Open Tent Session #2

Participants – 20 Community Leaders from Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties


Dates & Location – June 14, Berrien RESA 711 Saint Joseph Avenue, Berrien Springs, MI 49103

Keeping in mind what we learned in our Innovation Spaces and in our first Open Tent session…“What mindsets, behaviors, habits, practices, and/or ways of working do we need to shift?”

 Mindsets

  • We need to let go of thinking/being territorial with our work.

  • We need to embrace change in order and keep moving forward together.

  • We need to let go of the Us vs. Them mentality

  • “I need to value and prioritize learning and use what I’m learning to ground my work.”

  • We need to be consistent (NOT stubborn) in what we are trying to accomplish.  Consistency takes flexibility.

  • As a community narrative, we need to shift focus away from “how much” someone gets towards “people getting what they need.”

  • “What is holding us back from being brave?”

    • “I’m not always brave in all spaces.  I always like to find my ambassadors who can be brave in the spaces where I’m not.”

  • It’s challenging working with organizations that only work in the silos – how do we shift our [and others’] mindsets?

  • We cannot be afraid to fail

Behaviors

  • If someone isn’t aware of a program or opportunity, we need to really consider why we failed to reach them.

  • Organizations [and their staff] need to be vulnerable and brave in order to really prioritize hearing and including the community’s voice in our work.  We have to be ready to hear things that are hard and could force us to change how we are working.

  • We need to continue to have these conversations and be in this learning space together so we can learn what small steps we can make to collectively work together and align our work.

  • We need to model the behaviors that we want to see so other people/organizations feel more comfortable/confident in joining

  • We need to share our accomplishments earlier and more often

Habits

  • We need to change our habits of always having to do things the same way.

  • Focus on setting community goals rather than organizational goals. 

  • Even if our funding sources restrict what we are able to lead directly, we can look for opportunities to support the work others are doing.

Practices

  • We need more collaborative goal setting and a collaborative vision about what community success looks like.

  • How can we have more conversations with the community that are accessible to more people?

  • We need to keep learning together about how we can approach our work differently.

  • We need to include the community’s voice more often and earlier in our work.

  • We can bring other groups into these conversations/learning space.

Other Ways of Working Together

  •   We need organizations to recognize that they don’t have to be the lead in everything.  We should join others efforts whenever possible.

  • We need to learn how to be each other’s advocates.

  • We need to track the ripples that are happening through this work.  There is a lot that has been accomplished already!

  • How are our nonprofit boards supporting us?  If they bring a “for profit” mindset to this work, it is very challenging. How can we collectively develop board members from a for-profit mindset/decision-making to a nonprofit mindset/decision-making.

    • How do we turn outward to our board to understand what they need?

    • Be more strategic about who is on our boards

    • A board and organization staff need to act as a team

  • We need to be diligent about protecting the good things that we have created.

 

Now What?

Reflect – What can you shift in your work to align with what we are learning?

Connect – Communicate with other open tent participants!   Do you have another team, group, or organization who would benefit from joining our network and learning together?  Connect them to Heather Cole at heather.cole@uwsm.org.

Look Ahead – Our next Innovation Spaces will take place in September, where we will learn about  United Way’s Public Knowledge Report.

SAVE THE DATE – Rich Harwood will facilitate our next Open Tent session on the morning of October 26, 2023.