We imagine a simple and fun approach to seeing neighborhood systems.
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We start with three nodes, conceived of as a seed, a first root and a first shoot. (Three Level Awareness)
> For community level collective action, there must be some trust. Then some project(s). And if things go well some increased community cohesiveness. These are all positive feedback loops so the either get better or worse, it takes other activities to provide some stability. See Collective Action, Ostrom and Ostrom's 8 Principles.
Then we ask for the participants to rate these parts of their neighborhood. In effect they are describing an "as is" state of their community from their perspective.
This leads to discussion and definitions.
Then we ask them what do they want from each of these neighborhood situations.
Then we ask them what each of these parts of the system needs from them.
Then we ask what actions they could take to get what they want and to take care of the system's needs.
All the while they may add nodes and clarify relationships, creating a richer map/diagram in Arrows or on paper.
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Can you recall a situation where these three variables all worked well? How many people were involved? What do you think allowed the success.