Participatory process & transformational change

More than 100 people from across the disability and community sectors, and from government, came together for three workshops across Queensland in April and May to learn skills in participatory leadership for transformational change — hosted by NDS Queensland.

Read what happened at the Brisbane one on 15 April 2014 below, and download the harvest newsletter.

Read the harvest newsletter from the Townsville workshop on 2 May.

What skills, tools and knowledge do I need to engage people in conversations that matter?

We were introduced to Circle practice, as a way to help participants “check in” at the start of a meeting or workshop, about why they are participating.
To check-in, we asked ourselves:
What brings me here today?
This is what we said:
How to have difficult conversations | Give voice to others | New ways to engage
Shift negativity | Better communities | Enabling choice  | Meet people and make connections  |  Serendipity  |  Learn from wisdom of group  |  Design a better user experience  |  Tools for better communication  |  User's perspective  |  Collective decision making  |  Connect back to purpose  |  Future proofing  |  Ways to embrace change  |  Learn to listen and understand others  |  How do I host conversations?  |  Learn to ask the right questions | Curiosity.

We learned about crafting powerful questions, and then together, based on what learned during check-in, we came up with this new calling question to inform our work for the rest of the workshop:

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How do we engage in conversations for change?

We used this question as the basis for our Open Space session. Here are the questions and topics posed by workshop participants during the session.
Groups spent 45 minutes delving into these topics, and came back together to share their key learnings with the whole group.

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How do we ensure the most marginalised don’t fall through the cracks?
Equality
Working party with other service providers
Assessment tool – will it create gaps?
A place for Partners in Recovery?

Is money part of our wellbeing and a healthy community?
Importance of financial literacy
Organisations focus on social enterprise

How do we engage non-verbal people to embrace change?
Investment in development of tools
Don’t make assumptions
Adapting resources

How will service providers survive?
Clients will be our bosses – how do we communicate and collaborate?
We need to get better at what we do
Collaboration with other small services

Why is it necessary to understand life experiences of people with a disability?
How can we respond to their needs if we don’t  Unique to every person and their families
Understanding removes barriers and leads to good work

How will the NDIS affect community? and;
Is the NDIS a realisation of human rights or a response to a need?
New organisations emerging
Agencies emerging > the shadow side
Increase in local employment
People contributing to communities.

How do we embed participatory processes in organisations for benefit?
Need for a paradigm shift – connection to purpose and heart
Conscious of jargon
Tailor to needs

How do we consider everyone’s story?
We’re all in this together
Bumblebees to pollinate different groups

During lunch, some workshop participants co-created with us the questions for a mini World Cafe. Here were the questions and harvest.
Round 1: What will support collaboration in … (your context)?
Round 2: What are my next wise steps?
Get people to the table with a powerful question
Host event – taking care of stories and hurt
Research mental health and living space
Develop a shared common language
Focus on individual strengths
Peer paradigm shift
Support plans for clinicians
Collaborate for great service for recipients
Closing the supply chain
Buying ‘the box’
Enabling sustainable supports 
Negotiating relationships driven by user
Where are the Elders in these conversations?
Collaborative partnerships with those working with vulnerability
Focus on shared values – and call people back to them

CHECK-OUT
Another key part of Circle, is closing the meeting with a “check out”, and reflecting on what has been accomplished. The question we asked was:

What’s one thing that has shifted for me today?

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• Hope
• Space and beauty
• People want to be heard
• A shared question works
• Simplicity
• Life changing wisdom
• Power of the collective
• How little I knew :)

• Power of powerful questions
• Diversity
• Difference + inclusion = innovation
• Diversity of questions
• Bravery
• Inviting with a question
• Trust the process and people