1. Use ‘systems thinking’ to fully understand before we act.
2. Reach out to all types of businesses and all community members and foster creativity by seeking and being open to a diversity of people and ideas.
3.  Identify and support business and job opportunities and successful projects that provide multiple economic, social, and environmental benefits.

We used a four-phase process to accomplish our goals. The process was based on “Appreciative Inquiry”, which is a large-scale change process used across the globe. Our use of Appreciative Inquiry placed the focus on creating new business and job opportunities based on what people want to achieve, rather than on problem solving to make problems go away or traditional strategic planning.

The Task Force spent the first six months or so in the ‘Discover’ and ‘Dream’ phases. The roundtables were structured in much the same way. Only after sufficient information had been developed and understanding existed on what people wanted to achieve in the long and short term, would the design (planning) and implementation phases begin.

a. Discover: Search for, highlight, and illuminate the qualities that give life and vitality to our community and the business sector of interest, the ‘best of what is’ of the past and today. These qualities provide the basic building blocks for creating new business opportunities and overcoming old animosities.
 
b. Dream: Envision what could be, dream new options, identify the ideal condition that people want to achieve (in say, 5-10-25 years). Then, move backwards to identify the closest approximation to the ideal that can be achieved in relatively short order (1 year, 5 years).
 
c. Design: The planning stage focused on selecting priorities and (re)designing the community’s infrastructure (social, physical, financial, policies, decision making mechanisms, and ways of doing things) to bring the closest approximation to the ideal into reality.

d. Destiny: The implementation phase focuses on constructing the future through innovation and action. Once the closest approximation to the ideal is achieved, we can go back to Dreaming phases & begin again. One should never achieve the ideal vision, as the ideal should look altogether different once the closest approximation to it has been achieved.               

• SBI Home
• Task Force Members and Meeting Dates
  
• Roundtable Topics and Meeting Dates
  
• Workplan
  
• Archives
  
• Sustainability Tools for Businesses & Individuals
  
• City of Eugene
  

About Us | Who We Are | Programs
Publications & Press | Links and Resources