Initial Results from Policy Improvement Teams

Steve Daniels

Western Rural Development Center

Gregg Walker

Oregon State University

Presented at Great Plains Population Symposium

Bismarck, ND. October 17, 2001

A simple plan

The method we used

Alan Simpson’s “quilt”

Emergent challenges

Local expertise/preaching to the choir

Collaborative Learning (Daniels & Walker)

• Designed specifically for public policy decision situations

• Combines concepts from negotiation and mediation with systems thinking

• Emphasizes active learning and systemic improvement

Collaborative Learning Encourages:

• Dialogue and deliberation between diverse communities: technical, public, and administrative.

• Integration of technical and public/local knowledge about the problem situation.

• Understanding the situation systemically.• Increased rapport, respect, and trust among

participants in the situation.

Collaborative Learning Builds Community

From dialogue to deliberation to decisions.

Actions as improvements rather than solutions.

Improvements as desirable and feasible change:

Desirable: What we want

Feasible: What we can do

Policy Improvement Teams:“Layering” of effort

Recommendations

Improvements

Concerns

Principles

Alan Simpson’s Policy “Quilt”

Alan Simpson’s Policy “Quilt”

National policy is like a quilt keeping the nation warm.

Alan Simpson’s Policy “Quilt”

National policy is like a quilt keeping the nation warm.

Wyoming is like the toes sticking out from under the quilt.

Alan Simpson’s Policy “Quilt”

National policy is like a quilt keeping the nation warm.

Wyoming is like the toes sticking out from under the quilt.

The Senator understood his job as making sure the quilt covered Wyoming as well as the rest of the nation.

Emergent challenges facing the Great Plains

Emergent properties are only apparent at the whole-systems level.

No single organization or level of government addresses emergent challenges well.

Every single PIT understood emergence because they constantly made connections between issues.

Local Expertise/Preaching to the Choir

Summarize Drabenstott, Fluharty, Flora et al.?

Local Expertise/Preaching to the Choir

Drabenstott, Fluharty, Flora et al.:

Multi-sectoral place-based development of community capacity and sustainability through investment in diverse forms of capital in order to compete in a global economy and a national political sphere.

In other words…

community is key

Preaching to the Choir

Tremendously tied to place

Rich social networks

Beyond Potomocentric statutory fixes

Our region, our future, our responsibility

Selected Principles

Provide incentives, not constraints

Promote democratic engagement in all its forms and levels

Ensure a safe sufficient food system

Timeliness is critical

Selected Concerns Youth exodus/aging populationCommunities on the brink

– fragile health care– school consolidations

Economic viability of agricultureGeographic isolationNot on the national radar screen(Other than these, things are fine.)

Selected Recommendations

Build on REAP successes and lessons

Engage students in community life through active “civics” opportunities

Move beyond commodity agriculture (lose money on every unit, make it up on volume)

Multi-state summit w/foundations on funding strategies

Selected Recommendations, p.2

Involve faith-based organizations and ad hoc groups in addressing the psychological impacts of terrorism

Have a farm title in the Rural Bill rather than a rural title in the Farm Bill

Information technology extension agents

Where does the process go from here?

DSU will summarize and convey to Congressional delegations ASAHP

Local/state symposium next spring

A decentralized approach: anyone can run with an idea they are passionate about

This workshop is a catalyst for regional discussion, not the conclusion.