whatever else emerges... 


It might unfold to look like a digital version of this... 

Some ideas could be....
Sandbox for community building sandcastles... 
Slides to champion projects by GCKs...
Swings to see a gallery of GCK work and projects... 
Teeter-totter for tips...
Picnic tables for parties ... 
......

The domain is bought... www.globalculturekids.org  ... would be great to get a real graphic artist on the team early, right?!  Who's on board to build a playground? 

Attribution this idea is a lifetime in the making, with countless people along the way who touched, inspired, healed and shared the journey... special shout out to my grandpa, Peter Maker, Eduardo Gonzalez, E Nathaniel Gates, Rhonda Magee, Marnie Keator, Sheila McKibben, Megumi Nishikura and the Hafu Film Project team, Edward Harren, Daniela Franchi, the poc community, the Plum Village community & Clarissa/Reika & the Hapa-Hafu Kitchen Project crew....  special kudos to awesomeness amplifier and web designer Morgan Sully for the nudge to action on this initiative. 

This series of posts introduce a 5*5 systematic approach to pilot/prototype projects.  

From Idea to Pilot: A 5x5 Approach

From Pilot to Reflection: A 5=5 Method

From Reflection to Report: A 5<5 Report


 Keep an eye out for the 5*5 icon to find posts on pilot/prototype projects on this blog.

Attribution: this approach reflects a mashup from brilliant mentoring, modeling, discussions with many people... including Bruce Ettinger, Nancy Dubler, E. Nathaniel Gates, David Karshmer, Rachel Remen, Edward Harran, Andrew Lyon, Ian Page, and many more.

Special thanks to social impact catalyst Amy Chou for keeping SocEnt 101 Resources on Ideas that Impact up to date as of Jan 1, 2014.

Links Within This Publication:
Gathering '11
Edward Harran 
Breakthrough to Cures 
award for innovative ideas related to collaboration
highlighted the design thinking approach 
inside the game
Arthur Brock  
MetaCurrency Project 
Jerry Michaelski
MetaCurrency Collabathon 
Michel Bauwens 
P2P Foundation
Mark Frazier
Eli Gothill 
#punkmoney
Ecosystem Diplomat post

*Thought Contributors:  
Edward Harran, Jay Standish, Jerry Michaelski, Arthur Brock , Eric Harris Braun, Michel Bauwens, Eli Gothill, Alban Leveau-Vallier, Jay Standish, Jean Russell, Seb Paquet, Simon Huber, Elleke Landeweer, Graham Leicester, Dominik Wind, Sharad Jain, Helene Finidori, Mark Frazier, Mushin Schilling, Daniel Hires, Bobby Fishkin, Lauren Higgins, David Hodgson, Jessica Margolin, Jordan Greenhall, participants of the MetaCurrency Collab session, participants of the Breakthrough to Cures game, participants of the Next Edge (and its various offshoots) and if I am missing you, so pls ping me!  

How do we value collectively created knowledge? [FULL] 
                                                              Hacking Attribution [1 of 3]
                                                                                                                                                                     Hacking Working Together  [3 of 3]                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                      
My experience around the academic world, which uses a system of attribution based on a hierarchy of authors and emphasizes the individual, was in sharp contrast to my experience in product design/innovation, which was flat (no hierarchy), team-based collaboration and best idea driven. The academic approach emphasizes individual recognition, which translates into a 'reputation' currency.  This reputation currency operates on name recognition, number of papers as well-ranked author (first, second and last), and "peer review" which necessitates referencing well known names in papers and grant applications to associate oneself with 'reputable' and accepted work.  Reputation based upon these traditional methods of attribution seems to mask the inherently collaborative nature of idea development in the academic context and limits radically new ideas, in part because acceptance depends upon building upon the already established and because if they do not gain traction it lessens one's reputation.  Since people's livelihoods depend upon their reputation currency, they become competitive rather than collaborative or they pursue incremental rather than innovative ideas in order to preserve their reputation.  New tools of technology such as number of times an article is referenced, reader feedback/ranking on merit and open access to publications may crack open the reputation paradigm.

I have wondered, if we could hack academia, how would we build it? The first step would be to make the foundation collaborative and structured to nurture radical innovation and the best ideas.  Last June after Gathering '11, Edward Harran and I began a collaboration to brainstorm what a research lab for the 21st Century would look like, how it would operate and what it would do. One element of what we discussed was how attribution would work for people participating in the research lab. Details of ideas and findings from that project, Macroscope Labs, will be included in future posts.  

My experience in product design/innovation demonstrated the value and radical potential of collaborative idea development.  The factors that I see as different: all participants perspectives are valued equally (everyone has a seat at the table), the focus is on ideas (not egos), the unit of attribution is team (people put their energy toward building the larger unit).  I have wondered whether attribution for papers and grant awards at the department level might remedy some of the challenges of the current academic approach though it would likely stifle inter-institutional and inter-departmental collaboration.  Solve one problem, create another.   It was only while playing the Breakthrough to Cures game sponsored by the Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) using the Institute for the Future's Foresight Engine Game in the fall of 2010 that I realized how strongly I felt that the current paradigm for research, both corporate and academic, fails innovation in medical research.  During the MRF game round I, I won an award for innovative ideas related to collaboration and wrote a post that highlighted the design thinking approach in round II when I was a game guide. Have a peek inside the game.

What ideas do you have for hacking academia? Strategies for bridging the academic and corporate sectors to advance radical innovation? 


Thought Contributors** Michel Bauwens, Eli Gothill, Edward Harran, Alban Leveau-Vallier, Jay Standish, Jerry Michaelski, Arthur Brock , Eric Harris Braun, Jean Russell, Seb Paquet, Simon Huber, Elleke Landeweer, Graham Leicester, Dominik Wind, Shard Jain, Helene Finidori, Mark Frazier, Mushin Schilling, Daniel Hires, Bobby Fishkin, Lauren Higgins, David Hodgson, Jessica Margolin, participants of the MetaCurrency Collab session, participants of the Breakthrough to Cures game, and I am missing a few people, so pls ping me if I missed you!  This topic jumped to the front of the loopback queue due to a tag on a FB thread that semi-relates to this topic. 

*March blogging sprint: #b03 Day 4: I am participating in a pledge to blog daily during March initiated by Steve Hopkins of the Squiggly Line blog. Follow the daily work of all participants on twitter under #b03 

**Thought Contributors have participated in the evolution of the ideas expressed in this post. I am prototyping a new method of attributing collectively crafted ideas. To learn more, see the post on Hacking Attribution: Thought Contributors.

This post is one in a series of posts that document pilot/prototype projects with the format 5 things that I wish someone had told me before I started in <5% of the time spent on the project.  This post also provides some context around the project, since it was a cornerstone project for me in the second half of 2011. 

In June 2011, Edward Harran and I embarkeded on a 6 month experiment. A deep dive collaboration across the Pacific Ocean. Eddie in Queensland. Kate in San Francisco.  Part mastermind for our personal projects and consulting gigs, part virtual praxis of a future of work digital innovation lab for a globally distributed team and part incubator of ideas. We set off to explore. 

Macroscope, coined by Eddie, reflects the "big picture" - multi/inter-disciplinary, systems perspective that we endeavored to sensemake in our lab.  Mindful. Playful. Creative. Engaged. Curious.  The aim was to make complex simple.  To bring big together with narrow in the sacred space of creative possibility between.  To transform the experience of chaos and mess into something sublime. Ultimately, we wanted to build a place to play with our creative potential and to hold a space that would allow the value of the spaces in between to emerge, unfold, expand...  with a macroscope perspective to unleash the potential for social impact.... and we wanted to live mindfully and productively working in a digitally-mediated global context.

In 6 months, we cogenerated amazing ideas that continue to live in us- expressed from time to time in posts and projects.  We honed a vision for Macroscope Labs* (mL) from future of work ideas, such as the world's first Center for the Emerging _____  and a research proposal to pilot and analyze the innovation value of an Ecosystem Diplomatic Corps (Ecosystem Diplomats explained)... to systems issues that we frame-worked* such as Macroscope Playhouse and Macroscope Compass... to finding a home base for our shared personal narratives as "context chameleons"* and knowmads.  

Eddie brought the knowmads idea fully to life from concept to a brilliant presentation delivered at TEDxBrisbane.  It was an epic achievement and an ideal culmination of our journey together in the Macroscope Labs experiment.

• No one will understand what you are doing.  (They'll think you are nuts.) You may not understand what you are doing. (You may wonder if you are crazy)  When it's over, no one, including yourself, will understand what you did or why it mattered. And yet, it is most important that you do it.  Experiments are our learning way into the future. You will learn and the people you work/play with will learn. However, don't expect anyone in the current world of work to understand and/or to value your skills from an experiment about the future of work- now that is nuts!  

          Take home: Don't let the present judge the future.  Let the future judge the past. 

• While the future is full of possibility, we still live in the present. A lot can happen with alternative, complementary and gift currencies/economies, yet one needs money to live in the present.  TimeBank, for example, still needs about 30% of the value they generate in dollars in order to fund their own operations.  Think about yourself as the TimeBank, make sure that you have enough to cover your basic survival needs in the present before embarking on the future.  Future-focused projects take time to build traction and attract the kind of funding that they need to sustain themselves on an ongoing basis.  Long enough for the present to catch up with that future horizon on which you are operating.  As with any new business, there is a period of time until you have a steady cash flow; likely wise, with a new technology, one has to be adequately prepared to "cross the chasm," the period of time between when an small pocket of early adopters discover and endorse the product until it grows to a steady early market of mainstream users. Think of future-focused projects as both a new business and a new technology and prepare accordingly. Bring extra reserves to cross the chasm between you and the Oasis, it may be like crossing the Sahara.... and that's fun as long as you are prepared!

          Take home: Feet in the present, eye on the future... and mind the Chasm!

• If you know that you want to leave signposts for others, be sure to have a documentation strategy.  If you want to make things beautiful, be sure to have a designer on your team.  If you want to do things quick and dirty, know how to explain the vision simply and to scaffold the context accessibly, because people may not 'get' the messy version.  If the goals that you have don't align with the skills that you have on the team, then shift the goals to play to the strengths of your team or get the skills. Alignment on this is mission critical. My hunch: skill set for the future worker will be radically different; people will need to know how to communicate simply and effectively in writing, code and drawing. 

          Take home: Know your audience and get the right team- diverse skills sets with varying pockets of depth, 
           what you don't know, you learn rapidly, and eager to do what needs to be done for the project's success. 
 

• Before you start and along the way, identify a means for you to demonstrate what you learned, what skills you developed, what learning you gained.  When a job/role does not fit in the present, it is hard for people in the present to understand how to interpret what was undertaken.  Some ideas on how to approach that are outlined in a 5*5 Systematic Approach to move from Idea to Pilot and from 5 years ago, I posted a seed {idea post} for the BeWell, WorkWell tool for soft skills development. More recently, a seed {idea post} for a learning journey tool, which would enable people to identify and demonstrate soft skill learning under emergent conditions. 

          Take home: Prepare to document what you are learning at the outset.  Remember to do it along the way! 

• On the journey to the future, other people will emerge around you who seem to be doing the same thing.  Celebrate that! Celebrate them!  Team up. When possible an open knowledge framework enables you to engage more people and grow more rapidly.  Share your learnings. If they don't want to play, then let it go and celebrate them anyway!  It will take many people trying, many times in order for one team to break through the wall of the present.  Be happy that you are one of those pushing the wall, and be confident that whether you are that one or not, your initiative contributes to launching a new direction.  Those who rise quickly, do so by standing on the shoulders of those who came before.  There are always those who came before.  Find them and learn from them.   Most 'lauded' inventors didn't actually invent what they are known for, they made an vital improvement that took the invention to a new level of market accessibility.  

          Take home: Celebrate others! Open source everything possible. Seek out those who preceded and learn from them.

• Never underestimate the power of in person

*We had all of these domain names.  My registrations glitched on the renew, and so they are released- all available. Go do something interesting and build on our ideas.  Give us a shout out when you do so that we can amplify your work! 

Thought contributors:  With immense gratitude to and for Eddie Harran,  my brilliant collaborator, awesome ideas instigator, cherished friend, mindful mate and hapatwin.  Thanks to David Hood and the Gathering '11 energy for pulling Eddie and me to Melbourne where we sealed the deal on mL. Never underestimate the power of in person. 

In January 2011, after a journey that included an adventure into New York City after Newark had a power outage and closed all flights amidst a snowstorm, I arrived in Scotland for the first time. I spent two fascinating weeks learning about the various Scotland Projects of the International Futures Forum.  The full report is included here.  A series of posts featuring each individual project precedes this post.  Comments and feedback welcome! 

Imagine if when you were commenting, you had the ability to nest your comment within a conceptual mind map.  This technology would allow one to "build on the ideas of others" rather than just cut it down.

Idea inspired when responding to Q on the TED survey regarding "point system for ranking comments"

My comment: Sometimes, challenging views can be important for real innovation but often people who like a perspective/idea become closed to questioning voices/views, how does the point system accommodate diverse perspectives and support potentially conflicting views?  It seems that points create a competitive rank environment that can be rapidly polarized rather than a collaborative, dynamic, expanding space - why not create a technology that allows for mind mapping comments, to allow building on the ideas of others - within mapped concepts, ranking comments might be helpful, but developing an innovative system for responding that builds on the dynamic of TED seems like the opportunity here?

What do you think?

Personal Reflection 

1. Engaging Change
2. Gaps of Culture
3. Gaps of Geo-Political-Socio-Economics (GPSE)     
4. Gaps of Systems
5. Gaps of Power Perspective
6. Mind the Gaps: Applied to Individual
7. Mind the Gaps: Applied to Institutional/Systems Issue
8. Mind the Gaps: Conclusion

Mind the Gaps [whole document ]
Mind the Gaps Conclusion [8 of 8]
Mind the Gaps Applied: Individuals [6 of 8]

III. Mind the Gaps: Applied

The following two scenarios reflect the application of how one might apply Mind the Gaps to promote inclusive action.  The first scenario shows an administrator using the Mind the Gaps framework to consider how to address a conflict at the school.  The second scenario demonstrates how a proposed government action was evaluated under the Mind the Gaps framework and illustrates the responsive action that sought to promote conscious, inclusive action for social change.


B. Institutional:  Emergency Preparedness

In December 2005, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) hosted a teleconference proposing that local governments throughout the United States adopt “Community Legal Preparedness for Public Health Emergency” and expand the public health authority for an infectious disease outbreak, like avian flu.  During the Questions & Answers, I inquired how this proposed scheme to broaden authority would address the needs and protect the rights of people from diverse communities, such as those who didn’t speak English; there was a long pause, and someone attempted to respond but didn’t actually address the question. I wondered what an inclusive preparedness plan would look like?

Public Health Authority is the power that government has over the people to protect the public’s health.  The public entrusts discretionary power to the public health authority, and the proposal sought to broaden discretionary authority even further eliminating restrictions placed after historical episodes of misuse of authority over marginalized communities. I reflected on the response to my question about non-native English speakers and wondered who else might not be adequately included in a plan developed by people who aren’t thinking consciously about inclusion. Below are outlined some of the questions that I considered when thinking through how to make the CDC’s proposed course of action truly inclusive.

1. Gaps of Culture: Public Health

- What if the public health authority’s good intentions to protect the public good gets overrun by the politics of fear and discrimination in a time of panic and uncertainty?

- How does the public health authority intend to use their discretionary power?

- Is there concrete guidance on how to use discretionary power in difficult situations?

- What protections exist for the public, if we fail to meet our ethical aspiration to use our power well?

- What if the public does not trust the public health authority or it’s good intention? 

– what if the public health authority is not as good as it presumes to be and what has been done to ensure that the good intentions are realized?

Having done a critical legal history of public health’s treatment of vulnerable populations[1] during infectious disease outbreaks, I wondered whether the public health authority would be able to carry out its noble intention amidst the heavy political pressures that dominate, particularly in the initial stages of a public health disaster, when fear looms and science lags. I also wondered how those who do not trust the public health authority, or government in general, would be affected during a public health emergency and what the implications would be for the public’s overall health if some sub-groups did not follow the public health directives.  I also considered that getting funding and support for preventative efforts and for marginalized communities is nearly impossible, and I considered that if there were a collective interest, it might facilitate funding for inclusive policies.


2. Gaps of GPSE: Public Health

- How might people from different GPSE be affected during the critical stages? (awareness/prevention, screening, treatment, vaccination, quarantine)

- How will geography play a part in an epidemic? With regard to limiting access to treatment and spreading disease?

- How will political status influence the public health authority efforts?  What happens to non-English speakers, what happens to recent immigrants who are often scared to access public services in the US?  What happens to prisoners?  What happens to people who are not legal citizens?

- What social factors will influence the epidemic?  What happens to the elderly?  the elderly who are institutionalized in nursing homes?  What happens to a child whose only parent may become ill? 

- How might different economic status impact the public health authority plans?  How will the homeless be contacted?  How will the poor be impacted?  Will the need to eat and fear of job loss lead people who work rather than stay under quarantine?

Relying on my historical identification of marginalized communities and scenarios from the SARS outbreak in Toronto, I developed 5 scenarios and used them to identify who might be impacted but might not be considered in the planning events.

I identified the following groups seemed the most likely to be omitted from the traditional planning strategies: homeless, poor, persons with disabilities, persons who are institutionalized (prisons, nursing homes), children, elderly, illegal immigrants/immigrants (incl. language access).  These groups all have little political power and thus have minimal access to ensure that their interests are included in emergency preparedness endeavors and protected during times of crisis.[2]

In an infectious disease outbreak, the personnel of transportation become key players in a variety of circumstances so paying attention to the geography of a situation remains important. 
 

3. Gaps of Systems: Public Health

- Who is not adequately served by the current health care system?

- Will people who are illegal and fear deportation be afraid to come to the hospital during a pandemic?

- If the strategy is to use media to promote awareness and prevention, who will that miss?  How will people who don’t speak English learn of this?  people who cannot read?  people who cannot afford a tv/radio? people who are homeless?

- How do public systems, such as public transit, affect who may come into contact with an infectious disease and how does it inform the way that disease may spread?

I considered that the public health system relies on three critical systems – the public health authority/government, the health care system, and the media.  For people who have historically poor relationships with government, it is important to consider how they might respond/ignore the admonitions of government. 

The government and health care system systemically alienate certain members of our community, particularly illegal immigrants.  The fear that illegal immigrants have of government might prompt them to respond/ignore public health advisories in a way that would have significant implications to the overall health of the public.  Considering the manner and degree to which this community is alienated from the health care system, I wondered what would be necessary to promote compliance and trust in the public health directives. 

Most public health announcements are made through media channels, and I wondered what would happen to people who are not part of regular media.  Homeless people who don’t have a radio/TV, deaf people who don’t listen to the radio, illiterate people who can’t read a flyer, and announcements made in English would miss a number of community members who don’t speak English.


4. Gaps of Power Perspective: Public Health

- How does this proposed action reflect assumptions of my power and privilege?

- Where and how can I use my power most effectively?

I saw the greatest contribution I could make to support the “vulnerable populations” I identified was to speak to the group that I was a “part” of and to use the tool of my training, law and ethics, to suggest ways to guide this very broad discretionary power.  I developed an ethical argument to justify preventative policies that address the unique needs of vulnerable populations during a public health emergency.   To see what an effort for inclusion on this issue looks like, I made that paper into a poster, Vulnerable Populations During a Public Health Emergency[3], that was presented at the CDC’s Public Health Law Conference in June 2005.  When Hurricane Katrina hit three months later, the groups identified and the issues anticipated in the poster became a part of tragic history.  It is my hope that if we endeavor to use these steps rigorously and consistently, we can promote inclusion action for social change.

The opportunity here that I did not undertake due to my position (a student writing a paper rather than a policy maker) would be to invite the now identified constituents into the problem solving process to ensure that any subsequent actions, such as the proposed preventative policies, were not based upon the power perspective of the problem solver. 

In discussing this poster and working with people of diverse and vulnerable populations, I discovered that creating an inclusive space remains elusive, even for people who are committed to doing important work for social good. I offer a backbone for building capacity so that those who are committed to cultivating inclusive spaces might be able to realize their aspirations. 



[1] Ettinger,K. A Critical Legal History of Public Health’s Treatment of Vulnerable Populations during a Public Health Emergency.  (available from the author)
[2] This is not intended to indicate that this is the state of affairs at present.  Though reports indicate, overall emergency preparedness planning is not well developed.  As such, one wonders how much attention will be paid to the interests of marginalized communities in the time of a crisis and that was the purpose of this endeavor taking the focus that it did.
[3] Ettinger, KM. Vulnerable Populations During a Public Health Emergency, available at: www2a.cdc.gov/phlp/conferencecd2005/docs/kettinger.pdf

Mind the Gaps [whole document ]
Mind the Gaps Applied: Institution/Systems  [7 of 8]
Gaps of Power Perspective  [5 of 8]

III. Mind the Gaps: Applied

The following two scenarios reflect the application of how one might apply Mind the Gaps to promote inclusive action.  The first scenario shows an administrator using the Mind the Gaps framework to consider how to address a conflict at the school.  The second scenario demonstrates how a proposed government action was evaluated under the Mind the Gaps framework and illustrates the responsive action that sought to promote conscious, inclusive action for social change.


A.  Individual
As the principal of the private school where a bullying incident occurred, Mrs. M considers how a response to the situation might be most inclusive. 


1. Gaps of Culture


Mrs. M questions how the approach to handling the situation would appear to someone who felt uncertain about the school’s commitment to the girls’ education.  She wonders whether the private school status might make a student or parent uncertain about whether the discipline was based on wealth or on culpability.

She decides to call all the families into meet with each other and the administrators. She considers that this approach fosters the kind of open communication that the school advocates.  She wonders whether the parents may feel a perception of partiality since she has a conflict in complete neutrality for economic reasons, and she decides to hire a neutral mediator who can facilitate the conversation.  She considers that a mediator has the ability to foster dialogue and understanding and the practice of mediation/facilitation is generally accepted across communities.  To be certain, she asks all sets of parents whether they are comfortable with having a mediator present to facilitate the dialogue. 

She doesn’t consider that the remaining parents may have concerns about the situation, nor does she consider that the other students not directly affected may have residual concerns arising from this event. 


2. Gaps of GPSE

Mrs. M does not recognize any geographic considerations in this case, but there are political concerns.  Mrs. M recognizes that the two sets of parents involved between the instigator and the victim have vastly different political outlooks, social status, and wealth.  The instigator’s parents are wealthy, prominent business people with a lengthy lineage of family who have graduated from the school; the victim’s parents work in the public health and government, and both parents are second generation immigrants of comfortable means but limited wealth.  She wonders how to create a more level playing field for the conversation, and decides that it will be the work of the mediator to balance these disparities.

She does not consider that the two sets of parents come from vastly different backgrounds may have different experiences of justice in their personal history, nor that they might have different understandings of the cause of the situation and diverse needs to have a sense of justice achieved.  She does not consider that other students may identify with qualities of the victim and in turn from empathic identification they may experience a sense of ongoing fear from this event.


3. Gaps of Systems

Mrs. M was aware that her approach to this situation was dependent upon trust in the school’s handling of difficult situations as well as in trust in the mediation process.  She recognized the potential mistrust of the school’s commitment to discipline arising from the need for funding as well as the mission to educate its students.  To promote a sense of confidence in the school’s commitment to neutrality, Mrs. M chose to use a mediator. 

To inspire confidence for the handling of this situation, Mrs. M decided to work with a coalition of teachers, parents, and students to identify and develop a way to handle a future incident with consistency and transparent, while retaining flexibility. 

Mrs. M did not consider whether the victim’s parents who have a health background are familiar with mediation and whether they would be comfortable with mediation.  Mrs. M does not check to see whether the mediator has experience with multi-cultural conflicts and does not consider what qualifications the mediator might need to have to establish legitimacy with the parents.


4. Gaps of Power Perspective

Mrs. M reflects on her power in this situation and sees that while she has authority at school, she does not have authority over the parents and in many ways, she is accountable to the parents.  She considers that by inviting a mediator to facilitate the conversation she will enable the removal of any power conflicts that she might hold in this situation.

Mrs. M did not consider that her position could be perceived differently between the two parents.  While the instigator’s parents who are wealthy patrons of the school feel comfortable expressing their perspective and needs, the victim’s parents who do not have a strong economic relationship with the school do not feel equally entitled to ensure that their perspective is understood and their concerns are met.  She also does not consider that the victim’s parents are concerned about their relationship with the school and ensuring that their daughter will not have a difficult time, whereas the instigator’s parents do not even consider that stating their thoughts would have any implication on their daughter’s educational experience at the school.   These are difference arising out of the parents different power positions and the perspective of their privileges.  Mrs. M is not aware of her own privileged perspective and thus, is not able to be sensitive to the ways that privilege informs actions.

Mind the Gaps [whole document ]
     Gaps of Culture  [2 of 8]

I. Engaging Change

“ ‘Mind the Gap’ a voice overhead calls out as the doors open for the Tube in London, that is precisely the same thing we aspire to in meditation, to mind the gap between where we are in this moment before we act to get where we are going.  If we can recognize that space, hold it open, then we have a chance to transform our actions from blind habit to conscious action.”[1] 

Identify gaps in our society and responding wisely to these situations is a critical component of creating a just, democratic, and civil society.  Meditation and mindfulness facilitate developing the capacity to recognize gaps within our daily life, to be present with gaps in order to gain clarity and understanding, and to respond to gaps with insight and wisdom for the betterment of ourselves, for our communities and for the world.

The paper explains a framework to promote conscious, inclusive social action, and demonstrates how this framework could be used at the individual and institutional level.  It culminates in describing the capacity we need to build to support inclusive problem solving, a necessary step to promoting inclusive, conscious social change.

II. Mind the Gaps: Conscious, Inclusive Action for Social Change

The “Mind the Gaps” framework is broadly applicable to a variety of issues.  This 4-step Gap Analysis enables one to “check” the inclusiveness of actions by individuals or organizations. When we encounter a gap in our action plan, the capacity for inclusive problem solving will allow participation of voices not historically engaged in the problem solving process.  To be inclusive we need to create a space that allows for diverse constituents to input understanding the problem and for diverse perspectives on the appropriateness of proposed strategies.  After we take a proposed action through the 4 steps, we may, ultimately, determine that our initial action is optimal, even if not fully inclusive, but we make that choice consciously, more aware of future opportunities for more inclusive solutions.

Mind the Gaps

1. Gaps of Culture
2. Gaps of GPSE (geo-political socio-economics)
3. Gaps of Systems
4. Gaps of Power Perspective

          
While the 4-steps of Mind the Gaps may seem familiar or intuitive, we have the opportunity to adopt using the 4-step framework consistently in our personal and professional activities to raise our awareness and Mind the Gaps in our daily life.



[1] Ingen Breen, a soto zen priest, who shared meditation practice guidance and this brilliant analogy.