Hi Dear Colleagues,
When Jim and Judy Wiegel and Joe and I travelled with JWM to launch the first 8 HDPs, I was charged with documenting the methodology we were developing. And oh, how it unfolded from our first Consult in Oombulgurri to our last in Sudtongen. As did the framing of the Consult Report Document which we spent several weeks following Oombulgurri to structure and frame. JWM, along with Lis and Garnet were there with us in Canberra when that design was hammered out. It was’t easy. For example, we had no idea of how to transpose the tactics (actions on the local level) into Programs that could become substantive, authentic, fundable entities for our Development folks to sell. We, as a team of 7 labored well into the wee small hours, and finally took a break. When we came back JWM came up with an additional chapter to the Document called, “Anticipated Benefits.” I was the then editor of the first document, and felt this was a silly addition, redundant and unnecessary. Oh, how over the years I realize how short-sighted I was. That final chapter (which JWM insisted we keep in) described, poetically and imaginatively, what one might imagine the village and its residents would be enjoying and manifesting in another two years.. It was a more vivid grounding of the villagers’ initial vision, because it was informed by the Consult process of looking at the obstacles (contradictions) and filtering good ideas (proposals) and their actionable tactics through screens (necessary, sufficient, doable, relevant) into practical steps we then called “implementaries.”
The reason for my sharing of this is that I hope that Kamala can spend less time on “policy proposals”, which by nature are very abstract, and more time painting the picture of “anticipated benefits” for our country — a very detailed vignette of life in the future, based on our residents’ hopes and dreams.
Just my 2 cents.
Mari Crocker
