Micro Medium #9— “No-one would be interested in something like that”
Micro Medium is my effort to write succinct, insightful, punchy blogs in less than 500 words semi-regularly ! Do let me know how I am doing in the comments below!
“Nothing ever changes around here, not really sure it’s worth the effort”
These are classic cultural challenges/thoughts for society and business alike and were comments I heard in the research phase of thinking about setting up a local Neighbourhood Scheme in my local area.
It is easy to feel despondent with a political system in complete disarray, active suppression of community voice and work-as-Stockholm syndrome paradigm too often showing it’s ugly head, yet in a little known part of Dartford, Kent, UK we have gone from zero in Oct 2022 to over 225 active members of 3 locally connected Neighbourhood Watch schemes, nearly 5% of the population of West Hill, over the past 5 months.
Why I share this is for a few reasons:
1) We have more agency/ability to take action within ourselves and our local communities than we have been conditioned to believe
2) We are longing to reconnect to ourselves, to one another and to understand our place in the big picture after generations of conditioning and hyper-individualisation
3) By coming together as community, our voice is increasingly being head and changes are starting to be made around cleaner streets, investment in local parks that were overlooked and we expect investment for the NHW schemes soon also. Some blogs can be found below for more context if interested:
4) As global supply chains and weather patterns continue to operate with volatility never experienced in living memory, we will need each other in much more connected, remembered, sharing ways locally as we increasingly center those too rarely in our daily thoughts whom are most impacted by our ways
Setting up and engaging local community has been one of the most soul-enriching experiences of my past years and was for sure a missing link in my own #integration and grounding.
I am keen to see more community within the workplace also and believe equally that we are far too silent and far too scared to have adult conversations that are required to move us forward in more collective, constructively disruptive and reimagined ways.
If you are based in the UK and have any interest in setting up your own scheme, check out www.ourwatch.org.uk or drop me a line and I’m happy to share my experience.
Shall we connect?
My name is Garry Turner and I am a Disruption and Innovation Catalyst working at the intersection of International Sales, People and Culture, Equity & Inclusion and Sustainability:
- International business development and authentic relationship building human working within and across a Euro 3bn + corporation
- International speaker on topics around human-centered design, vulnerability and change is an inside job
- Support senior leaders and mission driven solopreneurs as a Thinking Partner
- Facilitator of people-centered workshops and organisational design
- Guide of 1–1 personal, transformational Exploration Spaces
- The co-creator with Jo Hompstead of Human Development Space in-person gatherings which are an emergent and co-creative space for both businesses and open groups
Digital Business Card — https://link.v1ce.co.uk/GarryTurner
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/garryturnerthinkingpartner
Linktree — https://linktr.ee/HexoChangeGarryTurner
