Yogi Berra is said to have said, “In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
When we launched Facilitators Without Borders several years ago, we had some pretty good theories about what would make an appropriate project. We wanted to work with and for communities in need. The words communities and in need were central to our thinking. But, as per Professor Berra’s observation, practice trumped theory, and we soon found that the definition of community was very broad indeed, and the criterion of in need depended very much on the question, “in need of what?”
So here’s my personal take on what I’ve learned about the first half of the equation, communities.
Communities can be defined by shared geographies, genes, interests, histories, age, language, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, professions, beliefs, or values. For me, regardless how it defines itself, the three overarching community questions are:
- Does the community have a commonality of challenge and purpose? In the language of Productive Thinking, is there a community Itch and might there be a community Target Future?
- Does the community have energy? Are its people genuinely motivated to explore change? Are they in a position to put as much effort into addressing their issues as into talking about them?
- Does the community have (or can it put into place) some kind of structure that will be available to commission FWB’s engagement, manage the logisitics of our involvement, and carry through the decisions and plans that we help the community generate?
If the answers to all three questions are “yes”, the community may be a good candidate for a project. If the answer to any one of them is “no”, the community may not be able to benefit from our involvement. That doesn’t mean the community doesn’t need or deserve help. It simply means that what we offer — facilitation in aid of helping people find solutions to their issues — may not be the appropriate intervention.
In my next post, I’ll talk about what I’ve learned about the criterion “in need”.
(Background reading: FWB Project Criteria Guidelines)
