Grounding Our Work in Relationship

Exploring Collaborations and Partnerships

As a community development practitioner I am always looking to develop strong, meaningful collaborations that are grounded in relationships. Here at CDLI we’re continually learning how to centre our new and old relationships with ‘good relations’ as the focal point. To centre ‘good relations’ don’t always just happen. More often we need to create process and intention to develop strong collaborations. Grounding our work in relationships goes beyond more than your position, professional experience or organizational mandates.

Head, Hands, Heart

A process called Head, Hands, Heart (HHH) is a fantastic framework s to surface the skills, knowledge and passions of the people around you. HHH is a form of asset-mapping, where you can discover the gifts each person has, we encourage to share the model to get a sense of each other’s gifts.

One, Two, Four All…

The second framework is to engage people in a process called 1,2,4 All . This process can support those who are more reflective and need time to show up in relationships. Once a person has had time to reflect they share about what’s coming up for them in pairs. Finally bring people together as a group of fours to share commonalities and experiences. Having a defined prompt that is grounded in curiosity to build relationships is encouraged. The prompts could be varied but with the outcome for participants to reflect on how they value relationships when it comes to building community. Where are opportunities to connect? How do you build trust? What does your experience say about community? There are several prompts that can support quality conversations that are grounded in identifying strong relationships. Understanding each others values, principles and passions can be integral to creating meaningful relationships. Having these relationships can reduce burnout, generate ideas, share resources, build trust and a sense of solidarity as it means to develop community.

Adaptative Action

Adaptive Action is another framework that is an iterative process that encourages participants to get curious by asking questions of those involved. First, we ask the question ‘What?’ to gather some data and surface patterns. What do we currently know? What has surprised you? Then, we ask ‘So What?’ to make sense of those patterns and see what they may be revealing to us. What patterns are revealing themselves to us? What might that mean for the actions we have taken, or should take? Finally, we ask ‘Now What?’ to explore what actions we might take in response to what we’ve learned. When exploring the next action(s), also think about who should be involved (think strengths), how you might judge/assess success, etc.

Utilizing meaningful methods to build relationships can be a valuable tool for how we build community.