Leading the Change in Community With Diffision of Innovation & Kotter’s Process

Today in our sustainability and community relations class Dr. Kool showed our cohort two concepts which were diffusion of innovation and Kotters process. Ultimately, these two processes are used in order to promote change in the community which can be used for our projects for Colwood Council.

Diffusion can be defined as “a process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system”. The following picture depicts the breakdown of innovation and the parts of society that are involved in the process.

Innovators are a large minority of the innovation curve as they represent 2.5% of the total. Innovators are found to be educated and have multiple sources of information. Also these members have been shown to be susceptible to taking risks. Early adopters which are found to be 13.5% are an evolution of the innovators and can somewhat act on the innovators ideas.

Individuals that fall into the 34% of the population are the early majority group. People that fall into this group are respectable opinion leaders which serve as role models and are respected by their peers. This group typically consists of evangelists and missionaries as they possess the attributes necessary as mentioned. Overall the innovators, early adopters and late majority groups are innovators and have the drive necessary to establish and implement change.

The latter half of the diffusion curve consists of groups which are typically on the change “bandwagon”. The late majority group, which also constitutes for 34% as the early majority distinction is generally similar however they fall into the bandwagon generalization and do not exhibit change as much as the early majority would. The laggards can be synonymous with straggling behind the group and interact with peers. Laggards seldomly hold positions of leadership where they would express their opinions. As with the “straggler” mentality they typically will think longer about ideas and thus take more time to implement their thoughts.

In order to lead change, Kotter also created an eight step process which can be used also to become a leader in change. The eight step process includes:

· Establish and/or reflect a sense of urgency

· Create guiding coalition

· Developing a Vision and Strategy

· Communication for understanding and buy-in

· Empower broad based action

· Produce short-term wins

· Consolidate gains and produce more change

· Anchor new approaches in the culture and create a new culture

Establishing and reflecting a sense of urgency reflects whether or not there is a sense for change or whether or not society would move beyond the status quo. This step also realizes whether or not a vulnerability exists and if there is something wrong or a dissatisfaction with the existing status quo.

Creating a guided coalition inevitable makes the choice on what needs to be done and whom will be required to drive the project. Positive attributes for this will need to be considered as a motivator who is powerful or influential will need to be chosen that people will be willing to follow.

Once the project leader is chose a strategy will need to be developed based on the vision of the project. This is important as the strategy needs to have the vision of the overall short and long term goals in mind to effectively establish a strategy that will address the needs. Once the strategy is developed, it must be communicated effectively. How will this project be communicated to the community and how will it become engrained within the community? These are some questions to consider when analyzing the appropriate communication method that will be chose.

With communication comes the concept of empowerment. This allows how the actual enactment will take place and how it will answer the sense of urgency that has been detected from the audience. Also, if there are external persuasions and barriers the empowerment will hopefully surpass them and have the audience readily accept the idea. Perhaps rewards and incentives can be used to positively bribe the audience to the idea.

The change cannot be thought of on a long term scale and short term goals must be established. The short term goals must outline small objectives set so that when they are reached it can be reflected as a short term win. The objectives need to be effectively communicated to the audience to let them know that progress has taken place and that positive change is occurring. The gains and objectives that occur must not be taken lightly and victory cannot be declared to early as Kotter stated. These problems that were created took years to evolve and the processes that are used to change them will also take time to be successful. The continual evolvement of the growth occurring must happen in order to actually anchor the ideals into everyday society and culture. Change and behaviors can fail just as quick as they are changed. I am going to quote Kotter whom states it best by saying, “Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are subject to degradations as soon as the pressure for change is removed”.

Change is continually occurring in the world we know today and it is important that if we are to influence for our own change, such as for Colwood, it must effectively be presented. Therefore, I believe that Kotters process for implementing change can be a beneficial tool for not just presenting but initiating change. Hopefully our group can incorporate this process in our wiki with the hopes of presenting an idea of change that is not just accepted with short term thoughts in mind by our audience but perhaps an elongated future in which it can readily persist.

Wiki, Tools of Change, and ADDIE

This week our cohort was introduced to the concept of creating a Wiki which will present each individual groups ideas in the proper format. BJ Eib was the representative from Royal Roads whom explained the process that happens in creating a wiki as well as some tips that can be used for editing the wiki.

A wiki is a tool used to create a project that eventually takes the format of what you would see on Wikipedia. A beneficial aspect to a wiki is that a group of individuals can edit and replace information on it at their own schedule. The wiki can also be hyperlinked in order to join it to other information as it deems necessary or if it is related to the topic being described. The wiki is a fairly efficient formatting tool that can be especially useful if working in teams. Considering the large amount of team based exercises that we conduct in our course I believe the wiki concept could be expanded to much more projects and not just limited to the project for Dr. Kool.

Another project developing tool that we were introduced was www.toolsofchange.com. This resource also provided our group in developing our project of the RRU trail systems with community based social marketing in mind. The website revolved around a planning guide which included the areas of setting objectives, developing partners, getting informed, targeting the audience and also choosing the appropriate tools of change. Upon the completion of this “fill in the blank” style program, we had a much clearer idea of where our project was heading and what specifications we needed to address. The objective included what audience we were offering our idea to as well as what they would benefit from taking part in our idea, which would include personal health as well as enjoying a somewhat sheltered green space in Colwood. The getting informed section included questions relating to the resources used by the community as well as searching for other sources that would be providing the same service to the targeted audience. In order to effectively target the audience we were asked to decide on the targeted population as well as how we would reach out to this group to get them willingly adapt to our scenario. For the RRU trail maps, our audience is quite wide and ranges from young children to senior citizens. All groups can benefit from the trails here in both good health and learning about the vast ecology that exists in Hatley Park. The final tool of change involved choosing the appropriate tools in which would effectively execute our project with maximum success. This involved looking into appropriate incentives as well as effective agents of change for the targeted community. This was decided to take the form of brochures, media coverage such as newspapers, and putting appropriate audience specific signage on the trails.

Eventhough the tools of change provided us with a good perspective on where we were heading with the trail system project for Royal Roads we decided on following the ADDIE perspective that Dr. Kool shared with us in class. The five phases in the ADDIE system includes Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. We as a group felt that this system would be more effective in providing a better structure for our Wiki as each section is fully dependent on the other and would create a better flow for our project. The section that I chose to undertake involved the actual implementation of our ideas for the trails. This includes installing signage that appeals to an older audience by providing interesting facts about the campus as well as historical knowledge of the area. This can include a description of the numerous buildings throughout Hatley Park and what they were once used for when the Dunsmiurs inhabited them. Also there will need to be a implementation of various methods in order to attract the community of Colwood to come to Royal Roads and experience the trails that they have to offer. That was one main problem that our group agreed on with how the things exist now. The trails are not promoted in any way to the public. I’m sure that many people in Colwood are unaware of the amazing green space that Royal Roads is housed on. This would be solved by implementing advertisements in the local newspaper and also offering complementary maps to visitors to the campus. The newspaper could feature such a feature as “trail of the week” providing information on the ecology, animals, and trail difficulty. These are just a few of the many ideas we have thought up with for the Royal Roads Trail systems and hopefully they can end up from being an idea to actual reality.

Community Based Social Marketing

Recently in class with Dr. Kool we were introduced to the concept of “Community Based Social Marketing” and how it can benefit our class. Ultimately community based social marketing can help in working on our wiki and ultimately presenting our ideas to Colwood council.

Community based marketing works on the premise and information is not enough to change behavior. I agree with this because just providing facts and “cut and dried” information will not be enough to inevitably change people’s thoughts. Social Marketing is a systematic procedure where marketing is adapted to achieve specific behavioral goals for a defined social goal. An important ideal to keep in mind though is that the audience for whom you are focusing on must be thoroughly analyzed and put at the center of every decision that must be made. There must be a defined action on what you want your audience to do and also an exchange with the audience to give up or change their behavior.

There are 10 questions to ask oneself while defining the outlines for the study. First of all, what is the social/environmental problem that is being addressed? This is beneficial because it provides a starting point and a baseline for starting the research. Also, what actions will best address the problem? The audience that is connected to this action must be targeted and what they want in exchange for the adoption of this new idea must be considered. Another question to ask is whether or not the audience will believe that what is put before them is true. If the audience does not follow your view and disregards it, then your project will fail. Potential competition must also be considered because they could possibly be offering something that is far more gratifying or valuable to the community. The community will have to be reached at a time and place that works for them and where they will be most vulnerable to take in the concept that is being presented. This intervention will also need to be examined in how often, from whom and how it can be integrated with other perceptions to maximize efficiency. Finally, the resources that are required for this must be questioned and whether or not other parties will need to be involved for success.

Once these initial 10 questions are addressed, the campaign undergoes 5 steps that will benefit and make the community marketing adapt to different outcomes or scenario changes. Possible barriers and benefits are to be investigated as they pertain to the project. This involves both internal and external goals which can include literature research, conducting a focus group and doing surveys in order to gather real data. Once the barriers are outlined, focus can become directed towards mitigating and avoiding them. This can come in the form of evaluating norms, persuasion techniques and possible incentives. An initial pilot plan becomes developed by revolving around the barriers as well as the benefits.

After this strategy has become developed then the pilot plan can be ran and tested in order to see how it works. This initial testing is vital as strategies can be compared to expected results and adjustment can occur if the need arises. The fourth step is the actual implementation of the project after necessary changes have been made. This can make the plan more worthwhile and a success because potential problems have been mitigated. A project that has been thoroughly analyzed will have a much higher rate of being a success when compared to a project that has not given appropriate attention to potential problematic sources.

Once the project has been implemented the final stage is to continue the process of monitoring and adapting to possible changes that can arise. Society is always changing as peoples thoughts, beliefs and morals are always evolving. Projects that involve the community must always be aware of these changes and how they need to adapt to them. The continual monitoring of these changes ensures that the project continues successfully and does not succumb from being unprepared.

I think that community based social marketing is a great concept and can be applied to our projects for Colwood. For our project, which revolves around the trail systems for Royal Roads we have already implemented some aspects of community based social marketing. We used this process to find out our targeted population as well as the initial pilot plan for our project. Using Dr. Kools community based social marketing methods can thoroughly investigate potential problems as well as boundaries that must be considered. Hopefully using these methods will create some great projects that Colwood council can use to help with their goal of reducing carbon emissions

Open Space

Recently in our sustainability and community relations class we were given the opportunity to participate in an open space workshop in order to generate ideas for the overall goal of “What can I do to help Colwood” become more carbon neutral. This ultimately aided the class in brainstorming a number of ideas and concepts to help produce individual team wikis/presentations for the Colwood council.

The group that I eventually reached to becoming a member of revolved around improving the trail system at the Royal Roads campus and inevitably promoting the opportunity for users to bike/walk/jog these trails. It initially involved incorporating all the bike paths in the Colwood municipality but our group felt that the focus on Royal Roads Campus would be of more interest. The Royal Roads campus is a large part of Colwood and is largely shaded by the fact that the trails are not openly exposed to residents and visitors. Our group felt that the generation of a map using GPS and ArcGIS would provide the necessary resources for people to thoroughly enjoy this campus for all it has to offer. Signage was also an issue as we felt that the existing trail map was confusing and the fact that the trails have none in place. We also felt that perhaps a survey of Colwood residents would provide the data necessary to see how willing the community would be to these ideas and perhaps be the encouragement for taking this idea from paper to actual reality. In my mind, Royal Roads is a largely untapped sustainable resource and hopefully with our groups vision we can encourage people to enjoy the campus without the need to generate carbon emissions.

I felt that the open space workshop was a very valuable tool which opened up the creativity in individuals and help connect classmates with similar interests. The open space workshop allowed our class to freely move around as they please between all of the carbon neutral ideas that were generated. The two foot approach gave everybody the freedom to leave and enter groups as they please. In the end, the groups that were left were based on by chance and similar interests. The open space environment opened up the imagination of our cohort and in the end produced a number of ideas that can hopefully become implemented within the municipality of Colwood. The open space workshop I feel was very appropriate and perhaps the best tool that could have been used for this purpose. There were no limitations and nobody was held back from their ideas. Open space can be applied to a variety of situations and I feel that this example that took place within our cohort further exclaims that this can work and should be applied to other team building exercises. In conclusion, each individual idea was thoroughly discussed and changed throughout the 3 hour block of time that we were allowed to work on this. In the end of this, a refined and polished set of concepts existed which included each members individual thoughts.

Climate Change & Local Food

Today in class we received presentations from Gene Miller, Jennifer Gerard, and Cindy Moyer to continue with our sustainability and community’s class. Gene brought a harsher outlook on climate change, sustainability and what we can expect. Personally it seemed surreal in a way; to hear negativity about these concepts whereas all the other presenters we have been exposed to seem to praise their own ideals into this big concept of sustainability. According to Gene, a full scale apocalypse is sitting at our doorsteps. Capitalism has created a situation where full scale growth is occurring at all levels of production, industry and resource use. These unsustainable practices have brought forward a scenario that people think we can escape from which is climate change. However, there is such a divided line between climate change and society that creates a never ending cycle for our planet. Some think climate change will not happen whereas others exclaim the presence of it. It has left our world in an unusual balance that seems like disaster will occur far before proper action has commenced. This disaster threshold will sneak upon us and will cause very drastic changes in which we may not have the ability to adapt to. A quote that Gene said sums climate change very appropriately; “The metabolism of our economy is on a collision course with the metabolism of our planet”. I don’t think it could be stated any better than this. Approximately 2 centuries of population and industrial expansion are causing major changes that our planet has never been exposed to before. Ecosystems are being disrupted and the exponential extraction of non-renewable resources has created a hell on earth for civilization. We are truly living up to another quote that Gene said which is “borrowing our planet from our grandchildren”.

Now to stray away from going on a rant about the doom and gloom scenario that Gene instilled upon us, we were then introduced to Jennifer Gerard. Jennifer is a representative for the West Shore Harvest group that resides on Vancouver Island. She brought another take to the food aspect and shared the techniques and methods that have been introduced by her group to communities. Initially, she shared a video with us regarding local foods and commercially produced food which motivated us to produce a “mind map” which we have been exposed to before as a cohort, but the topic to brainstorm was food security. Our class came up with a lot of different ideas on food security and they expanded from concepts such as government subsidizing, competition, and going local. I felt that this exercise was fitting and got us thinking with the proper mindset relating to her topic which revolved around locally produced food.

Jennifer’s organization brings forward many projects that are being introduced to the public in order to create a sense of connectedness with food as well as promote the concept of practicing in local foodstuffs. One concept was the gardening universe project that teaches individuals the concepts of being able to grow food in their backyard, provide the necessary supplies and act as a mentor to the person. Gardens in motion consists of a flatbed trailer that has housed on it many planters and displays showing local goods which travels to various events in the West Shore. This provides an interaction between communities as well as between children and food. The hands on contact and communication allow conversations to develop resulting in a connectedness between individuals. The fruit tree project allows community members that have fruit trees in their backyard to supply and provide the excess of them to local food banks. They also have a publication of a food guide that shows local markets, eateries, and restaurants that support locally produced food.

The last presenter was Cindy Moyer, whom works actively with the mayor of Colwood in order to develop food events with environmental awareness and community interaction in mind. The events that she explained I thought were great, not just for the food but the community involvement as well. One good example was the go local tomato challenge where community members are challenged to grow their own tomatoes and participate in a cook off. This was not just a competition between people to see who could grow the biggest tomato but it was much more. It involved various organizations around the municipality of Colwood such as Royal Roads University and Island culinary chefs. This event created a connection between the community at every level. By allowing members to interact with one another around the idea of locally produced food, this creates a hub of community awareness. Another example within an example I guess you could say was the cob oven used for the food challenges. This oven was created by a wide array of multi-generation groups, community members and first nations citizens. It benefitted the community because it housed an environment in which all entities of Colwood were allowed to interact with one another. Even just the simplicity of creating an object can create friendships and positivity that can further dissipate into the community. I like the idea of incorporating food and community which can be very beneficial in developing relationships to reach a common goal. Perhaps that these ideals with community interaction can be applied with and expand onto other concepts such as transportation, emissions, and energy use. If these principles can be adapted then possibly the goal of becoming carbon neutral for Colwood can become an evident reality.

Community Energy Association & Sustainable Transport

To continue with sustainability and communities class we recieved a presentation from Laura Porcher whom is the manager for partnership development with the Community Energy Association (CEA). We also had a presentation from Todd Litman for the concept of sustainable transportation. The Community Energy Association was founded by the province of BC and is strongly linked to many other companies such as BC Hydro, transit and many other associations. I feel that the linkages with these companies are beneficial in order to fully implement their ideas into the communities. This revolves around making efficient and smart decisions with building and infrastructure design with regards to energy use and the release of emissions. The fact that at 2 degrees of temperature change can lead to the 30% loss of lifeforms is astonishing. Such statistics like this is influencing the government of BC to make cut back on carbon emissions. Such an example is to reduce emissions by 33% below the 2007 levels by 2020. In order to accomplish these tasks, there must be a connection between communities, energy and sustainability. The CEA has encouraged the CRD to make energy wise and conscious decisions in the areas of land use planning, energy efficiency of buildings, transportation efficiency and to diversify their energy supply. There needs to be engagement of residents and businesses in order to fully get these ideas from being an idea to actual reality. A concept that Laura shared was QUEST (Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow). Some ideas that seem very promising with QUEST is managing heat from applications and turn that into energy for further use. This can be accomplished by taking heat given off from processes, collecting it and using it to heat another building or to heat water. In order for this to accomplish and become reality there needs to be a public engagement process to get the community involved and excited about this concept. Local government will need to undertake social marketing tactics in order to build a culture that supports change from this energy hungry and wasteful society that seems to exist today. The public should be informed about the demands for change, become actively engaged in the process and allowed to collaborate with others.

The pillars of Community energy and Emissions planning involve land use, transportation, buildings, infrastructure and energy supply. Land use planning should involve a focused density of mixed use buildings. Mixed use buildings consist of both residential and commercial residents. These buildings encourage reducing the need to rely on a vehicle to drive to the store to buy goods. The land use planning should encourage transit and protect green space/agricultural land reserves. Transportation should be energy efficient and support rail, cycling, walking and using alternative fuels. Buildings can be either looked at from refurbishing an existing one or in the design of a new one. An example is district heating where one heat source provides the energy for a number of buildings. Existing buildings can become retrofitted with efficient energy products such as fixtures and lighting. Also establishing a green roof on a building can provide as an insulator in the winter and a cooling agent in the summer which saves on energy costs. The energy supply should have renewable resources and the idea of waste energy utilization imbedded in its design.

Many communities in BC have put forward energy and emissions procedures forward. Some examples are Whistler which has put forward waste heat district heating for the Olympics and Squamish has its own community energy action plan. There is a solar ready bylaw in Dawson Creek so that any new buildings have to be able to convert to solar power. Kelowna has a smart transit plan and Langford is a leed neighborhood. These are just a few examples of the communities in BC whom have put forward their own contributions to smart energy hopefully will influence others into doing the same.

The other speaker for the class was Todd Litman who presented on sustainable transportation. Todd made a lot of good points such as what do we view as paradise. Society today generates happiness by wealth, which can be presented by such material items like a nice car. Increased happiness by their material items is an economic trap. A good example that Todd shared was that when someone in a neighborhood buys a nice car naturally his/her neighbors will want to buy a nice car as well. These material things are basically a status symbol and people do not put the considerations into actually making energy wise decisions for green transportation.

There needs to be a paradigm shift in the growth and development for expanding and doing more improvement for transportation. Communities can fulfill the need for physical movement and accessibility in the creation of pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. Sidewalks can be curved to promote walkability and the use of wheeled luggage for pedestrians. This seems farfetched but the simplicity of this can promote walking and energy efficient transportation. There is a large transportation problem that exists today as it is creates a large amount of costs to a number of different areas. Traffic congestion leads to an excessive release of pollutants into the atmosphere and stress on the drivers. Road construction is expensive and ultimately costs consumers money through their taxes. Roads are also not very pedestrian friendly as there is limited space for walking and biking to occur. These problems need to be all taken into consideration with energy efficient transport and they are all a key component into the problem that vehicles are causing.

Todd created a good argument for transportation and the need for more sustainable transportation. However some of the concepts seem very distant and the general population is not going to sacrifice driving. Don’t get me wrong, cycling and promoting physical activity while reducing the impact on the environment is a good thing. But to fully not rely on a vehicle is a very hard task for most of the general population. I do know it is possible as many from our class do not have a vehicle and cycle everywhere. However how will this case be won with a busy mother of 3 kids whom has to juggle work, taking the children to activities, and all that comes with parenting. Is it safe to say that she will bike them around or put them all on a bus in order to save the environment? I think that society nowadays think for themselves and do what is most efficient for them. So therefore there will continue to be vehicles on the road. I think that the real push should be for alternative energy sources for vehicles, but I don’t see this happening for a long time. I feel that the reliance on fossil fuels has become a part of everyday life and in order to change this we must continue to educate the public. As with all the sustainability issues existing today, there needs to be the continual exposure to the concerns and what needs to be done to combat them. Then there may be hope with a change commencing on the community level.

What is Colwood

To continue with our sustainability and community relations class we received a presentation from Mayor Dave Saunders and Councillor Judith Cullington from the Town Of Colwood. The presentation that was shown to us was very informative and enlightened me about Colwood and what it is trying to do not just to become a transition town but a pioneer in order to influence other surrounding municipalities.

Colwood is quite unique as it has many distinctive components that allow it to “stand out in a crowd”. Culturally the town is very distinct as it has present on it the oldest First Nations property on the entire Vancouver Island. The region also home to a large abundance of the garry oak which is an endangered tree in North America. There is also a population of the sharp tailed snake which is also endangered present here. The municipality is also home to 3 historical sites which include Fort Rodd Hill, Fisgaard Lighthouse and Hatley Park. Personally, I expect all towns to have somewhat of a cultural and unique background but Colwood really impressed me with the diversity it contains. Not just by the above mentioned reasons but also the contributors in the community today. As I live right on Sooke road, I drive every day past the Westshore Teaching Center. Just from passing by and occasionally glancing at it, I assumed that this center was an ordinary training center where people could upgrade and take classes. Little did I know that it implements so much more than that for students. The center provides services for underprivileged learners by teaching them valuable life lessons and positive morals. They allow the students to plant a garden, harvest and sell the produce. This teaches them real-life business decisions and skills in the carpentry trade as they build greenhouses and flower boxes. I now look at this center a lot different now. Its not as if I looked negatively at it in the first place, but really you never can judge a book by its cover and I think a lot of these instances exist in Colwood. There is a lot more than meets the eye!

Dave and Judith also shared their vision for Colwood and where they see it heading. Due to the large residential base that it holds (92%), this makes funding for such projects very difficult but at the same time rewarding because of the hard work and effort that has to be put in to make the projects a reality. There plans include for Colwood to become the first green city and making it a leader in promoting sustainability. Many new and exciting developments are occurring in the municipality that embraces the environment. They are in progress of trying to incorporate such technology as geothermal heat, solar panels and water saving devices within the community. Colwood is known as a green learning city and it creates a large opportunity for individual groups within the municipality. This vision is creating active job opportunities for residents and supporting businesses. The businesses are encouraged to share and demonstrate their technologies with others which increases tourism into the area by attracting possible clientele. Colwood has extensive collaboration with Royal Roads University which is equally beneficial for both parties. The students use Colwood as a real life project as it has saved 60,000 to 120,000 dollars for the municipality. The community benefits because it is saving money by applying these scenarios for students to solve which gives them consultant quality results at a non-existent price. The campus also benefits because it is a real life learning situation. The project is not just based out of a fictional scenario from a book. Its outcome will be actively looked at and possibly put into action by Colwood and that creates a much greater sense of accomplishment for the students.

One thing that left a great impression on me was the mayor’s opinion on sewage. Considering our team last semester did a research project on Victoria and the sewage treatment hurdles that it is facing, I can say that there are many opinions on it and it seems like a never ending battle. Dave Saunders views sewage as if it is money. We are actively pumping it out into the ocean when it could be harnessed and the energy that could be generated for it could be used as a power source. A great example of this was the Boydel test that is a sustainable technology that the mayor wishes to incorporate. Sewage is electrified and the coagulation creates methane gas which can be harnessed and used as a prospective energy source. The biosolids that collect can be then further compressed which then gives it the characteristics of coal with a much reduced pollutant generation. These biosolid bricks can be used by consumers as a fuel source in cement kilns as well as in greenhouses. This example exemplifies sustainability to the fullest and I think if it can be actively implemented in Colwood, well then I truly believe that this municipality can become exactly what the council hopes. This optimism is to become a true green city and an influence for other municipalities in the area to admire.