Nurturing the Social Field in Amarante Portugal
A comprehensive training and skill development programme for local social change agents
Pedro Portela, CHANGE -Urbact Local Group member
Context
Amarante, Portugal.
A city located 50km away from Porto, nestled between the famous Douro River Valley and the Mountain ranges of Marão.
Amarante is one of the cities belonging to the CHANGE network, one of the many URBACT networks of cities collaborating and sharing experiences on the re-design of public social services.
A comprehensive description of the purpose of the CHANGE network can be found on the project’s website, but the key retaining idea is:
”Social design of public services. CHANGE! provides exchange and learning in the area of collaborative public service delivery, more specifically it seeks answers how to transform existing top-down social services to a more collaborative delivery model by using people’ power and the energy of their relationships within their social networks.”
In this context, in March 2017, a need was identified for a training programe specifically designed for the members of the networks’ local action group in topics covering participatory methods, change management and innovative governance methods.
A programme consisting of six, day-long introductory workshops was proposed to the Municipality, the network’s local instigator. This programme was ambitious in scope and topics covered, initiated in May 2017 and is set to last until September 2017.
The programme
The meta-framework around which the programme was designed is inspired by Theory U — MIT’s Center for Organizational Learning.
“The gist of this framework is simple: the quality of results produced by any system depends on the quality of awareness from which people in the system operate. The formula for a successful change process is not “form follows function,” but “form follows consciousness.” The structure of awareness and attention determines the pathway along which a situation unfolds. “ — Presencing.org
The six workshops covered: Theory U, Systems’s Thinking, Art of Hosting, Dragon Dreaming, Sociocracy and Non-Violent Communication.
Art of hosting was used to design the sessions, to facilitate and open the space for shared learning. The purpose was that the session itself, and not only the contents of it, was a learning opportunity.
A surprisingly large number of people signed up for the workshops with an initial cohort of around 20 people.
The method behind the madness
The training programme itself is a prototype of a wider change process. It is not a self-standing initiative. The purpose of the CHANGE project is to set the stage for a long term redesign of social services. Such a systemic shift cannot be achieved overnight and, to some extent, cannot be “scheduled”. The series of workshops is a step or an element in an ambitious long term process of collective, city wide shift in worldview which should include all stakeholders of the public social services. The strategy, if one may call it that, is to create the conditions for a shift to emerge, rather than trying to impose it from the top down.
Other elements of this change process include parallel events and initiatives (movie nights, Social Thursdays, community based initiatives.), videos, infographics and graphic recording. But most importantly, it shall include the notion of community of practice and mutual support groups.
Adoption of change management frameworks like Theory U require its adaptation to the cultural backdrop of the group. A one-to-one application of the methods without integrating elements of the local culture and history is, in our opinion, missing out on the very important ingredients.
This is where the community of practice and support groups come in not unlike the U.Lab approach.
Impact and steps forward
There is currently no way of determining what the outcomes of this initiative will be. As a facilitator one is left to the challenge of being participant and observer of a process that needs some nurturing but also some detachment from expectations. It’s a process that needs to be set safely out of control.
Here you can find a few photos of the training sessions and here some of the parallel movie nights.
One immediate result that supports an optimistic outlook is the subtle change in literacy and vocabulary. One can observe, in the initial cohort, a change in the way people describe the traditional problems. Terms like loops, awareness, dialogue and mental models are becoming familiar.
Next steps in this transformational journey would be to promote network thinking and the idea of an intentional network of change agents, connected by a common purpose and spreading the “virus” of systemic shift. A network of community leaders but also of citizens, social workers and traditional institutions. Coupled with the idea of a community of practice, this would create a resilient system that is able to not only redesign social services but, most importantly, sustain its collective long term learning and adapting process.
