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GILBERT STEIL, JR., AND MAL WATLINGTON

Community Summits

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

—William James

Focusing Funding on Worthy Causes

Early in the new century, leadership at the United Way of Rhode Island (UWRI) became aware that their potential for positive community change had become diluted over time. Funding an ever-increasing number of worthy causes had reduced the allocation to each to a level that precluded major impact. Realizing this, they sought ways to focus their funding, while minimizing the political fallout expected from more selective resource allocation.

In 2003, UWRI decided to sponsor several Community Summits to decide community priorities for three focus areas: Solutions for Children, Youth, and Families; Helping People in Crisis; and Building Adult and Neighborhood Independence. Following each of the summits, participants were invited to join an Impact Group that continued the work of setting and assessing progress on community priorities.

In the fall of 2003, UWRI developed participant invitation lists for the summits, carefully balancing stakeholder participation representative of the focus area and geographic representation from all parts of the state of Rhode Island.

Two summits were held during the winter of 2004, with more than 300 participants braving a blizzard to show up for the first one. At their conclusion, participants identified and showed support for a short list of community priorities providing the foundation for UWRI Board funding consideration and the work of Impact Groups. Of the 700 summit participants, 300 became active in Impact Groups. Many were still active 21 months later.

In October 2005, UWRI held a celebration at the site of the summits, featuring news and successes from summits to Impact Groups to the first-ever open grant process. What began as a hopeful model for change was given life through the summits, and is now the accepted means for funding high-impact social change in Rhode Island.

Frequently Asked Questions

WHAT ARE COMMUNITY SUMMITS?

A Community Summit is a 15-hour planning meeting for a broad spectrum of stakeholders, defined by a focus issue, who come together to agree on a specific course of action. They are our intervention of choice when a vision for a desirable future is already in place (or latent) and the work that needs to be done is the targeted allocation of limited resources in the most effective way.

WHAT HAPPENS AT A TYPICAL COMMUNITY SUMMIT?

The picture below outlines a two-day Community Summit (figure 1). On Day 1, participants assemble in a large room and are seated at tables of eight, where they actively engage acknowledged experts on the focus issue, who help set the context for the meeting.

Figure 1. The Community Summit Process

Once there is sufficient shared context, participants are divided into five or six smaller groups, which may have 64 to 72 participants. These groups are focused on a specific subdomain of the focus issue, for example, violence and crime as a subdomain of building adult and neighborhood independence.

Next, individual stakeholder groups—for example, defense attorneys in violence and crime—articulate their collective historical experience, assess the current state of their subdomain, and describe their wishes for the future. In broad communities (e.g., Rhode Island), this may be the first time that members of a stakeholder group have worked together. Their work is captured in a display, used in the next step.

Participants are regrouped into mixed tables. These “learning teams” inspect the work produced by each stakeholder group in turn, led by the learning team member representing the stakeholders who created the displays. Day 1 normally ends in the middle of this process.

On Day 2, participants return to their breakout rooms, complete the work of the learning teams, and collectively develop and post “well-formed” goals. New interest-based teams form around tables to flesh out the goals, develop action steps, and work toward agreement on which goals and actions will emerge from the room as final output.

Following goal selection, participants create posters describing the goals and action steps, and post these along with those from other rooms in a large gallery. All participants pass through the gallery and indicate their preferences. Their stated preferences become a starting point for focusing community resources on well-supported, high-impact projects and programs after the summit. The summit closes with a celebration, and an invitation to participate in the work to follow.

Many variations are possible, especially the tailoring of goal creation and action planning to the needs of the community or organization. When possible, we spread the Community Summit over three days, beginning with lunch on the first day and ending in the early afternoon of the third day.

WHAT MUST EXIST TO MAKE THIS A VIABLE OPTION?

Community Summits are designed for situations where the critical mass of participants is in the range of 130 to 2,000. They work well when the critical issues facing the community have been discussed in various forums, but real action has been slow in coming. They work well when there is an understanding that decisions must be made about how to invest limited resources, and people are ready for those decisions to be made. They require a client willing to trust the wisdom of the whole system that is assembled. It’s important that participants understand that much work will need to be done following the decisions made at the summit.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

The cost varies considerably, but the key expenses are: food for participants; space rental; consulting fees for two lead consultants for planning, design, and training of other summit team members, and facilitation; materials; documentation (written, still photos, video); and publicity. United Way of Rhode Island held its Community Summits in a 1920s dance hall and made ample use of volunteers.

Table of Uses

About the Authors

Gilbert Steil, Jr. ([email protected]), principal of Gil Steil Associates, is an organization and management consultant specializing in the development of strategies, plans, and designs through the engagement of whole systems and their key stakeholders.

Mal Watlington ([email protected]) is president of City Square Consulting, Inc., a firm specializing in human capital and business performance strategy, competitive analysis, and organizational change.

Where to Go for More Information

REFERENCE

Alban, B., and B. Bunker. “Special Issue on Large Group Interventions.” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 41, no. 1 (March 2005).

INFLUENTIAL SOURCE

Surowiecki, J. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

ORGANIZATION

Community Summits—www.gilsteil.com/communitysummits