Participation, consultation, engagement; these have been buzzwords for a decade or more. But beneath the clichés many people are asking ‘can we do it better, can we be more effective in mobilising change, and if so, how?’
Watershed Talk is an action research project that distills the ingredients of effective dialogue processes for building community resilience. Conversations that encourage our learning through complex problems will enhance our potential for active citizenship and leadership – the heart of a resilient future. But what would a resilience approach to problem solving look like, compared to traditional approaches?
The Watershed Talk project designed and tested a community dialogue process to answer this question, within an integrated catchment management context. It brought about 20 people together from widely different backgrounds local to New Zealand’s Motueka Valley to investigate existing ethics of care in the catchment and the role of dialogue in empowering action around environmental stewardship. The project included individual interviews, take-home tasks, two group meetings and follow-up interviews. It piloted the use of innovative techniques such as participant photographs to expose ethics of care.
The Watershed Talk publication is a synthesis of learning from the project presented in 6 parts, with a preface by Jo Brosnahan and liberally illustrated with B/W reproductions of photographic images taken by participants.
"The Watershed Talk project provides a model for environmental management, and exploration of common solutions. It is a model for economic development, for communities to explore common futures from which they can all benefit. It is a model for local government, and for those involved in Resource Management Act processes. Most of all however, it is a model for community leadership development; for leadership is the essential ingredient to ensure a positive and exciting future."
Jo Brosnahan, Founding Chair Leadership NZ
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