Improving Our Communities Indicators and Community Planning Working Together

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Improving Our Communities Indicators and
Community Planning Working Together

• May 14, 2005
• Ken Jones
• Green Mountain Institute for Environmental
  Democracy
• Montpelier, Vermont

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Community IndicatorsFrom Planning to Action
(in sixty-one easy steps)

• May 14, 2005
• Ken Jones
• Green Mountain Institute for Environmental
  Democracy
• Montpelier, Vermont

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Prelude to Presentation

• For hundreds of thousands of years, humans
  relied on evolution to adapt.
• For almost ten thousand years, humans developed
  cultural systems to learn from past experiences
• For the past five hundred years, we have
  established information systems to
  institutionalize learning and initiate concepts
  of progress and self-determination to foster
  adaptation.
• In the past two hundred years, the United
  States has led the world based on two powerful
  systems for adaptation, the free market and
  democracy.

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Prelude to Presentation

• And today...

• We are in the midst of an information
  revolution
• The rate of change in our society is increasing
  dramatically
• There is at least lip service to developing
  learning organizations

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The Key is Feedback

• Feedback for evolution is life and death
• Feedback for cultural systems are based on
  traditional values very closely linked to
  community survival
• Information is feedback to explore cause and
  effect as an enlightened path for making choices
  and affecting progress
• Feedback for a free market is the sum of choices
  of consumers (The Wisdom of Crowds)
• Feedback for democracy is the sum of choices of
  voters (More Wisdom of Crowds)

Very slow
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Prelude to Presentation

• New information technologies are leveling the
  global economy - The U.S. has a diminishing
  advantage in a knowledge-based development
  strategy
• The opportunities for growth and improvement are
  not in what we know, but in how quickly we learn
  and adapt.
• For public policy, we can (or must) embrace the
  need for learning systems and indicators are a
  key.

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Community Indicators are Feedback Systems

• Are our actions providing us the outcomes that we
  desire?
• Should we change our choices or our behaviors to
  attain better outcomes?
• Are there outcomes that the free market is not
  successful in accomplishing?
• Is our democratic form of government fully
  utilizing feedback to make better decisions?

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Effective Community Governance Model
3. Citizens Reaching for Results
1. Community Problem Solving
4. Communities Governing for Results
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3
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Getting Things Done
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2. Organizations Managing for Results
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Community Indicators are Critical in the 21st
Century
This is not preaching to the choir To improve
your project and expand participation The choir
must begin to preach
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Session Objectives

• Build a stronger model for linking indicator
  projects to action
• Based on indicator project fundamentals,
  consider possibilities to expand your audience.
• For existing projects, identification of at
  least one opportunity to take it to the next
  level.

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Taking it to the next level

• What do you mean?

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Taking it to the next level

• Expand understanding of issues and trends in the
  community
• Recognize the relationship between program
  activities and outcome performance
• Improve decision making on issues of community
  interest
• Improve community conditions

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A Progression of Informations Impact
Capture Attention
Build Understanding
Consider changes
Make decisions
Capture Attention
Respond
Learn
Reflect
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Indicator Projects need to move from Attention to
Decisions

• The key is to recognize the importance of action
  and outcomes
• Attention The importance of a particular
  outcome
• Understanding Some causal relation between
  action and outcome
• Possibility for change Actions can be altered
  to affect outcomes
• Decisions Which action do we take to improve
  outcomes

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Feedback
Action
Indicator
Outcome

• Attention The importance of a particular
  outcome
• Understanding Some causal relation between
  action and outcome
• Possibility for change Actions can be altered
  to affect outcomes
• Decisions Which action do we take to improve
  outcomes

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The fundamentals Choices within an indicator
project

• The choice of indicators reflects community
  issues of interest
• Indicators require a mechanism to gather and
  report data
• Opportunities for community members to use the
  data

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Indicators An information based decision tool

• Indicators are information and information is
  intended to inform decisions and decisions are
  choices among possible actions.
• Indicators are not an end unto themselves. A good
  indicator project only occurs within a good
  community improvement process
• Most of us use information to affirm what we
  already know -- missing the value of information
  (knowing vs. learning)

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Choosing indicators - Coming up with the laundry
list

• Decide on the project scope
• Consider their use (remembering the application
  of information what understanding do you want
  to foster, what decisions do you want to check or
  what actions do you want to influence)
• Consider the mechanism for data gathering

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Choosing indicators - the Wheat from the Chaff

• Traditional approach is to consider a set of
  criteria
• Relevance
• Ability to affect change
• Statistical validity
• Availability of data
• Understandable to audience

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Action
Indicator
Outcome
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Action
Indicator
Outcome
Do we care about the trend? Consider a list of
emotions Love Pride Comfort Excitement Anger

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Action
Indicator
Outcome
Can I (we) change the trend?
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Action
Indicator
Outcome
Fill out your exercise sheet and talk it over
with others at your table
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Do We Care?
Can We Affect?
Enough Food
Crime Rate
Home affordability
Use of alternative modes of travel
Causes of hospitalization
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Affordability of a Single Family Home
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Choosing indicators
But, there is more than the use of the indicator
to determine its value in your project Statistica
l validity Learning v. knowing
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Choosing indicators
Head nods - I knew that Shrug - Regardless of
whether I knew it or not, its not interesting
Eyebrow raising - I didnt know that, and its
interesting (Ah-Hah) Head shaking - I didnt
know that and I dont believe it
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Ah Hah
Nod
Shrug
No way
Enough Food
Crime Rate
Home affordability
Use of alternative modes of travel
Causes of hospitalization
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Affordability of a Single Family Home
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Taking it to the next level

• Expand understanding of issues and trends in the
  community
• Recognize the relationship between program
  activities and outcome performance
• Improve decision making on issues of community
  interest
• Improve community conditions

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Knowing vs. Learning

• ...schools and government always have a vested
  interest in choosing indicators that will make
  the community look good. The social service
  agencies, on the other hand, have an incentive to
  find a need in the areas they are prepared to
  serve.

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The use issue (the greatest indicator of
success)
A progression from use-lite to
information-based management Reflect What
are the factors affecting the trend? What
impacts is the trend having on our
community? Learn How did that change
occur? Respond (manage) What do we do
different? Accountability Whose head should
roll?
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What are the factors affecting the trend? What
impacts is the trend having on our
community?
How did that change occur?
What do we do different?
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A Spectrum of Informations Impact
Build Understanding
Capture Attention
Consider changes
Make decisions
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Planning
Action
Indicator
Outcome
Passion
Manage-ment
Motivation
Incentive
Motivation
Politics
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The fundamentals How to improve an indicator
project

• Expand participation (recognize those who may be
  motivated and the politics to translate
  motivation to action)
• Focus on management, or...
• Focus on policy and politics

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Considering some next steps improving your
project

• We dont have the right people engaged
• We dont have a strong connection to program
  implementation
• We dont have a strong connection to improving
  outcomes

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Feedback ACTION ? INDICATOR ?
OUTCOME Politics
Engage Communicate Celebrate
Legal Advocacy Collaborate