Executive Summary
a) Firstly, the aspirations for the approach being used is clarified to let the reader understand ‘why’ the work is the way it is and it’s particular intentions. In short we are inviting readers to participate in a big “paradigm-shift” away from the current ways of thinking, being and working, particularly in universities by supporting academics involve citizens in their learning of how to become masters of their own destinies.
b) The sociological perspective, ‘the cultural why’, upon which the authors base their arguments are spelled out which leads onto the drive for Citizen Enablement by listening Academics; and we clearly include in the word citizens, all presently the disenfranchised, including Black, Asian, Minority and Ethnic groups, women and the young, but for simplicity of presentation we will only use the term citizen for all such communities in the remainder of the paper. However, it goes without saying, the paper recognises that not only do Black Lives Matter, but also Women’s Lives Matter, or All Lives Matter or even “ALL LIFE MATTERS.”
c) James is more than aware that we have built our educational and economic system on the basis of “competitive individuals.” But the paper wishes to “enable” and support all of us in “meaningful”, and perhaps “meaning rich ways.” We both also believe that in our proposed developments we will have to move from money to meaning, and from profit to purpose, in this new era, although wealth will still be necessary to make any developments work in the real world. It is also clear from the successful cases shown in Part II that the most effective progress is to tackle small and handleable projects within the grasp of all collaborators, while being aware of global consequences.
d) Even tackling small issues, no one should underestimate the cultural change that must take place to ensure successful collaborative working between all these citizens and academics, so in the next section of the paper much consideration is given to this difficult process engendered by our suggested approach; hence the papers reflection on the word destiny which James uses in a forward looking sense to define the passionate way he believes is necessary for all of us if we are to ensure success in complex and difficult ventures.
e) Implicit in the paper is another recognition – a deeper ‘why’ for all now in society – the need for developments which are truly sustainable, because it is clear to us that there is only a TEN YEAR Window of profound rethinking, exploring the very foundation of our human civilization, otherwise we will be drowned in our irresponsibly created CO2. As we all already know, according to the MCC Carbon Clock (see below), we have only eight years to make a major change in direction for human history if we want to stay at 1.5° C or less, and about twenty-six years to stay within 2.0° C. In all our cases reported it was clear that the citizens being empowered were well aware of this and wanted their developments to show the necessary sustainability as well as satisfying their other needs and wants. Our challenge, and that of the citizens we are trying is to help is HUGE,because the momentum, especially of the last seventy years, is so intense.
These are large issues that Academics are often fond of, and good at, considering, but they will normally be beyond the scope of a Citizen Enabling project. They are important to bear in mind, because they will set some underlying parameters of what should, and will work, on any project for both the citizens themselves and the planet as a whole.
f) A step-by-step approach, which the authors propose, showing ‘what’ and ‘how’ to achieve necessary change, is now laid down in a straight-forward way, for Enablers and Citizens to plan the way forward with concrete actions; in short it shows how you too can become an Enabler of Citizens, and hopefully Empower them also.
g) Collaborative working starts with a reflective period where the relevant citizens are invited to join, with others of like-mind, and their (academic) enablers – who themselves must identify citizens needs and wants, their capabilities and the change development teams require; such teams are not the competitive ones of sport, but more ‘reflective communities’ [or RefComs as Charles Savage (2020) would call them]. The passions and visions of each team member, in such a joint enterprise is a vital first step, as it sets the scope and boundaries of any potential venture;
i) Members of such a joint venture have to understand their aspirations first, then those of their colleagues and finally how to get the best from team working. They have to learn ‘how to learn’ to undertake the skills missing from their team or find someone who can complete their change needs, and also recognise they may well have to be politically and socially astute if they are to enable change to be possible at all and then become empowered to fully enact it;
ii)Evaluating a development teams own situation regularly is necessary and can be achieved, using easily available and cost effective tools, to understand a developing processes, first hand; academic and citizens might well need such evaluations, related analyses and any other feedback to be in their own readily accessible language;
iii) Active listening and understanding is vital and the key to successful Citizen Enablement. Deep and maturing conversation between all members of any collaborative development will ensure overall understandings are shared. It is also important that such developments are undertaken by the whole team, so that all understand precisely what has been achieved and what needs to be done to satisfy citizens needs and wants. Also, any collaboration should try to find whether the present solution sought has been achieved before, so all can learn from those who have done it already, in a constructive way, and to repeat best practices, learning from similar successes elsewhere; this is known by others as ‘positive deviance’.
iv)Success must be for the citizens themselves to decide, and in their own terms, however such citizens should never cease to strive for continuous improvement. However, successful projects normally start small and build over time – taking on too much may doom a project to failure,
v. Sensitive and citizen focused leadership is key to creating a new enterprise culture that works effectively by satisfying everyone’s needs and wants. For three major reasons:
a) enterprise change collaboration requires the bringing together of more than one differing cultural aspiration; balancing those cultures is a key element for a leader to cope with – leadership for cultural change;
b) the focusing of sometimes competing team members values and behaviours, so they become reflective communities, on complex projects or programmes often feels impossible to understand to begin with, let alone deliver, but it must be done.
c) Academic Enablers must show leadership that focuses on some key processes in order to drive Citizens to: firstly to become Enabled for themselves to work out a solution to their problem or issue, and then become Empowered to ensure their development is enacted in the real world.
h) Before they embark on their collaborative venture academics and citizens firstly need to understand the ‘why’ of what they want to do, and then agree the how discussed above.
i) The Human futures after Covid-19 will be very different, and universities, for instance, will need to become a “reflective centres” for all ages (not just “Executive Education), so we can tap the wisdom of the past and envision a wiser future. So the paper suggests a shift from SMART to WISE.
j) Perhaps, and even more severe than the corona pandemic itself (demeaning prejudices, discrimination, petty nationalism, plus locust, inequality, displacement, recessions and so much more) is our present ignorance pandemic (the propensity for hindsight). Are we not failing to see, sense and understand what we must all have been aware of for years?
At the end of the paper, in Part II, are presented 17 cases of best practice, with evidence to show what can be achieved by those willing to take part in Citizens Enablement. While not a trivial task we have shown it is entirely possible for us to adopt a different an d highly successful approach at living after Covid-19
Let us deal with each of those overall characteristics of a successful project development in a little more depth relating key elements to the highest values revealed by the different case studies.
