Run by Walter Menzies and Chris Shearlock.
If you went –
what went well?
what went poorly?
what was discussed?
what ideas struck you as useful
anything else you’d like to say.
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Comment One, from Laurence Menhinick
Vision – How to create positive and creative visions of the future that people can work
toward. Facilitated by Walter Menzies (Independent Consultant) & Chris Shearlock
(Sustainable Development Manager at The Co-operative Group)
This workshop was obviously very popular, I reckon at least 40 people were in this group, was that a sign that we needed clarification? Unfortunately we could hardly hear each other during the discussion due to the fact that the conversation in another group seemed to come out a lot louder than our own (next time let’s have one room each!).
To start the thinking going, we were asked if we knew what the vision of our organization was – and no-one could comment. Ensured a general discussion on what we thought the vision should be, and how it should be conveyed. Various comments were made on reducing consumption, advertising, engaging the young, highlighting better living as opposed to consumerism, urban design, promoting the positive picture to make it attractive instead of doom and gloom scenarios etc. The speakers highlighted the need for investment and
leadership to carry out that vision- (which still wasn’t very defined to me), and in the end we didn’t hear enough about what people actually did in their own organizations about it either.
Although I had interesting conversations with a couple of people afterwards, a couple of others like me felt a little so-so about that session, but I’m sure it was for a lack of seeing where we were trying to do and the acoustics of the room…
Comment Two, from Roger Bysouth
People’s thoughts were captured and grouped on post it notes. I’d like to know what’s happening to these? Not that they seemed terribly inspiring and I include my own.
manchester climate monthly 
Thanks for the reminder Lawrence:
-“hardly hear each other” – yes, a big difficulty
-“vision of our organization…no-one could comment” – and it dawned on me there was an assumption the only people attending the conference would be representatives of the usual suspect organisations, and no one seemed to expect or aspire to attract anyone from a wider circle. Will MACF be hamstrung by its own caution?
-“promoting the positive picture to make it attractive instead of doom and gloom” – 1 woman spoke about (have I got this right?) engaging on an emotional level, but no-one seemed very keen on that. But perhaps we do need to acknowledge a big spur to action is people’s terror at what’s happening. Hands up who has/hasn’t felt that? The trick is to take that on board and also explore what practically to do.
“speakers highlighted the need for investment and leadership to carry out that vision” – Yes. It was a fair point that it’s easy to make vague promises not backed up by resources. But it also implied to me that MACF would only move on an issue if it was sure that it was doing something MCC leadership approved of/could tolerate. If so, that feels too top-down. Not exactly a movement to inspire. What do we want? Achievable pragmatic ends! When do we want them? After a budget review!