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1: Assembling the team

Running a Wayfinder process requires that you engage with a wide range of stakeholders, and collect and analyze a variety of data and information. This work is best done by a small group of key people, a coalition, that can lead the Wayfinder process forward, manage information, deliberate and act on behalf of the wider stakeholder group. Getting the right people on-board in the coalition is critical for the rest of the process. This work card describes three important issues to think about when assembling your team: skill sets, representation, and influence in the system.

How to do this workcard

Bringing people on board the Wayfinder process is best done through a direct, personal approach to build trust and a solid relationship. Start by connecting with people you know will form part of the coalition to help undertake the Wayfinder process.

Suggested approach: Initially one-on-one discussions and small meetings

Time required: 1-2 hrs per coalition member

Facilitation skill level: Low

Resources: None

Skills

A first issue to think about when selecting people for the coalition is the skills needed to conduct a Wayfinder process. This includes process leadership and facilitation skills, as you will need people that can lead stakeholder workshops and dialogues, and move the process forward in a professional, yet empathic, way. As Wayfinder strives to bring about change, controversies will arise throughout the process, for example regarding future aspirations, problem definitions, and the reliability and interpretation of different kinds of data and information. You will need access to people through the coalition with advanced facilitation skills to help navigate through this in a positive way (see Box 1.1 below).

Rowing team practicing on the Lake Jarun, Zagreb, Croatia. Assembling a capable team of people who can work collaboratively to lead the Wayfinder process forward is essential to set it up for success. Photo: iStock.

In addition, you will also need people that are good at pulling together, analyzing, and synthesizing large amounts of data and information of different types. The Wayfinder process will both depend on the inputs of good data, and it will generate lots of information in itself. You need people in the coalition who have the capacity to organize and make use and sense of this information. Similarly, people with skills and experience in designing and implementing different types of development programs, who know how to make things happen in complex settings, are extremely valuable.

Finally, you need people in the coalition that are good at communicating. A Wayfinder process will involve many different types of stakeholders, at different levels and sectors in society. You need people in the coalition who have the capacity to reach out and talk to these stakeholders, explain the rationale for and outcomes of the process, and who are also good at listening to what the stakeholder say in return.

Representation

Another important issue to think about when selecting people for your coalition is representation. For the coalition to be successful, it must have legitimacy with stakeholders in the system at different scales. The system that you are working in is probably not homogenous, but will include different groups of people, young and old, men and women, people with different livelihoods and lifestyles, from different ethnic backgrounds and with different cultures, and more. These people may face different kinds of challenges, and have different expectations on the system. For example, if there is a conflict between wildlife protection and small-scale farming in your system, proponents of these two sides are unlikely to describe the system in the same ways, and they may also have radically different ideas about what a desirable future would look like. How can you make sure that the coalition reflects the varied groups of people that it is supposed to represent? It is critical that those people with less power in the system have a voice in the process. This can be a challenge but identifying key individuals that can represent different perspectives in the system in the coalition is very important. If the coalition is not representative, it is unlikely that it will be perceived as legitimate, which means that the chances for achieving the desired change is much lower. Also, and very importantly, if you don’t think about representation already at this stage, there is a risk that already marginalized groups become further marginalized as a consequence of the Wayfinder process.

Influence

In parallel to skills and representation, you need to think strategically when selecting coalition members. Where and how are decisions made that influence the future of your system? Rather than just assembling a team of your regular colleagues and friends, try to identify people for the coalition who has influence in important decision networks locally, and also those that can influence decisions in relevant sectors at higher scales. Many processes like this come to a halt after the planning phase, since they often lack the agency to make sure that their plans are implemented in reality. Who are the key people that need to be on the coalition to make sure this is not the case for your Wayfinder journey, so that the assessment and planning work that you do will lead to real change? One important issue to reflect on here is to what extent to you want to include people with formal decision making authority, i.e. the conventional power players, vis-a-vis forming a coalition that rather includes other types of change makers. The latter category may have less vested interests in maintaining the system as it is, but at the same time also less formal power to change it.

Creating a capable, effective and legitimate coalition

Not all coalition members need to possess all the skills listed above themselves, and each individual member can of course only represent some of the interests in the system and be connected to some of the important decision networks. However, given the nature of the Wayfinder process, all coalition members need to be creative, good at teamwork, and committed to working for sustainability (see Box 1.2 below). Assembling the right team so that your coalition for change, as a whole, becomes as capable, effective and legitimate as possible, will greatly improve your chances for a success. The attached case from an ongoing Wayfinder process in Senegal describes how they opted for creating two different coalitions, one at the local level and one at the national level.

Box 1.1 – Skilled facilitation

Facilitation is central to the Wayfinder process. There are few steps and processes in the Wayfinder process that don’t require working with groups of people, often with differing interests and views on what should happen in the future. Aside from the obvious skills of being able to organize getting people together etc, helping people work together towards a common set of aspirations requires some specialist skills, including the capacity to;

  • Connect and build rapport with a diversity of personality types
  • Establish and get agreement on ways of working together
  • Listen, reflect back and synthesis
  • Manage conflict
  • Probe and draw out deeper insight from stakeholders
  • Plan, structure and implement processes
  • Capture information accurately and faithful to the original intent
  • Pay attention to micro-dynamics and emotions among groups of people
  • Be flexible and have a range of approaches and tools as back-up

Box 1.2 – Job description for a coalition member

Skills, resources and network

The coalition should include a strategic combination of people that possess the various skills and resources that are needed to take the process forward. Having skills in facilitation, engagement and communication, strategic and operational thinking and ‘know how’ to get things done in complex settings are critical skills. Other important elements include having strong links to stakeholders, the ability to cross social and organizational boundaries and knowledge of power and politics in the system are important skill sets to have as part of the coalition. This includes having the links within and between communities, and at different scales.

Mindset and commitment

The individuals in the coalition should be creative, open to change and willing to challenge their own assumptions. They should share the values of the Wayfinder process (Box 2.1.on work card 2) and should have the motivation to drive change through the process. Being flexible and creative in terms of how things get done, being comfortable with uncertainty and ‘messiness’ and maintaining an ability to see the big picture are important skills for coalition member.

Case

Building a local and a national Wayfinder coalition in the “Future Sahel” project in Senegal

The semi-arid Ferlo region in northeastern Senegal is situated right in the focal zone of the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative, a large-scale program to combat climate change and desertification across Sahara and Sahel. Originally conceived as a reforestation project, the GGW initiative has over the past years evolved into a series of multi-sectorial actions, that tries to account for both the social and ecological dimensions of the agro-pastoral systems in the region, considering the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing Sahel

Active in the Ferlo region is also the Future Sahel project, which through applied research aims to contribute with resilience-based insights for how the GGW initiative can be strengthened. To this end, Future Sahel runs a pilot application of Wayfinder since 2017.

The Wayfinder pilot site in Ferlo was selected so that it would both have a potential to benefit local development, and could serve as an illustration of the usefulness of a resilience-based approach to natural resource management within the frame of the Great Green Wall initiative.

Debriefing in the Future Sahel project. Photo: A. Perrotton.

In consultation with the Senegalese National Agency for the Great Green Wall, the pilot team (led by Deborah Goffner, Arthur Perrotton and Abdou Ka) therefore decided to base the Wayfinder pilot in Ranérou. “Among other considerations, a key reason to base it in Ranérou was that we had good relations with local actors who were enthusiastic about the process and willing to engage”, says Deborah Goffner, project leader for Future Sahel. In other words, there was a good basis for a committed local coalition.

The Wayfinder coalition in Ranérou, consisting of five people, was brought together to include key local actors and decision-makers, and people with a good understanding of the agro-pastoralist system. Their role has been to help guide and tailor the Wayfinder process, decide on whom to involve at different stages of the process, and help host the process and workshops.

To ensure that the objectives of the Future Sahel project were met, the pilot team opted to also create a national-level Wayfinder coalition, in addition to the local coalition. The national coalition, consisting on seven people and based primarily in Dakar, is composed of an interdisciplinary group of experts and national-level government representatives. “The national coalition helps us to embed the Wayfinder process and make sure that the outcomes are relevant and feasible within the frame of existing institutional structures and programs, in particular the Great Green Wall initiative”, says Deborah. “It will also increase the chances for a broader uptake of the Wayfinder approach and other insights that come out of the Future Sahel project”.

References

Here are some suggested references if you want to read more about the issues discussed in this work card:

Menzel, S., and M. Buchecker. 2013. Does participatory planning foster the transformation toward more adaptive social-ecological systems? Ecology and Society 18(1): 13. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05154-180113

Raymond, C. M., and J. Cleary. 2013. A tool and process that facilitate community capacity building and

social learning for natural resource management. Ecology and Society 18(1): 25. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05238-180125

Reed M, et al. 2009. Who’s in and why? A typology of stakeholder analysis methods for natural resource management. Journal of Environmental Management 90 (5):1933-1949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.01.001.

Yankelovich, D. 1999. The magic of dialogue: Transforming conflict into cooperation. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Westly, F and Waters, J. 1988. Group facilitation skills for managers. Management learning. Volume: 19 issue: 2, page(s): 134-143

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2: Agreeing on principles for good practice

Once you have assembled your team, an important early task will be to agree on a set of common principles for good practice on your Wayfinder journey. These principles should spell out the ethical guidelines for the process. This work cards suggests a few useful principles that you can start your dialogue around.

How to do this workcard

Identifying a set of agreed principles that can be used to guide, design and evaluate the Wayfinder process, should be done through a discussion between coalition members. This is an important foundational step toward building an effective coalition. Revisit the principles regularly through out the process.

Suggested approach: workshop

Time required: 1-2hr

Facilitation skill level: medium

Resources: white boards/poster paper/markers/sticky notes

Why do you need a shared moral compass for the process?

Since Wayfinder’s explicit goal is to drive adaptive or transformative change, you should expect that the Wayfinder process will have an actual impact on people’s lives. It is therefore very important to make sure that there is a shared moral compass to guide the process. The more vulnerable the context, e.g. in aid-dependent communities or where there are large inequalities between different groups of people, the more important this issue is.

The principles for good practice should also clarify the agile and reflexive mindset that is needed among coalition members to deal with complex systems and multiple stakeholders. Wayfinder may be different from other ways of working that coalition members are used to, so building a common mindset around how the process should best be run, and how decisions should be made, increases the chances of a smooth and successful process.

Teenager standing in the crowd of customers at the Chitrakoot village vegetable market, Madhya Pradesh, India. Early on in the Wayfinder process, it is important to agree on a set of principles for good practice that will serve as ethical guidelines for the work to be undertaken. The more vulnerable the context, the more important these principles are. Photo: iStock.

Formulating your principles

In Box 2.1, we provide a list of principles for good practice that can be used as a starting point for creating your own principles for the process. The principles can be formalized into an ethical charter, as was recently done in a Wayfinder process conducted in Senegal (see attached case), and you may want to consider having all members of the coalition signing it to ensure that there is strong commitment to the principles, especially if the Wayfinder process is conducted in a vulnerable context. These principles can be used to guide decision making, help to design processes within Wayfinder and importantly to evaluate how well we have met these principles through our own thinking and behavior.

Box 2.1 – Principles for good practice

  • We will do no harm and not perpetuate disadvantage and injustices
  • We acknowledge and challenge power dynamics, where required for driving change towards sustainability
  • We acknowledge and manage our own biases that influence our thinking
  • We strive for transparency and accountability in the Wayfinder process, recognizing our responsibility in leading this process
  • We acknowledge and respect that there are multiple legitimate viewpoints and sources of knowledge
  • We commit to a reflective practice and to challenge our own assumptions
  • We are willing to continuously adapt the Wayfinder process to changing circumstances

Case

Ethical charter for Wayfinder coalitions in the ”Future Sahel" project in Senegal

As part of an inception workshop for the national coalition, the Wayfinder pilot team in Senegal introduced the idea of developing and adopting an Ethical charter as a way of agreeing on principles for good practice that could guide the process. “The potential collective rethinking of natural resources management and governance that we facilitate with Wayfinder relies on strong ethical postures. Collectively agreeing upon a charter was a way to make sure that there is a shared moral compass and shared understanding of what type of process that we want to create“, explains Arhur Perrotton, who leads the implementation of the Wayfinder pilot project in Senegal.

The work of developing an ethical charter was an important foundational step in the Wayfinder process in the Future Sahel project. Photo: D. Goffner.

The Wayfinder pilot team had drafted a suggested ethical charter, which was presented and discussed among the national coalition members in the workshop. In addition to the Principles for good Wayfinder practice that are suggested in work card 2, the charter includes an overview of some key features that are specific to Future Sahel project context and that are important for coalition members to be aware of and agree with (see box below).

Prior to individually signing the charter, and therefore becoming official coalition members, all workshop participants expressed the need to submit this charter to their respective institutions for it to be endorsed at higher level.

“We opted for a written charter since it allowed us to hand it out to the coalition members so that they could read it in detail after the workshop and suggest modifications before signing it. Another reason was that it is easy to say “yes” to an oral agreement, and it can always be forgotten or distorted, whereas a written charter is a stable contract, and the physical act of signing represents a true engagement. There was a risk that participants would refuse to sign such a charter but not only did they accept to sign, they also wanted it to be endorsed by their institutions“, says Arthur Perrotton.

Agreeing on principles for good practice, that reflect shared values concerning important ethical questions, is a fundamental step in setting up the Wayfinder process for success.

Excerpt from Ethical charter for Wayfinder coalitions in Senegal (shortened and modified)

  • A research approach applied to development. Our approach is at the interface between research and development. It relies on collaboration between researchers, practitioners, managers and government actors.
  • A collective approach for a more resilient future. The implementation of Wayfinder aims at facilitating a collective definition of a desirable future for all actors involved in the Great Green Wall in Senegal. This will include the co-construction of new practices and tools for implementing the Great Green Wall in Senegal and making it a vector for improving the resilience of the social-ecological systems along it.
  • Complementary knowledge and multiple viewpoints. This work will require dealing with theoretical and practical aspects of management of land and natural resources in complex and dynamic social-ecological systems. For this, we recognize the need to synthesize scientific and local knowledge by guaranteeing respect of the knowledge and its carriers.
  • Engaging national actors to generate action. To improve the legitimacy of our approach and ensure relevant future results, we work with coalitions that include academic, government, and local actors.
  • An iterative process at the service of Senegalese actors. Due to the complex nature of the social-ecological systems that we work in, our approach requires an iterative process between field work (through participatory workshops) and analysis with the coalitions. This allows: i) taking into account local and regional realities, (ii) scrutinizing new ideas and models, and iii) producing recommendations that are relevant for local actors and national decision-makers.

References

Here are some suggested references if you want to read more about the issues discussed in this work card:

Stringer, L. et al. 2006. Unpacking “Participation” in the Adaptive Management of Social–ecological Systems: a Critical RevieW. Ecology and Society 11 (2).

Cundill, G., et al. 2018. Large‐scale transdisciplinary collaboration for adaptation research: Challenges and insights. Global Challenges, 1700132 Doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201700132

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3: Developing system literacy and reflexive practice

Wayfinder, with its resilience focus, is rooted in systems thinking. It emphasizes the need for reflexive practice and learning as the only viable approach to management in contexts of complexity and deep uncertainty. Since this perspective and approach is quite different from many other approaches to sustainability, some initial capacity building among coalition members may be useful. This work card helps you get started.

How to do this workcard

Building system thinking literacy and capacity for reflexive practice among coalition members should be done using multiple learning approaches (suggestions below) that allow people to learn, discuss, test and reflect on the key concepts at their own pace and collectively. 

Suggested approach: A combination of readings, videos, presentations, discussions and hands on practical examples

Time required: 3-4 hrs spread over a few weeks

Facilitation skill level: Medium

Resources: Background readings, presentations and videos explain various key resilience and systems thinking concepts

Why do you need to practice your systems thinking skills?

The capacity for systems thinking is critical to the rest of the Wayfinder process and the sooner a system ‘lens’ is adopted the better. Systems thinking is a new perspective for many people and may take some time to internalize. This capacity will grow throughout the process, and not everyone needs to become an expert, but it is important all coalition members at least have a basic systems literacy when starting your journey together. This includes realizing that the problems that you try to solve most likely will be cross-sectorial and have important scale dimensions. It also includes understanding that all interventions in complex systems will produce a range of outcomes, included unintended ones, common input-output or linear types of log-frames will not be enough to monitor whether or not you are moving in the right direction.

There are numerous tools and guides available to support this capacity building, starting a discussion around the iceberg model (see attached activity sheet) is usually fruitful. The attached case describes how they went about to start building capacity for systems thinking in a Wayfinder coalition in Senegal.

Click here to learn more about complex systems from Rika Preiser, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University

The complexity based perspective underpinning Wayfinder is different from many other approaches to development practice. Taking the time early on in the Wayfinder process to build capacity for systems thinking and reflexive practice within the Coalition will be a worthwhile investment as this will radically improve the outcomes of the process. Photo: iStock.

Becoming a reflexive practitioner

The ability to critically reflect on one’s own actions and mindset – what we call reflexive practice – is also a critical capacity to successfully run a Wayfinder process and should be a cornerstone among the principles for good practice (see work card 2). Important leverage points for achieving systemic change lie in what is often referred to the “personal sphere” – our beliefs, values and worldviews – and changes in this sphere always start with the individual. Maintaining a flexible and open mindset is therefore a prerequisite to be able to drive deeper, more transformative change in your system.

Setting aside time for deeper reflection around the values that are guiding your actions in the coalition and challenging yourself to understand how problems and solutions are related, to distinguish real evidence from what in fact may be assumptions, and to try to reveal deeper beliefs around what you are doing and why, is essential. This is also called double and triple-loop learning, and we will come back to the importance of this kind of “ deep learning” later on in this guide. The evaluation, reflection and sense-making questions at the end of each phase, are designed to help you do this. Meanwhile, use the attached discussion guide to start reflecting on your own expectations for the Wayfinder journey.

Case

Inception workshop to build capacity for systems thinking among coalition members in the “Future Sahel” project in Senegal

As part of the Wayfinder pilot in Senegal, an inception workshop was organized with people identified as potential members of the national Wayfinder coalition, i.e. experts and government officials at national level who would oversee the Wayfinder pilot and bring learnings from it into their organizations. “Bringing the national coalition together was quite challenging for two main reasons. First, people identified as potential members were all very busy. Second, one cannot mobilize national-level actors without having a certain legitimacy and credibility. This is why we relied on our main partner, the National Great Green Wall Agency, to write and send the invitation letter. This was time-consuming, but absolutely critical to ensure that the Wayfinder process would be able to contribute to any change”, says Arthur Perrotton, who leads the implementation of the Wayfinder pilot in Senegal.

In addition to introducing the Future Sahel project and the Wayfinder process to potential coalition members, generating commitment, and agreeing principles for good practice (see work card 2), an important objective of this workshop was to start build and improve the capacity for systems thinking in this group.

The Wayfinder pilot team talks about the usefulness of a complexity approach to natural resources management. Photo: M.B. Sall.

To start a discussion on what a complexity perspective on natural resources management really means, the Wayfinder pilot team introduced key concepts such as social-ecological systems and ecosystem services, provided a brief introduction to resilience, drawing on the seven resilience dimensions associated with option space (see work card 21), and discussed key characteristics of complex systems, such as interconnected elements, unintended consequences, and multiple interacting scales. The team highlighted how there are various possible futures for the Sahel and that there are both fast and slow changes, such as price shocks and climate change, that need to be addressed in concert for the region to continue and develop.

Leaving the workshop, the coalition members received a “National Coalition Booklet”, a 12-page summary with useful information, largely corresponding to the workshop content. “Compiling this booklet was our way to optimize this first workshop and striking a balance between process quality and content quality, which is essential for Wayfinder. We didn’t want to give a lecture, but to generate interest and engagement. The presentation could focus on the essential points, knowing that more details around the complexity perspective underpinning the Wayfinder process would be found in the booklet. This left more time during the workshop for the coalition members to share their perspectives and discuss, i.e. the more process-related dimension”, Arthur concludes.

References

Here are some suggested references if you want to read more about the issues discussed in this work card:

Booth Sweeny, L, and Meadows, D, 2010. The Systems Thinking Playbook: Exercises to Stretch and Build Learning and Systems Thinking Capabilities. Chelsea green publishing

Cunliffe, Ann L. “On becoming a critically reflexive practitioner”. Journal of management education 28.4 (2004): 407-426

Activity sheets

Discussion guides

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