A well designed programme can also provide a wealth and range of opportunities 

We can arrange our programme to facilitate capability for individuals in the way that we make space for expression, how we encourage interaction and the way we cultivate shared achievement.

Suggestion:

Make a list of capabilities that people can acquire through your programme. 

Describe how you share your practice.

Introduce two people to each other. 

Arrange to meet up with some fellow travellers to explore how you can support each other. 

Use the Plan card and Plan guide to arrange a peer support forum:

1. Prepare for the session by filling in the plan card

2. Invite people to briefly present their question to a group.

3. Walk through the question together using the plan guide:

Clarify - participants ask questions of the person presenting to clarify their understanding (the person present replies to eases as concisely as possible)

Suggest - participants then make suggestions to the person presenting about how they might move forward (the person presenting listens to all of this without responding)

Act -  the person presenting then acknowledges the suggestions and may say how choose to indicate their next steps.

Problem posing involves bringing together people with a diversity of perspectives to understand and tackle the questions that beset us.

Identifying and clarifying the true nature of a question often makes it easier for us to see our route ahead.

Suggestion: Identify the key question that your programme seeks to address. 

Keep a daily journal 

Collect significant moments as they occur, recording moments in your own way using sounds, words images etc… 

Add any questions, reflections and suggestions that are inspired by the moment you choose

Choose one moment a day to reflect on and develop further

Choose a moment from your journal or photo library from this day in a previous year as a starting point.

A development plan is : comprehensive, developmental, open, in context, sustainable, creative, collaborative, long-term, adaptable, balanced, learn from experience, positive, aligned…

Plans are only effective when they are  comprehensive and we are comfortable, confident and committed to them

Plans are ongoing parts of the development process - not separate to it.  

Suggestions:

Use the natural flow of a walk to make a plan - Make a short summary of your plan and then break it down into the three phases of a walk (research; practice; plan)

Break down each phase into the same phases - (thus, for example, the first phase will focus on research but also include elements of practice and planning as these are all ongoing processes 

Summarise each phase and the next steps you will take

Identify how the phases feed into each other

Review your plan at the start/end of each phase

A project is a short-term activity designed with a specific destination in mind. 

Projects are primarily for research, development and creative experimentation

Development projects take place in the context of our long-term development, they build on our previous learning and inform our future development.

Projects are particularly useful when we are feeling stuck or have hit a barrier; when we start a new period in our lives; or when we want to test something out, for throwing light on difficult questions and helping us find practical ways forward.

Suggestions:

Briefly describe your long-term plan

Make a list of everything and everyone who can help you achieve your project.

Describe how you will make your mark.

Consider what you can share.

Identify how you can make a lasting and meaningful contribution to your community.

Outline the most important things you will need to do to reach your destination.

Make a to-do list

Describing helps us understand 

The absence of definition and certainty in development means we may easily lack confidence in what we do.  

We need reminding that we do know what we are doing, and that we do have an approach, one that has been a long-time forming. 

Suggestions: 

Describe some of the key moments on our journey. 

Take one key moment and describe how it has influenced you.

Our uniqueness is our superpower, (no other person in the whole world shares our unique blend of experience and capabilities).

Suggestions:

Outline what is unique about your experience. 

Write a short personal profile

Outline a relationship plan, consider how people will find you, what you will do together and what impact your relationships will have. 

Consider how you can engage new people, enable people to get involved and empower people to deepen their commitment. 

Consider who you want to walk with and describe how they will find you.

Describe a conversation you want to be part of

Make a list of ways we can converse with our companions

Reflect on how you can sustain your work.

Describe what is unusual about your experience and capabilities.

Identify the value you can create for people.

Describe how you can generate the resources you need.

Describe how you intend to achieve your long-term plan

Identify some questions that can help you keep your long-term plan on track

Describe how you intend to resource the things you do

Describe how you can create value for yourself and others. 

Make a list of different ways you can provide benefit to others. 

List all the communities you belong to

Describe which communities are most important to you and why.

Describe the benefits of participating in the/your community.

Get organised

Look at the bigger picture

Prepare for the future

Clarify your options

Suggest possibilities

Take positive steps forward.

Describe the place you would like to occupy in the world.

Understanding our unique experience and capabilities helps us find our place in the world - the place where we are most ourselves. 

Suggestion: Identify who has expertise that can help you on your journey and how you can find them. 

Suggestion: Check in with the people you walk with and make sure no-one is left behind

Understanding the natural phases of our activity helps us recognise and respond to the natural process of change. Identifying the phases of our walk can help us connect with ourselves,  others and the wider world.

Describe a place where you felt nourished. 

Suggestion: Make a list of things people need to flourish

Describe a meaningful experience in your own life and list things you can do to enable others to have similar experiences. 

Moments are the experiences that make up and inform all our development.

Moments are the universal language of development

Moments are full of meaning and moment, they are momentous. Every moment contains echoes of the past and intimations of the future. Each moment has implications for ourselves, other people and the wider world.

Suggestions:

Use moments as starting point or seed of development:

• Collect moments you can learn from

• Add questions, reflections and suggestions inspired by each moment - as they occur to you

• Share moments with friends or colleagues

• Put up a 'notice board' for your team and/or community

No-one has ever had, nor ever will have, the same capabilities that you have, now.

Suggestion:

Make a list of the capabilities you have and those you’d like to acquire.

Describe how you can show people that you welcome and value them, as they are.

Suggestion: Ask a close friend to help you describe your plan

...And the sabbath rang slowly

in the pebbles of the sacred springs...

(Dylan Thomas)

A suggestion: List the various ways you have conversations with people, which feel most natural?

Suggestion: Revise any messages you’ve sent that don’t reflect who you want to be. 

Describe what you can do to improve the quality of people’s experience. 

Describe what is distinctive about the way you do things.

Suggestion: Describe the experiences you want people to have and how you will value them. 

Pathways open up in front of us.

Understanding our model helps us choose the best pathways.

'The road not taken' by Robert Frost

Suggestion: Describe how you intend to bring your work out into the world.

Identify someone who has encouraged you, tell them how they have helped. 

Support comes in many forms. 

Effective support facilitates collaboration and unlocks our creative potential. 

Suggestion: Identify how you plan to support others. 

Suggestion: Identify the resources you can provide for others. 

Consider how you can accompany people.

Describe your ideal support group

Identify the people who can benefit most from joining your community (they are usually the people who have most to offer you).

Research some new avenues and connections that can take your work forward. 

Value reminds us of the importance of human experience and helps us focus on the quality of our lives. 

It helps to to keep us open and in development, to understand the processes that guide our development and organise our creative future.

Suggestions:

Build your own development resource from an anthology of significant moments from your development journey

Consider how each of these moments can aid your development

Identify a key word (for reference) for each moment and collect related questions, reflections and suggestions

Keep a daily journal 

Choose one moment a day to reflect on and develop further - either from your journal or photo library or from our resource. 

Join our ongoing journal / programme and receive a daily moment to reflect on together.

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

(T S Elliot, Little Gidding)

Suggestion: Make a list of all the things you want to explore in future. 

Gather all your research.

Collect notes on all your ideas.

Describe your values and motivations.

Make your own development guide.

Set out how you will organise yourself.

"We make the road by walking"

Walking is our natural resource. 

Walking in the open helps us sense the connection between ourselves, other people  and the wider world.

Traveller, your footprints

are the only road, nothing else.

Traveller, there is no road;

you make your own path as you walk.

As you walk, you make your own road,

and when you look back

you see the path

you will never travel again.

Traveller, there is no road;

only a ship's wake on the sea.

Antonio Machado

Suggestions:

Walk to open up to possibility, inspiration and creativity.

Recall people and events that have influenced you.

Reflect on the values that are important to you.

Describe the ideas that motivate you.

Start a new collection of the moments you want to return to and explore further.

John DuPré - A process perspective on human life

Suggestions:

Describe the processes involved in your work. 

Think about how you learn from your experience.

Describe a positive cycle of development.

Look for natural processes that can guide you.

Choose one moment you have experience and describe how it can help guide your practice. 

Start a guide of the principles and process that will inform your interactions. 

Describe your working process

Describe what is important to you about the way you work

Set out what you need to organise.

Imagine the future you want to see.

Describe the environment you want to work in.

Identify who can help.

Describe how you will support each other.

Start a collection of moments that inform how you want to engage with the wider community.

Describe the impact you want to have

Describe what motivates you to get organised

Create a one-page summary of your organisation

Identify significant moments on your journey.

Reflect on each moment.

Record anything that interests you and invites further development

Make a list of moments that have personal significance for you. 

Describe a milestone or a turning point on your journey.

Acknowledge the things that have brought us to this moment.

Gather the things that remind us who we are

Reflect on the various factors that influence our identity: our history, values, emotions and beliefs.

We can’t control what happens to us but we can choose how we respond.

Suggestions:

Consider what informs the choices you make,.

Reflect on the people that  have influenced you.

Identify where your ideas come from.

Choose the moments you want to guide you.

What inspires our development? 

Which places have significance?

Where do we find our inspiration? 

Who and what has influenced us on our journey? 

What are the moments, the people and the places that continue to inspire us? 

Suggestions:

Describe what it is the motivates you.

Make a list of experiences you have found inspiring. 

Write a letter to thank someone who has influenced you (maybe a historical figure)?

Collect questions to explore

Locate the key questions act concern you.

Identify the problems that you want to tackle.

Make a list of things you'd like to know more about.

Identify one question that you would like to take for a walk 

Questions are a powerful way of helping us stay in development and are always learning. 

We can use questions to map our development, to explore, to dig deeper into complexity and remind us of the big picture. Questions are dynamic, they open up possibilities and invite us us to explore the unknown.  

Suggestions:

Make a list a questions  in development

Identify a key question you'd like to explore with others.

Reflect on the resources we need to be our selves.

Consider examples of how our interactions can aid our creative development. 

Analyse how we can facilitate our creative development. 

Make time today to refresh and focus on your own creativity. 

Describe what you can do to help people individuals  in development. 

Describe what it means to walk alongside someone.

List the key factors to consider when facilitating a group

Describe the features of a group  in development.

Explain why you want to get organised. 

Reflect on the impact you want to have on the lives of those around you and the wider world.

Describe your vision as a question that others can help explore. 

Describe the world you want to see and the part you want to play in it. 

Write a short vision statement

Get together with some friends and colleagues to share moments and discuss how you can support each other?

Identify a person or group that shares your vision, invite them to explore what you can achieve together.

Describe the kind of space you want to create. 

~~ Organisation Our organisation

~~~ Legacy Our long-term impact

Suggestion: Find a quiet space and record any ideas, thoughts and reflections that occur to you.

Starting points matter. They set the tone for everything that comes after.

The more complex an activity is the more sensitive it is to the initial conditions. 

Understanding our own and each others' starting points provides the basis for communication and collaboration.

Questions:

What has led us to this moment ?

What is it that shapes our intentions?

Do we want our starting points to be decided for us?

Where would we like to start from? 

Can we start from a stop?

Suggestions:

Describe a moment that started you on a journey

Keep a journal of lessons learnt.

Describe one thing you learnt recently. 

Every one of us has a worldview - a set of values, principles and beliefs that inform our development.  

Our worldview is not fixed - we are constantly gathering information to shape and refine it - it is a product of every moment we experience.  I

n development we shape our view in a deliberate and methodical way - by identifying which moments to give significance to and choosing how we respond to these moments.

Suggestions:

Describe what happened when you saw things from a different perspective.

Consider how you can open yourself to new experiences

Describe your philosophy of life. 

Make a collection of your favourite quotes

Describe the problems you face as questions that can explore with others. 

Make a list of the different perspectives and experiences that can help you tackle a key question.

Make a list of things we can do when we are feeling overwhelmed by complexity and uncertainty. 

Identify all the resources people can draw on to deal with complexity. 

Create your own complexity guide or toolkit. 

Get together with some colleagues to share what your working on and discuss how you can help each other. 

I’ve heard it said that intelligence is about our ability to learn from our experience.  If this is true of an individual it is surely true of a society.  I suspect we’d all like to think we live in an intelligent society but, if an intelligent society is one that learns from its experience - is this really true? How can it be true when the experience of so many people goes unexpressed and unheard?  If we wish to live in an intelligent society then it is this unexpressed experience that we need to listen to.  Those who’ve not been heard have the most to offer.

Suggestion: List your five favourite spaces for reflection.

Identify a space nearby where you can share your work. 

'We shape tools and then tools shape us' (W Churchill)

Suggestion: Share a moment of your experience as an invitation to others. 

Describe your programme of work.

Use this resource to devise your own development programme

Use our Journal as an ongoing development programme

Ask me to design a bespoke development programme to suit you / your group.

'We are co-creating the universe" (Ian McGilchrist)

Suggestion:

Walk an unfamiliar path and document what you notice.

Ask a colleague or friend for a walk to discuss what you've learnt from working together.

Moments on the Cornish Celtic Way (1)

Identify the expertise that can help you develop your practice. 

Make a list of places where you can find people  in development. 

Re-connect with a group that you lost touch with. 

Review (and streamline) the platforms you use.

Make a list of places where you can find inspiration

Describe how your programme makes it easier for people to collaborate. 

Describe the opportunities for collaboration that can be provided by your programme 

We can only explore the unknown. It is what we don't know that is truly interesting.

Suggestion:

Make a list of things you want to learn.

Identify a new role for someone to help you. 

Describe how you plan to share your work. 

Describe what you hope to learn from your practice. 

Identify areas of practical expertise that could benefit your practice. 

Suggestion: Invite some people to give their perspective on an question that concerns you.  

Describe how your programme recognises both individual and collective achievements.

A library of moments is comprehensive resource for collaborative creative development.

It is simple to use, lasts a lifetime and can be expanded to fit any level of complexity without ever losing sight of the big picture.

It is comprehensive, universal, fully adaptable and multi-purpose.  

It helps us value, navigate and organise significant moments in our lives. 

Suggestions:

Build your own library of moments - collect, process and organise the moments that inform your long-term development.

Collaborate with others, build a library for your group, network or community

Contribute to our collective library of moments

As we walk we use the moments we experience to inform our long-term development.

Suggestions

Notice and mark the three phases of the walk - a beginning, middle and an end

Stop at the end of each phase to notice and record significant moments on your journey

Walk alone; alongside a friend or colleague, or together with others in development.

If walking with others, stop and check-in first, catch up on any news and deal with any outside influences before you start (switch phones onto silent, agree a route etc.)

Spend some time before you set out reflecting on what it is on your mind - map out your moments (use a full page of your open zine)

Identify a question to take for a walk or choose one from our anthology

Take a Walks in Development guide for a walk and use the questions as prompts to each phase of your walk.

When you set off, take a moment to notice the feel, taste, sight, sound, of being here, right here right now…

Walk at your own pace,  (re)discover our walking practice

Start each phase in silence   

When you stop recall any significant moments - acknowledge them but try to avoid commenting straight away, instead use them to inform the next stage of a walk

Ask me (david@artsindevelopment.org.uk) to arrange an introduction to Walks in Development

(No physical walking required. We can apply this simple ‘walking’ process to any activity)

All development involves letting go

There is nothing to be gained from holding on to the things that hurt us

Blame may strengthen our grip and struggle tighten our bonds.

Our folly is holding hardest to things we are attached to, so we never see them fly 

There’s no freedom unless we let go

She has also made a handy guide to making your own Zine that you can access here.

We start from where we are

Describe the key turning points in your journey so far

We build a Library of Moments to collect, share and develop the moments we experience

Every moment can be a starting point for a guide to what we’ve learnt a map to find our way forward and a daily diary of development.

Tell a friend or colleague how you appreciate them

For individuals and groups to share moments, walk alongside each other +

map our way forward

We (can go for a walk and) focus in turn on
our own development, our impact on others
the wider implications of our actions

We can make our own maps of the things we have done and what we plan to do