Our Philosophy
Community Empowerment
Leadership Development
Strategic Planning
Training Opportunities
In the past, strategic planning efforts In Native America
utilized the traditional Anglo thought-based SWOT process. That process is one or two
dimensional and typically led the effort down a path that specifies
the objective and identifies the internal and external factors that are
favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. It does not recognize
interrelationships or the complexity of hidden weaknesses and
inflexibilities in organizations and methods of communities. Our process embraces a systems
thinking approach to envisioning possible futures in a community based on
what is happening now. We call it Scenario Planning.
Our visioning process was built from the ground up. We have worked in communities that are some of the poorest and most distressed in the nation. In light of that level of distress, the ability of a community to see beyond today is virtually non-existent. However, the future existence of those communities demands that they be able to do so.
The visioning component was completely designed from scratch by us to accommodate a holistic approach to community called scenario planning. The concept of scenario planning is a holistically new and innovative way to engage a Native community to envision its future. The scenario planning process serves to provide those communities a new and innovative alternative to traditional SWOT-based strategic planning processes. Those traditional SWOT-based processes continue to produce little value in prompting, motivating and allowing Native communities to see a new future for their communities.
The concept of scenario planning is a
holistically new and innovative way to engage a community to envision its
future. The scenario planning
process served to provide those communities a new and innovative
alternative to traditional SWOT-based strategic planning processes. Those traditional SWOT-based
processes continue to produce little value in prompting, motivating and
allowing communities to see a new future. We attempted to reinforce the
attributes and wisdom of honing the ability to envision future scenarios
of a community. We also
attempted to reinforce the need to engage the community holistically to
address issues from a human, social and environmental view. Our work emphasized the need for
communities to address their futures from a balanced
perspective.
Our process of visioning is an empowerment process. It is a process that helps to reclaim balance in the community. Creating this balance is essential to the community becoming healthy and able to take on the more complex issues of building community and place.
