Revisiting our GUIDEing Principles
Just under 2 years ago our lab team generated a range of holistic goals based on doing and learning to that point. We had been broadly adopting a Developmental Evaluation approach, and had become curious about Principles-Focused Evaluation as a more rigorous way of undertaking Developmental Evaluation.
Developmental Evaluation supports innovation development to guide adaptation to emergent and dynamic realities in complex environments. Innovations can take the form of new projects, programs, products, organizational changes, policy reforms, and system interventions. A complex system is characterized by a large number of interacting and interdependent elements in which there is no central control. Patterns of change emerge from rapid, real time interactions that generate learning, evolution, and development — if one is paying attention and knows how to observe and capture the important and emergent patterns. (Michael Quinn Patton)
The lab team members of 2018 began taking steps to shape GUIDEing Principles for our work together. GUIDEing Principles are rooted in the values of people leading the work. This means they need to be revisited as the team changes.
In the book Labcraft, Hendrick Tiesinga and Remko Berkhout draw attention to the permeability of lab teams and networks, and CoLab Dudley has designed this permeability in.
A difference between labs and traditional ways of organising is that in labs the boundaries between the core team, network and wider ecosystems are permeable. The boundaries between who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ are permeable and ever changing.
Principles in the pub!
As a new iteration of CoLab Dudley team members coalesced in late 2019, we used our own case study as an introduction to Principles-Focused Evaluation with the team, and listened back to the audio clips (linked in the case study) which were recorded in early 2019 by (then) team members talking about their experiences of the approach.
Team time was quite a logistical challenge, so we agreed to meet for a pre-christmas curry chat about principles in the pub! We shared reflections on what we noticed from listening the the audio, how the principles resonate with our work and ideas around using the principles in our experiments and work going forward.
Jo Orchard-Webb noted the following from this exploration:
- There was a clear feeling the principles offer a useful framework /guide to our working as a lab and a shared mission to bind us. This is helpful as new members join the team, and key to lab resilience. Lab team member Dave beautifully described this as seeing lab work as “less me more we” and “less monologue more conversation”.
- Louise Bloomfield reflected that the principles offered a further layer to thinking / decision making to those she uses for her social enterprise, while allowing enough room for creative development.
- The principles are robust but not prescriptive - and that is useful with initiatives that are evolving.
- There was a sense that everyone had their own language for each principle that helped make them more meaningful to them.
- We need to make them more front and centre in the work to make full use of them. Maybe a bit more explicit in our designing / planning going forward. We agreed we would spend time together working out a killer question or two for each principle, that would helps us test whether we are walking the walk, and help us demonstrate the so what?
- The principle we had called persistence and being there didn’t resonate (notably this principle was built on values and approaches of people no longer in the lab team). This served as a reminder that we need to check in regularly with our principles to make sure they are still fit for purpose.
Our revised principles
In our first team session of 2020 we followed through on our commitment to dig further into our principles. By the end of this session we had evolved our principles into a set of 10 (dropping one and adding three), and honing the language so that it worked for everyone. We’ve been working with this set of 10 principles since January.
Create the conditions for curiosity and experimentation
We embrace and are open to learning and experimenting. We learn from what doesn’t work rather than hide from it. We share our learning and resources openly and generously, in the commons.
Learn and test through doing and prototyping
We show what is possible (show don’t tell). We help others to move quickly to doing together. We avoid bureaucracy and talking without action, as that blocks change and closes down who can or wants to be involved.
Connections matter
We intentionally create conditions for us all to connect with strangers and build generous, caring relationships. We animate our peer networks of friendship, reciprocity and mutual support. We prioritise the connections and trust that emerges between different people, and between people and places (as distinct from transactional, or passive connections).
Design and build creative spaces and experiences together
We co-create spaces and experiences and through that change the way the community uses and relates to them. We avoid transactional and passive connections and don’t do ‘for’ people — CoLab Dudley is a platform, not a service. We are concerned that creating things for people removes opportunities for everyone to experience a feeling of belonging and a sense of wellbeing from sharing and growing creativity.
Move at the speed of trust
We have patience as relationships build, and acknowledge where we are all coming from. We embrace a range of rhythms and timelines that enable the emerging relationships and connections (rather than forcing institutional or unrealistic timetables, expectations and deadlines on an organic process.)
Be Good Ancestors
This principle emerged towards the end of 2019, from our explorations, conversations and learning during that year.
By adopting the long view of change we are able to see broader patterns, learn from our histories, and commit to building deeper more sustainable roots for future generations. This is opposed to short-termism and a rush to quick solutions. These often result in a failure to respect the context, traditions and histories of our communities and places, and can lead to unintended negative consequences.
Use Nature’s Guidebook
This principle began taking shape in our minds in summer 2019, building on permaculture design approaches we’d been exploring, and experiments during Do Fest 2019.
Learn from patterns and system flows in nature. And ask: how would nature do it? Use (and reuse, repurpose and recycle) natural resources thoughtfully, rather than seeing nature as separate from us as a resource to be used indiscriminately.
Join the Dots
This was another principle which emerged in 2019, in recognition of our desire to always use a systems lens.
This is about seeing the whole, exploring the connections and relationships, not just the individual ideas, activities or events. Shifting our thinking from predictability to emergence; from feeling too small to make a difference to appreciating that our actions have ripples; from things being separate and isolated to wholes, connections and continuity.
Encourage abundance thinking and practice
Identify and make good use of the many and varied talents within us and resources around us. By revealing and repurposing our talents and gifts — both made and natural — we help unlock value that has been ignored, unloved or thrown away. Abundance thinking:
- encourages cooperation and sharing
- is a change in focus from quantity to quality
- shifts thinking from being about scarcity of resources to flows of resources
- removes an emphasis on money and finance, which is replaced by valuing real wealth and different capitals
- is at the heart of a regenerative local economy and culture
Celebrate gifts and skills (not labels)
Honour difference. Create opportunities for all of our talents to shine — no matter who we are, rather than labelling people, as that has the effect of dividing us, isolating us, obscuring talents and undermining our collective strength.
