Dialogue for power of action in collaboration
In collaboration with Crossways Växjö, we facilitated strategic dialogue in order to activate and engage, create consensus, and create a space for new ideas for an ongoing urban development project in the city of Växjö. The area will be an innovative and sustainable meeting place for city residents that will even connect Växjö with people beyond the city.
Here, strategic dialogue means facilitating change and ensuring that everyone in the (digital) meeting place can learn from each other, engage in fresh collaboration, and strive towards a common goal. With Crossways Växjö, we placed human needs, sustainability goals, and the opportunities afforded by digitalisation at the forefront, regardless of whether those involved were employed in the private sector or the public sector, or whether they were in academia or were residents.
Participants said it was “getting clearer and clearer” to them and that they saw “many opportunities”. They were beginning to “approach the goal” and finding inspiration to “start making things real and head together towards our common goal”.
This success is partly due to Usify’s facilitation methodology and the constant creation of visualisations whose imagery made a complex challenge accessible and tangible. This allowed us to create an overview – a bigger, shared story – and to enrich that story with details so as to draw attention to specific ideas, connections, conditions, challenges, and opportunities.
The dialogue platform permitted a detailed visualisation that led to productive conversations and consensus among the people in the ecosystem. This made it clear which initiatives needed to be worked on further and how to move forwards to accomplish the new solutions in terms of collaboration and the district’s innovative range of services.
Following the energising strategic dialogues, the participants described the process as “intensive and rewarding” and said what they had done was “surprisingly good and progressive”. They also felt they had been “introduced to the project from a new perspective. Very valuable!”
Workshop Layout
Workshop 1
- Review of needs of people involved
- Idea generation regarding future service offers in district, with game plan and Legoo
Workshop 2
- Re-visit vision and images of current status
- Co-creation of roadmap to clarify how to shape collaboration on construction of smart and sustainable district
Workshop 3
- Revise details and create a whole
- Add detail to roadmap, with proposal for shared responsibility for people involved
