I’ve moved my writing to https://peggyholman.medium.com.
Here are links to two defining posts from Medium:
Emergent Design for Generative Change and
A Possible Future for Journalism, each with a graphic to give you a taste…
Okay, I’m not wild about my mug being the front cover, but I do want to tell you about an online event happening from September 10-30, 2018.
More than 30 of the world’s most inspiring and experienced practitioners of story and narrative-driven change have been invited to be part of the Story the Future Summit in September and I’m happy to be one of them! I’m talking about what I’ve learned through working with journalists.
Story the Future is a three-week online summit filled with dialogue, inspiration, and ideas participants can put to work right away to a”story the future”. The Summit is a collection of half-hour interviews discussing a range of facets around storytelling and story work. New interviews will be coming out daily, jam-packed with fresh ideas, ways to work with story and insights into how story is working in, and changing, the world.
And the best part of this? You can attend for free! The intention of this Summit is to share stimulating new ways of looking at story and story work, connect the international field of people interested in story and help all of us deepen our practice. I’m right behind that — and I hope you join us!
I recently gave a talk on my eighteen year journey with Journalism That Matters at the COS conference in Amsterdam on the theme “what do we do when we don’t know what to do.” (COS = Challenging Organizations and Society)
The slides are here.
And the talk:
When I got two invitations to write about journalism within a week of each other, it inspired to me write a piece that identifies what I believe contributes to journalism that matters. In short, the mission changes by adding some context (in italics):
To support communities to thrive, journalism provides people with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.
As a consequence, the practice of journalism becomes more inclusive, engaged and generative. With time, we enjoy the fruits of more meaningful, transparent and trustworthy journalism.
The whole article is on openDemocracy or a slightly longer version on AllSides – part 1 and part 2.
Update: Axiom News published part one and two on November 27, 2017 and December 5, 2017.
Through Journalism That Matters, a nonprofit I co-founded, I was part of a research team that looked at explored the question:
What would journalism look like if it were generated from within community rather than FOR community?
Check out the summary of our research or the full paper.
I gave a keynote at the DONA International conference, an organization that trains doulas, on July 31, 2016. Given 2017 will likely be a year of disruption, it seems timely to share it.
Here’s the focus:
All change begins with disturbance. No organization, profession, community or person is immune to this powerful, naturally occurring catalyst for change. The question is – what will they, and more important, what will YOU do when you experience it? We each choose our responses. Sometimes resisting the unknown, at other times stepping into its creative potential. This session introduces the value of compassionately disrupting the status quo.
As with childbirth and parenting, welcoming disturbance and embracing mystery helps us discover what is both personally and mutually meaningful. You’ll take away profound but simple steps to move through complex issues and engage compassionately and creatively with yourself, your clients and your community.
How do you tell the story of a complex, emergent experience?
It’s a question I’m pondered for years as I’ve hosted numerous gathering using Open Space Technology, a process which supports people to self-organize around what matters to them. People consistently come away saying something like, “It was life changing! You had to be there to understand.”
Last October, I helped organized Experience Engagement, a gathering at the intersection of journalism and community on behalf of Journalism That Matters, a nonprofit that I co-founded with three journalists to connect the diversity of people who care about the role of news and information in communities and democracy.
As part of the work, we used a process, Developmental Evaluation, to get at that conundrum of the telling the story. The graphic above is a visual summary of what we learned. More of it is posted here.
I’ve spent this past year focused on a project of Journalism That Matters (JTM), a nonprofit I co-founded that hosts conversations to foster collaboration, innovation, and action so that a diverse news and information ecosystem can thrive.
My interest grows from a discovery I made a few years ago when looking for grant money for a project. I discovered that less than 10% of foundation funding for new journalism ventures was going to meet the needs of underserved communities. In other words, new media was even more white than traditional media! Seemed like a wakeup call was in order.
JTM partnered with the American Society of News Editors, working with three news organizations who are engaging their communities around issues related to diversity and inclusion. Their stories and more are at the Engagement Hub, a site we aspire to become a gathering place for those who see engagement as a means for making diverse voices more visible.
Our partners:
They’ve taken an approach to reporting that begins by listening to their community. For example, to look at affordable housing, they brought together government, nonprofit and people “in the system.” In the process, they not only found stories to tell but made connections to move the dial on this challenging issue.
Starting with a “listening tour” they have sparked conversations and working groups to address entrenched challenges around employment, education, criminal justice, and housing. In the process, they are building community coalitions and optimism.
By training community members in East Oakland to tell untold stories of where their neighborhoods, they are changing the relationship between the news organization and the community. The project is growing, working in Jackson, Mississippi and Sacramento, California.
Thanks to Jesse Lyn Stoner for inviting me to post Change Your Story, Change Your Organization to the Seapoint Center blog. It elaborates on five roles highlighted in the Berkana Institute’s Two Loops Model of Change.
Some reflections on the implications of these roles for journalists is on the Journalism That Matters site: Stories for Navigating the Waves of Change.
Enjoy!
