Reader, do you ever feel powerless to tackle the big problems your community faces?

I often feel that way, and I think many of us do.

On the other hand, do you ever feel like our solutions aren’t enough - not big enough, not disruptive enough, not transformational enough?

Especially when trying to improve community health and well-being, it can often feel constraining to work within existing systems instead of thinking about how we dismantle and rebuild the systems themselves.

My colleague and I are facilitating a national convening next week, and the group will be brainstorming and prioritizing public health solutions to address dementia. We’ve tried to ensure each session incorporates a slightly different approach to brainstorming - to keep things interesting and make sure new ideas keep flowing.

In one of the sessions, I wanted to address both these struggles - sometimes we get stuck brainstorming because it feels like the only way to change things is big, huge, systems-level transformation and we feel powerless to make that happen. On the other hand, sometimes we get stuck brainstorming because all we can come up with are ideas that would make small changes on the margins, but nothing that feels big enough to create real change.

The reality is, we need to brainstorm and move forward on both fronts.

​15% Solutions, a type of Liberating Structure (i.e., alternatives to presentations, managed discussion, and other conventional structures that typically guide the way groups work together), invites those brainstorming to consider: “What is your 15 percent? Where do you have discretion and freedom to act? What can you do without more resources or authority?”

I love the way the Liberating Structures website describes what is made possible through this approach: “You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference. 15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change.”

I have found it works well to pair this 15% solution question with another question borrowed from Liberating Structures that’s about getting 10 times (or we’ll make it 15 times to make it parallel with 15%!) bolder - “If you were [fifteen] times bolder, what big idea would you recommend? What first step would you take to get started?”

What’s made possible through this approach is the flip side of what’s made possible via 15% solutions - there are bold, transformational things that would move us towards transforming community health (or whatever you’re trying to transform!) and while they may not be within our control, we can identify some initial steps to take towards them.

I think pairing these questions together is powerful. You can have participants brainstorm 15% solutions on one color of post-it note in the first part of a session and 15x solutions on another color in the second part of the session.

We can both be empowered by the things we can do fully within our circle of influence and inspired by the things that are more aspirational and transformational - which may take a lot longer (even generations) to accomplish but can still be pursued by starting with a first step.

​Let me know if you have tried this kind of brainstorming before or have other approaches that have worked well!

Until next time,

Vinu

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