
Transforming Crisis into Sustainable Workgroup Action
Appreciative inquiry combined with participatory, place-based research can empower local people in the environmental decisions that affect them.
If a citizen group comes into the fray on the short-end of negotiations, that group will be most likely succeed if they improve their position. Longevity of effort is the most powerful way to improve position. This is best accomplished by activating workgroup strengths. Positivizing can transform workgroup action from crisis management to enduring strategic influence.
Social movements – and on a smaller scale, local citizen groups – rise up gloriously, yet soon find participation dwindles as other catalyzing events compete and distract in the public space. Instead, these catalyzing moments could be drawn toward strategic long-range action. Rather than fade away as movements often seems to do, we can energize citizen workgroups whether acting locally or in movement to persist beyond crisis engagement into long-range plans of action.
draft. not for distribution. pre-launch