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“You [Laura Hall] were such a delight. I relish the rare moments when someone makes a clear and informative presentation of new cutting edge information.”--Jane Hamilton, Co-Chair, Central Petaluma Advisory Committee
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A number of facilitation techniques have been effectively used by the founders of Hall Alminana to bring communities together for over 10 years. Here are some examples:
Guided Visualization
Community members are taken through short visualization exercises that guide them to their neighborhood or town many decades in the future where all things are possible. As part of this process, attendees draw their visions and present them to the community. The most startling result of this process is finding out that most of them share a common vision for a place. This is an excellent way to bring community members together at the beginning of a weeklong design charrette.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
This tool involves the exploration and discovery of what is best in people and in their communities. In its simplest form, it asks questions like the following:
- Describe a time in your community that you felt most alive and vibrant.
- What do you most value about your community?
- Imagine your community ten years from now, when everything is just as you always wished it could be. What does it look like? How have you contributed to this ideal community?
By shining the light on what gives “life” to a community when it is at its best, AI creates the conditions to build on that positive potential throughout the charrette week.
Visual Survey
This exercise gets community members out of their chairs and into the action. Image boards are placed around the room and everyone gets a number of green (positive) and red (negative) dots. They use these to demonstrate their preferences for the future of their community as well as for elements they do not wish to see. It is often a quiet process, unlike many antagonistic public processes, because the dots tend to speak for themselves. No one dot is louder or bigger than anyone else’s and the consensus vision unfolds over a period of about half an hour. Two important results of this exercise are the following:
- The design team receives clear and unambiguous guidance from the community.
- Community members typically find that they are part of a general consensus for the future vision of their town or neighborhood.
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Residents of a neighborhood in Philadelphia draw their visions
Sharing a story about what’s best about Ukiah
Voting for a preferred vision for Pescadero
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