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Trust Building – the greatest benefit of the U Process
December 4th, 2008 by Mike Knutson
In a post earlier this week, Joe Bartmann told us that even though using the U Process in creating a community plan takes time and effort, its valuable because the resulting “aha moments” lead to innovations that otherwise might have been missed. I agree. But I’d like to argue an equally important outcome is that the U Process can lead to greater community trust.
This point became clear Tuesday evening when I was in Faulkton, SD with Joe and Lindsey Karlson. We were there to work with community members on the creation of a Faulk County community development plan.
Early in the evening Joe explained to the group that he attributes Miner County’s current success to the community’s use of the U Process to develop its plan. Because we “dug in deep” on issues (the left side of the U), we were able to institute greater change (on the right side). That may be true, but let me clarify with the following:
- First, we had never heard of the U Process. We dug in deep because we wanted to make “informed” decisions.
- Second, we believed that “everyone was a resource”. This led us to invite everyone to be involved, even if they’d never been involved in the community before.
- And finally, I think we did reach more “aha moments” because we made the effort to study the issues and listen to everyone. Sometimes I’m not sure if our ideas were the best ideas, but at least the ideas were our own. In a sense, we owned them.
Now, not everybody liked the process. We lost many individuals along the way who felt there were too many meetings and too much talk. But those of us who stuck with the process got a chance to know people in the community we would otherwise never have met. And through getting to know each other better, we came to trust each other better.
Sociologists have labeled the trust that I am talking about as “social capital.” More importantly, they have recognized that communities with high levels of social capital are more likely to give the community’s “doers” (both people and organizations) permission to work on the community’s behalf.
That’s no small thing. Because if the community lacks trust, even the best projects can turn into community battles. And then nothing changes, and nobody wins.
So to me, the beauty of using the U Process to create a community plan is that it helps build trust. Going through the process may seem to waste time in the short run, but many in the long run, I think it saved both time and money.
Tags: community development plan, community trust, Faulk County SD, miner county sd, social capital, South Dakota, u process
Posted in Community Development, Leadership, Rural | Comments (
2 )
December 5th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I like the idea that the talking continues after the meetings are completed. If there is anything I have learned about a change process is that it is not for everyone; that people will drift in and out as their whim suits them, and that in the end the people who hang in there are the agents of change. Those are the people you will find at the cusp of change. The remainder will be on a continuum from a staunch stick in the mud to a reed bending in the wind and going with the flow. No matter who you are with it is the journey and not the destination that is crucial to community development and structural change.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
JP,
Good stuff. Your first comment about talking after the meetings struck home to me because I’ve been doing some research into Gen X & Gen Y and what communities can do to get them involved. Somehow we have to make meetings of this nature more “social” for younger people. If we can keep them engaged, they may just be the “real” change agents.