05 September 2010 ~ 0 Comments

Visualizing Change

Sometimes we need to be able to visualize the changes we want to see in the world or in our own lives in order to figure out how to get there.  Other times we can imagine the end goal, but we need help with the development of the process or the discipline to reach a long-term goal.

Below is a model for how our Child Clubs are designed to help children visualize and achieve changes they want to see in their communities. The model is simple, and it is similar to how we try to design all of our programs at PEPY:

This is the same process for how our community school development program works: the community (teachers, parents, school support committee & administrators) identify the problems THEY want to solve, we connect them to new ideas and a methodology for how to think about framing a solution, and they take actions to solve their problems.

This is how our new HR system is designed to work at PEPY as well: our staff members share their personal short-term goals and their life goals with our “Goal Guide” who helps them think about ways they can achieve these dreams. The milestones might look like setting up a savings plan/account to achieve their goal of buying a home or a moto, helping them acquire the skills they will need to reach their dream of owning their own business, even connecting them to internships outside of PEPY if their goals are in areas where we can not provide them the necessary training. From there, THEY need to choose to take those actions if they desire.

Not all of our programs involve self-identifying problems and not all of them are based on community led problem solving but we are now focusing more on these areas.  The process above, though effective at creating more lasting changes, is time consuming. Sometimes it is so much easier to go for the low-hanging fruit and try to quickly “solve” problems for others, as we have tried to do before, but we have found that the slow and steady community-led changes are the ones that last.

Do you have thoughts on this? Examples of your own work or programs you know about which relate to these ideas?  Please share!