Flourishing communities need conscious individuals. Being and living in community can contribute tremendously to personal growth.
For the CLIPS program, useful methods are gathered, adapted and developed that contribute to a better understanding of individuals and the strive to enhanced consciousness about the human field.
This chapter covers elements related to community, including those that are not relevant to all groups. However, since this is a community incubator it seemed appropriate to cover topics of community extensively. This further seek to make the CLIPS guide comprehensive, inspirational and appropriate for a wide variety of group projects.
Community is central to developing group projects. Experienced people understand this well, but most projects still tend to focus mainly on intention and structure, neglecting community, as the common territory. In some languages the word “community” has strong connotations: archaic, religious, political, anarchistic etc. It does not have the ring of modern words: team, crew, club, league, company, or collective. However, community dynamics are something that any kind of group has to deal with, particularly if it puts people’s real needs to the center and then designs the organisation around those needs, instead of expecting people to follow the organisational rules even at the expense of their human needs. Setting up and maintaining the community takes a lot of energy initially, but it pays of in the long run – even in the organisational sense.
One of the mistakes group projects often do is trying to resolve interpersonal issues by introducing more rules and making the organisation more rigid, thus brushing the real problem under the carpet. (See: Community Building by Scott Peck).
Whoever tried to build a community knows it does not just happen.
Spontaneous community building is possible indeed, but it usually leads to unpredictable outcomes and can involve high risks. Conscious fostering of community spirit should therefore be present in every phase of developing a group project.
Community cannot be fostered through strictly rational (left-brain) activities alone. Creating and maintaining group identity requires: open, trustful and respectful communication culture, where addressing difficult topics is possible without fear of punishment; rituals and celebrations; having fun while doing things together and space for emotional expression.
Intimate relationships, whether between romantic partners or between spouses, influence group dynamics greatly. A family (or even a couple) is the smallest form of community within the wider community and attention should be given to how these two levels of community interact and affect each other.
Communities mature over time. It can be said that they are mature when they have brought to life strong community spirit and incorporated key structural elements, particularly common, effective methods of self-governance, and conflict resolution. Substantial part of community building consists of striving for win-win solutions.
When community spirit and functional structures work together in a mature group the result is likely that mutual support among members is lively, everyone like to attend events (common meals, anniversaries, meetings), members with special needs have a place in the community and get assistance when they need it, children feel included, etc.
Here we will explore further each of the key aspects of community building, starting from the core of every community; its identity and spirit.
This method aims at supporting groups to develop a meta-perspective about their group from a CLIPS perspective. A typical example of the use of this method is the first day of a community meeting, dedicated to gain a deeper understanding of the issues of the community and at the same time understanding the importance of all 5 CLIPS layers.
A set of cards about the mindset needed for creating community.
The Community Cards help to introduce the attitude that is important for creating a community that respects and empower the individuals. It instigates people to reflect their own attitude and to speak about it. This usually starts a deep exchange that is very community building. They can connect their attitude and values to these cards.
Many of the challenges that a group project entails for each person are expressed in the individual layer.
This method proposes a way for a positive understanding of these challenges, turning them into a way of reconnection with the community.
The Emotional Wheel is rooted in the culture of Native Americans and is a practical development of the talking stick (or pipe). It creates an intimate, special atmosphere for people to express their feelings, expectations, desires, and makes visible the magic energy of the group.
These cards are produced by the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN Education), here contextualized to CLIPS. They can be used to map motivations for group members, to map skills and learning needs of group members and to search for a common intention for a group. A workshop of 1,5 hours.
Conflicts, problems and tensions form a natural part of the life of a group project and we only have a few social tools to manage them in a positive way. This method is one among others; from the CLIPS framework. It proposes to listen, collect and order the information that the conflict is contributing to. Allowing to observe it from different layers, feelings, needs and fears, searching a way to new options.
The term ‘Collegial Coaching’ is widely used in social enterprises to target issues of importance to one person for which this person seeks advice from their peers. The method has been adapted in a way that while coaching, the CLIPS model. is brought in as a reference. It could be typically applied at the end of an introduction to the CLIPS-model,and can be used with any audience that is familiar with the CLIPS model.
A method to help groups orient their actions and understand their best strengths and weaknesses using Permaculture Principles in relation to the CLIPS model. Although it cuts across all layers, it is especially related to Community and Structure. The Social Permaculture & CLIPS Method is formed by parts 1 & 2, so the Orientation Table (Part 1) should be consulted and applied before the Assessment tool (Part 1).
SWOT is used in CLIPS as a diagnostic method, to assess the state of a project – and realize new potentials. It is a known tool, used in both companies and organisations, when laying out strategies.
The collaborative flower or tree is a method for attentive and precise listening. The person learns to
differentiate from where s-he communicates: from facts? From thoughts and beliefs? From his/her own needs? Is it a request, or a demand, that we are throwing, or placing, into the relationship?
A method to get to know yourself in your c
ommunity. To know more of yourself in a group, to know your group; differences and skills. to know which areas to improve – where to give special attention, to bring awareness to differences in a community group and why it is necessary to have different skills/styles represented. And give value to them all.
This is a very complete method that allows the integration of various group processes into each person.
For this reason, it can be adapted to different situations, and generate variants, of different duration, based on precise objectives.
It can be used as a tool to better understand …
Any group needs to set its boundaries in a transparent manner for members, both new and old, to be able to navigate more smoothly within the community.
What is needed from each member? What can be made possible? What is expected?
The Traffic Light exercise zones out these aspects to set clear boundaries.
A group needs practices for sharing.This is one that is widely used within the ecovillage movement and therefore a recommendation for each community group to experiment with – and find the form that match the group the best.
Feel free to contact us and share your own tools!