The ‘listen-test-reflect-adapt-ness’ of sparking community action
By: Jo Orchard-Webb
Tags: Learning, Coventry, Social Movements, Isolation

#connectingforgood is a movement to tackle isolation in Coventry being animated by the charity grapevine. This learning out loud note shares a snapshot of early #connectingforgood insights informed by the patterns surfaced by the grapevine team. By collecting and analysing a multitude of stories, images, numbers, observations and reflections we have been able to be intentional in our design and practice as the movement to tackle isolation grows. Mel will be diving into specific aspects of this learning out loud note over the next few months to tell you more about the lived experience of movement building — so look out for her stories.

Beautiful Walk & Talk Map by Melissa

Isolation touches all of us. It can make our lives poorer, harder, sometimes even impossible. As part of our work to tackle isolation in Coventry we knew we needed to first have a much deeper understanding of the many visible and invisible ways it touches our communities. For our social movement this meant going beyond the growing mountain of isolation related academic research, and charitable foundation reports, or government policies. This is because social movements are essentially about people and relationships. To move beyond a de-contextualised understanding of isolation the Grapevine #connectingforgood team have spent recent months engaged in a phase of deep listening.

The fruits of this listening to new and old friends in Coventry centre is a very human insight into the complex experience and pervasiveness of isolation. Understanding the specificness of the experiences of isolation in Coventry was essential given we know how place and space directly interact with our social and cultural lives.

Taking insightful action requires us as a team to pay attention to the wide ranging interactions, actions, conversations, behaviours, emotions and reflections in this work. We have done that in a very intentional way through our shared team learning. That collective learning process is part of the ongoing and everyday way we observe, collect, relate and analyse multiple data sources for patterns. Those patterns in turn help us adapt the design of our work and practice. This way of learning is relational and contextual, demanding that we look up and out to the macro, within and around us to the micro and intimate, and then be alive to the links in between.

This way of learning involves all the team and invites movement makers to take part in any way they feel works for them. This approach to learning is ongoing, everyday and helps nurture a culture of curiosity and experimentation — urging us to be empathetic, “to try on other perspectives”. Learning in this way — openly, relationaly, dynamically, contextually — can require a shift in mindset for those of us schooled in more rigid forms of evaluation.

The shift to learning and being curious in this way can be hard won, even unnerving at times: “Where are my tick boxes, KPIs, fixed list of questions and pro forma???” However, the shift is difficult to ignore once it has been embraced, and harder still to ‘un-see’ the treasure and insights it offers up. Like Fellow Travelers Collaborate CIC we know that working with complex challenges requires us to re-orientate our learning away from imposed fixed metrics and rigid linear logic models — ill-suited to this dynamic and relational way of working. Instead, we turn our minds and hearts towards an everyday learning culture that seeks to share openly, and pay attention to the relationships between a diversity of qualitative and quantitative data that helps us continually improve together. We hope this way of learning helps us and others see our place within the system, and so help in the emergence of fruitful collaborations for a healthier system.

[It’s messy, but we are OK with that]

In the heartfelt sharing of stories, the bewildering messiness of our societal systems, and the often unintended ways they trigger isolation have been made more visible and understandable. The listening has surfaced many, linked and dynamic drivers of isolation in the city, as well as the overwhelming number of connected outcomes for individuals, families, and communities. With a challenge like isolation that is so complex and systemic in nature, we don’t tend to have ready made and tested solutions — there is no one spoonful of medicine to make everything OK. Responding to complexity demands more than a single stand alone action — it requires multiple, connected and varied actions at a range of intervention points. But there IS hope.

This listening phase also gave voice to the stories of Coventry citizens and animated an energy and plethora of gifts that they are bringing to the movement.

In many ways the creative, dynamic and emergent quality of social movements makes them an appropriate response to the messiness and uncertainty of a complex challenge like isolation. While there is unpredictability in movement methods, there are also patterns. We have observed patterns in the tactics we have tested and then critically reflected upon as a team. These patterns then inform our work. As part of this “listen-test-reflect-adapt” approach to sparking community action we wanted to share some of our learning out loud. Below we outline four key patterns we have observed so far, and the implications they pose for the design of future actions.

[1. A gifts approach]

Pattern observed: A ‘gifts approach’ underpins all of this work. This means we actively recognise, value and nurture people’s gifts — from storytelling, to photography, to cake making, to greeting with a smile, to organising a group trip to a Lido, to making banners and chalking the pavement with messages — the treasure chest of gifts is seemingly endless once it is opened up!! We celebrate how generously people share those gifts in the movement in all of our interactions. A gifts approach affirms capabilities and potential while resisting ‘over caring’. It seeks to identify and disrupt barriers to participation and connection. This approach tends to run counter to a traditional service model focus upon categorization, labels and perceptions of need, which can unintentionally amplify a sense of isolation.

Design implications: Pay attention to and celebrate ALL the resources, gifts and talents revealed through and brought to the movement. Support people to discover and nurture their gifts. Design out qualities from happenings that unintentionally create barriers to the revealing of gifts and so undermine this approach. Explore together, and model the behaviours that accompany a rich diversity of roles in the movement — greeting, organising, connecting, making, drawing, writing, documenting, sharing the message, performing, collecting and sharing insights — again the list goes on! This design focus liberates gifts, nurtures a sense of collective purpose, and so allows us to walk beside each other as equals. People’s roles will be diverse, change over time, depending on where they are at in their journey. Let them know that is OK.

[2. Empathetic design of moments and spaces for connection]

Pattern observed: The intentional empathetic design of moments and spaces for connection has dominated this listening phase. This design prioritises use of thoughtful creative and personalised invitations, and a range of mediums of communication, locations animated and different times for happenings. It also means designing conditions to encourage empathetic behaviours through informal convivial spaces and experiences that help enable feelings of welcome, comfort and curiosity. These feelings in turn enable connection and sharing upon a deeper level. This intentional design creates the space for kinder responses to strangers that open us up to learning about different perspectives, and networks of mutual support & generosity. Through these spaces and moments of connection the scale of loneliness in the city has been made more visible — the happenings acted like a divining stick for stories of isolation. This also made clear the need for more supportive informal safe spaces to share that experience of isolation, as well as the opportunity for increased collaboration between existing convivial spaces through the movement.

Design implications: Pay attention to what makes an authentic invitation to a diverse constellation of actors. Move at the speed of trust in nurturing a greater depth of relationships. Not everyone will travel a journey from curiosity to contribution to & then commitment to the movement. Allow for a range of movement entry points, exit points and re-entry if desired. Seek out or help forge spaces and experiences where norms of connection, openness and mutual support are practiced. This pattern also led to us questioning how to support the rewiring of relationships between the different actors (e.g. between service professionals and local citizens).

[3. Be creative and human in our calls to action]

Pattern observed: The nature of the call to action and participation has been highly visible, open, multiple, creative, inspiring and playful. This is especially powerful given isolation can often be invisible — particularly for those with learning disabilities. Part of the role of the movement is to shift cultural norms and public debate around the experience of isolation for everyone in the city. The invitations have been both personal and direct in 1:1 meetings, as well as open to all passers by in public spaces depending on the nature and purpose of the gatherings. Exercising our connections and animating networks both intimate and larger scale in a very human and authentic manner is a key mechanism in all aspects of movement growth.

Design implications: Use playful, convivial and creative tactics to challenge cultural barriers to engagement with the issue of isolation. For example, we made use of open public spaces for collective happenings, and in doing so challenged the more commonly observed atomised and transactional use of civic space. From walking the city as a collective, via interactive performances in closed shop doorways, to chalking messages, mass hula hooping and hopscotch on the pavements, through to silent megaphone ‘street debates’ — the design of these happenings gave permission to suspend the usual individualised social norms and invited collective and connecting experiences.

This use of space was amplified via explicit messaging on physical placards, banners, chalking and social media. In this way the collective experience of isolation was difficult to ignore and an organising presence for change made highly visible. These collective moments invite entry to the movement and disrupt the usual unevenness of power (e.g. between service user and provider, or across perceived difference in social status). As we adapted based upon this pattern we reflected upon how through our design and our conversations we are connecting these visible and playful tactics to the more serious narrative of the movement for change. This pattern has design implications for what it means to be a movement and not a project in terms of our invitation and framing. This in turn has an impact upon people’s expectations, experiences and behaviours.

[4. Movement methods are adaptive, developmental and respond to opportunity across the system]

Pattern observed: Movement methods being used are adaptive, developmental, and responsive to opportunities to leverage change at a range of system intervention points. This involves the team paying attention to emerging situations — for individuals, for local communities, even city wide — and adapting the design of actions accordingly. This involves trying to be alive to rapidly changing contexts, embracing a more holistic reading of the system, and noting areas of heat and possible collaborations. Crucially it also involves knowing our place within the system as a movement that is being catalysed by a trusted local charity. Most of all this involves exercising our creative and systems thinking mindsets. We have found our more ethnographic and developmental form of learning — that prioritises an improve not prove approach — has been valuable in helping build these mindsets.

Design implications: Be alive to and design for the rhythms of movement making including: alistening phase, a reflecting/ learning phase, a mobilising phase, and moving to a (self) organising phase. These may happen at a range of paces, and even in parallel on occasions. Be experimental in testing new approaches, evolving those experiments, and have confidence in leaving cold spots of inactivity. Be open to learning from things that don’t work. Pay attention to changing permeable and hard edge boundaries at both an individual and movement scale. This has led to more explicit articulation of what is and what is not possible by the team. The presence of permeable boundaries around movements (unlike the often hard edges of projects or services) allows for drawing in ideas, resources and people from the wider ecosystem if they are aligned to the values and approach of the movement.

We hope these learning notes will be part of ongoing open conversations about tackling isolation. If you are a Fellow Traveler and recognise these patterns in your own work or experiences then we would love for you to drop us a line — we believe in learning and testing together for a better and more connected world.

P.S. We love learning from Fellow Travelers tackling isolation in other spaces and have drawn insight from these open and inspiring resources. You might too …

The Jo Cox Loneliness Commission:https://www.jocoxloneliness.org/loneliness/

The Loneliness Lab Playbook (2019):https://lonelinesslab.org/

BBC Loneliness Experiment (2018) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2yzhfv4DvqVp5nZyxBD8G23/who-feels-lonely-the-results-of-the-world-s-largest-loneliness-study

Camerados:https://www.camerados.org/

Shareable: Social Isolation Debate Series (2019): https://www.shareable.net/blog/issue-brief-social-isolation

Nick Maisey at Befriend: https://nickmaisey.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/fellowship-insights/