Engaging Communities Through Issues Forums

During the Forum —Strategic Doing™ Activity Steps

 As a full group, introduce the Strategic Doing™ process. Provide directions and inform them of the time frame and timed steps.  Invite participants to join a subtopic group.  Follow the steps you’ve chosen for your Strategic Doing™ process.  Provide time for report-out from each group so that all participants see what will be happening moving forward and to see the big picture.  Ask groups to turn into the lead facilitator a list of group members and contact information, and group and individual action commitments; this is one of the pages of the Strategic Doing ™ packet. 

Ask individuals to turn in their plans to the overall group facilitator (host) for documenting and sharing out to the whole group after the forum and so that follow-up can be done to see how things are progressing.  Groups may want to appoint a Strategic Doing ™ Chief Doing Officer — someone who will stay connected with the group to see that their activities are completed. This person could also report back to the Forum Organizer for reporting purposes (this may or may not be the group facilitator/note taker).  Best practice for moving actions forward would be to include time for the groups to set timeframes for completing tasks and report back to the Strategic Doing ™ Organizer.

Delaware 2018 Forum

Our Story — Strategic Doing in Practice

We were fortunate to have individuals trained and certified in the Strategic Doing™ process in Delaware. We involved them in both the 2018-2019 and 2021 forum processes.

Strategic Doing™ facilitators introduced our planning team to the Strategic Doing™ process and helped to adapt existing Strategic Doing™ process tools based on our objectives. Those tools became handouts. Each group had packets developed specifically for their group. Breakout groups were based on “sub - issues.” There

were five sub-issues for each of the forums. The facilitators became part of our planning committee, attended each of the forums, and created a presentation to explain and guide the process during the 2018-2019 face-to-face forums in Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio and the 2021 forum. The trained facilitators also trained the face-to-face small group breakout session facilitators. Having these individuals on our team helped us have access to the process handouts and helped us to implement the process appropriately. During the 2021 online forum, we adapted the previous handouts to meet our current needs. Our facilitator reviewed our resources and process. She provided training for our facilitators prior to the forum, gave a brief presentation, and guided the Strategic Doing™ small groups.

The Delmarva Farmer, 2018