Dialogue Workshops

Anne Pearson
06/12/2003 09:46 AM AST
To: Steve Coleman
cc: glenn Eugster
Subject: Dialogue info


Steve, below is a summary which Danny Martin and I put together for the
July 8 Workshop which you may find useful. We felt it could be sent to
Workshop participants after the invitation. Best, Anne

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE:
Dialogue Workshops

PURPOSE AND GOALS
The general purpose of our series of workshops is to seek input on and
establish broad-based public support for approaches that meet
environmental, social and economic objectives simultaneously. Our goal
is to create a committed group of stakeholders from different
geographical areas, communities and interest groups of the DC region
with a shared understanding of the value and role of green
infrastructure for human beings and other living things.

DIALOGUE
Dialogue is the capacity to interact creatively and effectively through
the development of shared understanding. It includes skills of
listening, inquiry, advocacy and building together. Dialogue is the art
of creative interaction that produces results which are comprehensive,
inclusive and locally owned. We will use Dialogue skills in the
workshops to enrich our goals.

VALUES
We each have different qualities and values we bring to our lives, a
positive core that gives life and meaning to our work and
relationships. Consider for a moment the things you value deeply in
this regard, specifically, the things you value most about yourself, the
nature of your work, and the land we share. Without being humble, what
do you value most about:
* Yourself ? your best qualities, the values you embody?
* Your work?
* The land?
* What stokes the fires of passion for your work? Why do you do what
you do?

PEAK EXPERIENCES
Think about those moments when you could say about the work that you’ve
been doing, “Yes! This is what my work is all about.”
* As you reflect on your experience, describe one of your most
memorable, exceptional times when you felt your work had a significant
impact.
* What was the impact on you? On the project/community/client? On those
who worked with you?
* What were the key factors that made it possible for your efforts to
have such a powerful impact? What was going on for you, personally, in
the work/project/community? What in the organizational environment
allowed for this to happen?
* What did you learn in that situation that helped take you to a higher
ground in your work? Specifically, what did you say or do that someone
else might be able to do in a similar situation?



FUTURE
- We all know that health is not simply the absence of disease, rather
it is the things people do that create health. People have a great deal
of wisdom about creating health; sharing this collective wisdom would
create an “epidemic of health.” No action, conversation or thought is
too small to affect this potential outcome. In the same way, we have the
collective wisdom to address equally complex issues, like land use.
Imagine a future where we are creating an “epidemic of sustainable and
creative land use” and consider:

* What are three things that you are doing now that should be
maintained/enhanced (best practices, approaches, ways of working) to
contribute to this “epidemic”? What is the Green Infrastructure Project
doing that should be maintained/enhanced?
* What are you doing now that you would do in a new, different or better
way? What about the Green Infrastructure Project?
* Now take a bolder step. Think beyond your normal assumptions about
parks, open space and recreation areas to imagine a truly new way of
doing business. What does this look like?