10 Stay focused on mind-sets and practices.
11. Ask, “What space are we trying to occupy?”
At the start of cei, many stations viewed the content and programs they produce and air as their primary asset. A single pivotal question helped stations rethink their assets, capacity, and role: what space do you occupy in the community? This question asked stations to think about where they sit in rela- tionship to others—their fit with others—rather than simply to impose themselves on the community. Instead of envision- ing the community in relation to the stations, now the stations described their work in distinctly more public terms. Now, the stations were in relationship with their communities.
s u s t a i n i n g & s p r e a d i n g
The
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Turning outward is about doing work in a fundamentally public way. It is a “practice” about how people choose to see and engage with communities and public life. Like any practice, it takes time to cultivate and develop.
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his book is about being intentional in making judgments and choices, with the first and most critical choice being whether to turn outward. Without turning outward, it is not possible for any of us to see and hear and engage with our com- munity, or fulfill our aspirations to make a difference. None of the changes these public broadcasting stations created could happen without turning outward.We can say with confidence that individuals and organizations that choose to turn outward are more likely to be rooted in their communities, more likely to be relevant and significant in what they do, and more likely to take action that leads to real impact. But choosing to turn outward is not a one-time choice. It’s not something to be minimized. For, after reorienting ourselves, we must make our way down a new path, one that sets us on a fundamentally different trajectory of taking action. There will be choices to make all along this new path. So, we must face up to the unpredictable nature of creating change. And we must make choices and judgments as we go, for there is no single recipe for moving ahead.
Still, it is easy to slip back into inwardness. The pressure to focus inward is laced with promises that if we only undertake yet another strategic plan, rebrand our efforts once more, or focus once again on internal governance, that we’ll satisfy our challenges of relevance and significance—all without having to fundamentally change the way we see the community. Now, none of these internal activities are unimportant; each, in its own way, is essential at the right time. But let’s be clear: too often, they take on too much prominence and crowd out one’s ability to turn outward.
So, if we want to impact our community, each and every day we will be presented with these pressures and these choices.
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We have found that Harwood’s Four Building Blocks for Turning Outward, which we set out in Chapter i—know your commu- nity, focus on impact, span boundaries, cultivate public innova- tors—provide the basis for handling both pressures and choices. We review them here for you to consider.
Most fundamental among the judgments and choices we will face is to determine whether we will come to “know our commu- nity,” to understand the context of our community: What ques- tions will we ask, who will we engage, what will we do with what we learn in our everyday work and decisions? Furthermore, we must figure out how we can reconnect and reengage people with one another: Will we see people as mere inputs, even pawns, in our own organizational processes, or as independent actors who hold the power and potential to shape their own communities? We must also be clear about the impact we wish to generate in our communities: Will we focus primarily (even unknowingly) on narrow organizational or programmatic goals, or on the aspi- rations and concerns of the community itself; and what choices will we make in helping create the conditions for change in our communities, especially when such work can be slow and difficult? Then there is the challenge of “spanning boundaries”: Will we reach across dividing lines and create spaces where we can see and hear all people? Will we have the courage to hold up a mirror to the community?
Finally, will we “cultivate public innovators”? Will we root our work in an urge to do good, and support those who do this work? Will we make room for a different kind of approach to public life and this work, or will we push it to the side?
Why We’re Here is the story of how a collection of passionate, talented, and yes,—brave—individuals in public broadcasting
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turned outward, made such choices, and the extraordinary impact they created. It is a story of people and groups overcoming signifi- cant odds and obstacles. But it is not unique. This path can be taken by anyone, in any organization, in any community.
At the Harwood Institute, we know this because we have done it. We have helped to cultivate numerous boundary-spanning organizations over the years, from local United Ways to arts organizations; from public libraries to human services groups; from newspapers to local public education funds.
To find such Boundary-Spanning Organizations, one cannot turn to any single mailing list or national association. Instead, it is their approach to public life that makes them special. They are led by individuals who hold a burning desire to be rooted in their communities and for their efforts to make a difference in the lives of people. Intuitively, they sense that they must make a set of internal choices so they can effectively turn outward. They also know that trying to overly control efforts in communities will sacrifice getting into the flow of the community and seizing new opportunities.
Turning outward is about doing work in a fundamentally public way. It is a “practice” about how people choose to see and engage with communities and public life. Like any practice, it takes time to cultivate and develop. But it is something that anyone can learn, and that all of us can be good at. It’s a choice we must make.
W h y W e ’ r e h e r e