Transition Network’s Purpose – tell us what you think!
Transition Network is developing a new Strategy. In fact, it will be a Strategic Framework, with a number of different aspects, rather than a fixed strategy. One part of this will be an organisational purpose – to help us check, prioritise and decide what actions to take and which projects to develop.
(Other parts of the Strategic Framework explained here)
Organisational Purpose
Staff and trustees of Transition Network have been exploring what Transition Network’s organisational purpose should now be. We’re sharing the current stage of discussions with you here, because we welcome feedback, comments and responses to help us shape this.
In October and November 2017, we asked people involved in the Transition movement about their experiences, where they see potential, what is challenging for their group or Hub.
What you told us in that survey is here, in English, Español and Français.
We heard many aspects where support around the network could help Transition groups. For example, on community engagement, communications, inner Transition, healthy groups and practical projects.
Many Transitioners gave thoughtful feedback about the difficulty of creating a sustainable future while living in the current, highly consumerist, system. They gave ideas of ways Transition could step up to the challenges, for example by convening and bringing together different groups and partnerships, bringing more financial resources to Transition, working innovatively with municipalities, engaging with more diverse sectors of the population and using our international connectedness better.
Allied with the survey conclusions, these are some of the key areas of our current discussions about what Transition Network’s organisational purpose should be:
Supporting the Transition movement
We see an important and ongoing role for Transition Network is to help support the movement of Transition groups and Hubs. We’re interested in how we do this, working alongside the movement, as part of it, especially as we are not the only organisation providing support to Transition groups and Hubs. We’d like to see the international network become more connected in all directions. What are the particular pieces of our support role?
Cross-fertilisation and challenge
This is an area where we are less clear, yet. We see a role for Transition Network in working with other organisations, to experiment and support ways to scale up the impact of Transition. We’d like to collaborate with other organisations and connect to other movements, to explore innovative practices and look for exciting areas of potential, to support emerging approaches where Transition can make a difference. There’s an interesting question about how best to make priorities and choices about collaborations.
Particularly interesting would be partnerships where we can develop good collaborative culture, look at how to work with emergence, and co-design. We’d like to be part of experimenting with and nurturing healthy cultures of interdependence.
We’d like to challenge other organisations through what we say and how we design events, in particular encouraging people to create spaces to come together and imagine the future.
In all of this “cross-fertilisation and challenge” area, this is not a role that is unique to Transition Network; many Hubs and groups do this; we would not do this alone.
Telling the Transition story and making Transition more visible
We think Transition Network has a role to help make a movement of diverse groups and projects visible and understandable to different people. We’d like to draw out the stories and amplify them. This includes channels to communicate to people who are new to Transition, and to decision-makers. We’d like to find ways to attract more resources, including financial, into the movement, though not necessarily by channeling those resources through Transition Network.
Disruptive inclusion – a quality, or an approach, of our work
Transition groups are typically non-political and aim to be inclusive of the whole community, and can convene or bring together many very different organisations in an inclusive way. Working like this, in itself can be a form of positive “disruption” – helping to create alternatives to the unsustainable business-as-usual systems. We feel that Transition Network should focus on work where an inclusive way of working can help us be effective in shifting institutions or organisations to positive change.
