Design
A few things I just want to get into writing. Variation on thinking about thinking tasks. This came in conversation with Tom Mulhern (a co-conspirator) about a very draft design of a one-hour facilitated session to engage small neighborhood groups in conversation about potential environmental equity actions. The
Design
This is thinking-out-loud about work-in-progress. The context is my effort to help design a local environmental justice curriculum. "Curriculum" in a very loose sense. What I am working on is a set of learning activities that are connected, but not scripted. Sort of a
Community listening
When we think about how we listen to folks who live in our communities, we likely think about meetings. Special community meetings. Or projects that include community engagement meetings as one step in a larger project plan. But projects and stand-alone meetings have flaws. They are designed and facilitated
Design
Let's start with a fictional account about a real meeting to illustrate thinking about thinking tasks in the design of community listening activities. You live in a close-knit neighborhood and recently felt a nudge to learn more about local efforts that impact climate change. Your 3rd grade
Community listening
My professional background integrates learning, knowledge-sharing, design, and change. Much of the work centered on listening to folks who experience the impact of solutions designed to address workplace challenges. Then learning how to design better solutions with them, rather than for them. In 2025 I began exploring community listening
Community listening
Note: This is a long post - much longer than I usually write. But it lays out the full current state of the work I am doing, and how I think about community listening, co-creating local solutions, and learning what those activities mean for environmental equity in my home city.
Thinking out loud
The end game for this curriculum: Folks have the power and resources to invent their own ways to create healthy neighborhood communities. I started thinking about this curriculum as involving two types of folks: Those who live in the neighborhoods impacted by historical injustice and environmental inequities. And those who
Thinking out loud
At the upcoming April 2026 meeting of Environmental Justice Evanston I am due to propose a curriculum for leadership development. The desired outcome is to increase the number of people who can lead environmental equity efforts in Evanston. This need comes together for a couple of reasons. The Evanston environmental
Design
Last week I had coffee with two friends from my days teaching and helping lead the learning and organizational change graduate program at Northwestern University. One - Beth - is Head of School at a private Montessori school in the Boston area. Beth is an amazing leader; she gets results and creates
Community listening
I'm sitting here today contributing work on several things with the environmental justice folks in Evanston: A grant application, comments on a draft report from the Evanston Environmental Equity Investigation, and communications plans with a subcommittee team of a new coalition. It's a long way from
Community listening
My former teaching partner and friend Teresa Torres is off on a new venture - the Just Now Possible podcast, where Teresa takes a dive deep with folks who use AI as part of the digital products they design and build. A recent episode focused on ZenCity, which provides an AI-
Community listening
Last night I attended the 4th (and final) workshop that is part of Evanston's Environmental Equity Investigation (EEI). (See past post about EEI: The limitation of relying on a single style of community meetings) I'm thinking about this event in terms of lessons to be learned