Start Something Good

Here's a meaningful conversation that we are having at the start of each Social Leaders Cymru networking event: "What is one thing that you love about the place where you grew up?" In that question there are surfaces and depths, landscapes and memories, people and places, pain and pleasures, and, above all lost time. But we learn a lot about each other when we see ourselves as people rooted in place. The mural is of course of the great Richard Burton. And the wording says, "There is one place you belong to, and in my case it's Pontrhydyfen." Over the last few years I have loved how the Start Something Good methodology has added value to regeneration and placemaking work - bringing people together around places that they love, futures that are possible, and collaborations to develop new ideas. It's been a good week working with the Design Commission for Wales team looking at facilitation skills, and getting along to the Bridgend Business Forum in Porthcawl as they move towards a social enterprise structure. Glad to end the week in Wrexham welcoming Ken Perry as our speaker for the Connect and Collaborate networking event. Siobhan Hayward Sara Sellek Amit Chadda #leadership #learning #placemaking #facilitation

I don't know what goes on in this meeting room but that's quite a set of rules. "Every meeting should have its own rules" is a great insight that I learned from reading Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering back during the Lockdowns. To announce the Collective Intelligence Day for Wales Co-operative Centre staff to explore what we could do to support communities after Covid we sent all the staff a letter in the post and a packet of seeds. A small signal that this event would not be business as usual. When we run Start Something Good events we tell people our code: - Be curious and try stuff - Good ideas can come from anywhere - We have a bias towards action - People come before the project - No incomprehensible waffle - Collaboration beats competition All part of the essence of Start Something Good. Inclusive, welcoming spaces. Inspiring conversations about the things we care about. Fresh ideas, new initiatives, creating impact for good. #meetings #events #hackathons #codesign #impact #leadership

It was a pleasure and an honour to be invited to write this guest blog for CommunityLand by Domenico Taverriti on the power of shared learning within the community development sector - hyper locally, nationally, and globally. In it I reference personalities with social capital we need to embrace in our local communities, how in #Wales we bring geographical social leaders together via Start Something Good and Clore Social Leadership to codesign how they best support their communities, and my intentions for my newsletter “The Participation Paper”. The article can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eVZgHFRY Martin Downes FRSA Amit Chadda Siobhan Hayward

I often have two or three things that I have been mulling over for up to a year ever before they are used in my work. I've been thinking a lot about the concept of the "Cloister" as a collective, protected space away from technology for reflection, conversations, stories, learning from others, and dialogue with a bias towards action. It was listening to a lecture on university education by the historian Niall Ferguson that set off my reflections. There was a time when we considered including more tech into the Start Something Good hackathons (having a virtual team of AI contributors tackling the challenge alongside the human teams, or encouraging more use of smart phones for research during the day). But the main reason why we didn't go down that road was because too many venues have unstable Internet access. Now I think that there is a greater virtue in the Cloister being that enclosed, protected human space for structured, purposeful dialogue for ideas and action. One of the powerful things people have told me about Start Something Good events is how quickly people bond over a shared challenge. Using the ancient technologies of paper, pens, post-its, experience, stories, conversation and reflection all within the proximity of being sat at a table together is where the magic happens. Distractions are at a minimum. It's harder to keep on checking your emails when you are in a face-to-face social space. People also are part of a small team (6-8 people, but ideally six) that has never worked together before, and that too brings with it a dynamic and social etiquette. Throughout the event everyone is on task - thinking, reflecting, imagining, problem solving, considering options, floating ideas. None of this is theoretical. It is all about skin in the game. Mind, heart, and will, individually and collectively at work. The Cloister also has an element of movement to it; physically and mentally, a back and forth, tracing and retracing steps, pausing and moving. If you ever come along to a Start Something Good hackathon you will find a welcoming atmosphere, and invitation to take part. You will hear laughter, you will see animated conversations, and sometimes you will notice friction as people engage with significant and sometimes divisive issues (more on that again). Above all you will find a protected human space, high on challenge and low on threat, free from distractions to think, talk, dream, create, and pitch fresh ideas for social change. (The picture is of Durham Cathedral) #innovation #leadership #technology #AI #dialogue #hackathon

We often use Tina Seelig’s Innovation Engine at Start Something Good events to explain the conditions that help ideas emerge. But recently I’ve been wondering whether these are also the conditions communities need in order to thrive. What I’ve always found interesting about the model is that it isn’t linear. It’s a Möbius strip. Everything connects. Everything influences everything else. Internal and external conditions constantly interact. That feels much closer to real community development than most step-by-step models I’ve seen. The model separates: Internal elements: Culture Attitude Knowledge External elements: Resources Habitat Imagination But the more Martin Downes FRSA and I use this in Start Something Good sessions, the more I notice how these conditions overlap in community settings too. For example: Culture becomes psychological safety, belonging, and permission to participate. Attitude becomes openness, hope, and willingness to collaborate. Resources become community assets, spaces, time, and relationships. Knowledge becomes lived experience sitting alongside professional insight. Habitat becomes environments where people can connect and act together. Imagination becomes collective possibility and community-led ideas. And perhaps this has let to me making this connection between an innovation tool and community development; Strong communities rarely emerge because one project, one service, or one organisation “fixes” something. They emerge when the conditions exist for people to connect, contribute, imagine, and act together over time. Not a programme. Not a consultation. ...A set of conditions. I’m still sitting with this idea, so this is more of an open reflection than a conclusion. But I’d genuinely be interested to hear what others think. Are these also the conditions we need to preserve and build upon in community development?

There’s quite a lot to unpack when people ask “What is Start Something Good?” Hopefully this infographic provides some idea…