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Nothing about us without us.

A food bank showed how it’s done when they asked all their partner agencies to gather all THEIR clients. Instead of facilitating planning conversations with just their board, they facilitated those conversations with the people who were most closely affected by their work – down to having those community members prioritize which goals to tackle first.

We saw the same thing several years ago at Creating the Future, as we were determining what’s next for our own mission. We asked you – our community members – what was important to you and what you thought our work could make possible. We then asked you to help synthesize the core themes that were important for us to act upon.

In both cases, the decisions were made by those most closely affected by those decisions. From there, the organizations’ job was to turn the community's aspirations into action.

“We know what’s best for you” is the opposite of “Nothing about us without us.” In addition to being patronizing and disempowering, it is also the direct road to unintended consequences - the consequence of moving forward without involving the people who will be affected.

So then, what would it take for your plan to be driven by your community?

Try this:
The first set of questions in Catalytic Thinking is this:

• Who will be affected by your plan? Whose lives are touched by the work you do?
• What would it take for those individuals to have an active role in your planning? What would it take for them to lead the direction you take?

As you ask these questions of your own work, your list will likely start with categories. Teachers. Farmers. Elected Officials.

But you can’t engage a category; you can only engage people. So start making lists of people you know, who fit those categories. (There is a great tool for that in the Resources section below).

The next step is to simply ask and listen. Ask the same questions you would ask your board in a traditional planning session. The great thing about applying Catalytic Thinking to your planning is that the questions are about things that anyone could answer. You don’t need to know the inner workings of an organization to answer…

• Who will be affected by our work?
• What could our work make possible for all those individuals and groups?
• What would our community look like if our work were 100% successful?
• What needs to be in place for that to be reality?

In the Resources section below you’ll find the questions Creating the Future asked during our own engagement efforts, as well as the answers people gave. There was no need for knowledge of our inner workings, just knowledge of the impact our community members hoped we would create.

Unlike a multiple-choice survey, you will want people to be able to respond fully, to share themselves – to truly engage in whatever way is most comfortable for them (vs. what is easiest for you.)

In a demonstration project Creating the Future did with the Nevada Department of Education, NDE’s team held listening sessions for all 200 staff. They gave folks the opportunity for written responses, group conversations, one-on-one conversations. The superintendent even did Coffees with the Chief, a direct conversation with the boss.

In our own engagement efforts, we asked folks to respond in writing, in small group conversations, in listservs, in our board meetings. And we listened through the lens of Catalytic Listening – listening for their aspirations, their strengths, their values.

These simple steps can help you put “Nothing about us without us” into action. You will be creating more radical inclusion in your work, taking steps to ensure that your plan can create the most impact possible in your community.

That is the power of “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” And that is why these inclusion questions are the very first questions in the Catalytic Thinking framework.