Summer

I fully support the pace of summer. It is the time to slow down, eat outside, and read books. It is the season to explore with no hurry. Summer is an important antidote to our fast paced and overly connected lives. 

I am thinking a lot about people and parks, and especially about this article: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/diversify-our-national-parks.html?referrer=. There is more to this story and I'm thinking about writing an article about it. 

I'm also working on the film Here and Now about partnerships between Native Americans and land conservation organizations. https://vimeo.com/134795717

And I'm reading about Theodore Roosevelt and his conservation legacy. It's so interesting to understand the building blocks of today's conservation movement. Especially since some of it needs to change and evolve. 

Okay, back to summer...

Talkin' about Outdoor Voice with Lightbox Collaborative

For more than 2 years I've been leading the Outdoor Voice initiative at the Bay Area Open Space Council. Luckily for me most of that time has been spent in partnership with Lightbox Collaborative. So I was honored when they asked to post Outdoor Voice to the Lightbox Collaborative blog. Here's what we wrote...

Tortoise + Hare = Strong Strategy for the Great Outdoors

You know the story, right? The tortoise moves forward slowly but surely. The hare sprints, stops, gets
distracted, sprints again in a new direction, but doesn’t cross the finish line first. I’m here to say that you don’t always have to choose to be fast or slow. Sometimes you can do both. The trick is knowing when and how.

For the past year, Lightbox Collaborative has worked with the Bay Area Open Space Council on an initiative, now calledOutdoor Voice. The idea seemed simple: the people who run our beloved parks, farms, and other outdoor spaces have long wanted to inspire our whole region to stand up for the spaces we all love. But the devil is always in the details. How can so many different people and groups agree on a unified effort? The Bay Area Open Space Council, taking on tough projects for 25 years, stepped up to take the lead on this ambitious effort.

What started as a bold but unfocused idea – to create a marketing campaign to raise awareness – has since become a strategic and action-focused movement. How did we get from there to here? By moving both fast and slow.

We co-created a collaborative, deliberative process to set a strategy for the project. While it was natural for everyone to want to jump ahead to the tactics – the name, the logos, the materials, and even the taglines – we asked folks to take a step back and think about what success would look like, and who we needed to engage to get there. We wanted a strategy before tactics. We spent a lot of time involving people, asking them questions, and inspiring fresh thinking from folks who knew the terrain best.

Now we can move fast on tactics because we collaborated on the strategy. By defining a clear theory of change, brand reputation, and message platform, we have a set of strategic filters that make it possible to make fast decisions. In fact once the core brand strategy was in place, it took only two months to launch the initiative with a name, logo, website, and social media presence.

Our experience proved that you don’t have to choose between a thorough process and timely outcomes. You can have both. Here’s what we learned:

1. Commit to a good process, not an artificial deadline

Even if it seems critical to launch before your next conference or the end of your fiscal year, imposing these kinds of external deadlines can rush a process that could be more successful with some room to breathe. Deadlines are important because they force us to move ahead, but if collaboration is essential to success, you have to make time for the process. The process can be slow or messy, but the trust and relationships you build during it will hold you in good stead for the long term.

2. Lots of people give input, a few people make decisions

Create opportunities for many people to be heard, because more people really do mean more brainpower and better ideas. But ultimately decisions need to be made by a few people who have earned the trust and respect of the broader group. If people have confidence their views have been heard and respected, they are more likely to accept the results of that process, even if it isn’t what they wanted. Transparency is key, so make the decision-making responsibilities very clear from the beginning.

3. Clarity is contagious

We launched Outdoor Voice on May 14, 2015 to 400 parks leaders at the Open Space Conference. Within four days we had four calls from organizations wanting to partner. People understood exactly what we were doing and wanted to get involved. Because we had clarity on what Outdoor Voice is—and what it isn’t—people can join us and know exactly what they are getting into. Partners and funders are inspired, and know that their investment of time, resources and money will be well utilized.

Now we can all use our Outdoor Voice to connect with opportunities to support the Bay Area’s natural wonders. It took some time and a lot of work, but the Bay Area is going to reap the benefits of this effort for generations to come. And that’s good for all of us – tortoises and hares included!

Made some changes, learned a bunch

I made a few changes.

Since before my time at the Open Space Council - since 1999 to be exact - the Open Space Conference was held at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio. Between 200-300 people attended and it was casual and great. I joined the Open Space Council in 2010 and I loved the collegial atmosphere, the positive energy, and how fun it was. And I started making a few changes.

The biggest change was for the 16th annual conference on May 14, 2015. We moved from the pristine grounds and familiar scene of the Presidio to the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond. There was a clear need to do this... in 2014 we had an overflowing overflow room. People were crammed into every inch of the Golden Gate Club. It wasn't optimal, but it was very clear to everyone there that we needed a bigger space. I looked all over the Bay Area for a space that could hold 400-500 people, and that had the right vibe. The Craneway was the answer.

Before I get to the lessons I learned, here's the run down of what actually happened at the 2015 Open Space Conference:

• 400 people attended (just about the same in 2014) 
• 30 organizations were exhibitors (capacity was 15 in 2014)
• $140,000 was raised in sponsorships, exhibitors and ticket sales ($90k in 2014)
• $90,000 was raised in sponsorships alone ($54k in 2014)
• Registration was pretty slow until the last month before the conference (registration peaked much earlier in 2014)

I learned a lot from this year's conference. Including:

Change the ingredients carefully. 

We changed a lot of the ingredients in 2015. The location was new, the field trip the day before was new, the 25th anniversary party the night before was new, the ticket prices increased, and the number of ticket options increased. Registration was slow until the final weeks before the conference, and I think part of it was due to so many changes. People weren't sure if this was the Open Space Conference they knew, and they weren't sure if it was worth the time or cost. 

Make it easy.

The registration page used to be very straight forward with just two options - a ticket for members and a ticket for non-members. This year's had quite a few options and was visually overwhelming. I'm not sure what we could have done to prevent this, but it's something I want to keep in mind for future years. Make it as easy as possible to register. 

What sells a ticket isn't what makes for an interactive experience.

What people really want, I believe, is a chance to talk with friends, meet new people, and interact. Even the introverts amongst us don't want to sit passively all day and listen. But I have a theory that if we marketed the conference as a day-long networking session, no one would buy a ticket. While people want to do it, they wouldn't be able to justify the cost or the time away from the office. Big name speakers, topics directly related to your line of work, and skill-building opportunities are what sell tickets. So going forward, I want to find a balance between what sells tickets and what people really want.

Fewer speakers, more facilitated conversations

I packed this year's agenda. I tried to squeeze in speakers on a wide array of topics. And I really don't want to do that again. One reason is what I said above... we need more time in conversation and less time passively listening. Another reason is that it makes for a stressful day of managing time. If everything is planned down to 5 minute increments, then you spend the day watching every minute and hurrying everything along. A more relaxed agenda makes for a more relaxed day. What I'd like to do next year is have 3-4 topics that we cover over the course of the day. There will be a speaker on each topic, and then 30 minutes of table discussions on that topic. I will also have pop-up speakers or experiences that roam the room during breaks and at lunch. They will provide some sort of relevant content, and provide another way that people can learn and interact. 

Space makes a big difference. 

This isn't a new or original idea. There are thousands of architects and urban planners who can get all academic and scientific about this. But I see it over and over again, so I can't help but say it. The Craneway is big and light and airy. You can see people around you, and over on the other side of the room. Conference attendees were standing up straight, looking around with eyes wide open, and moving around. I keep thinking about a conference I attended at a Marriott - window-less rooms, a series of florescent-lit hallways - where the posture and behavior was the exact opposite. Space matters.

Music and art!

Let's talk about serious stuff, and let's also have some fun. This year we had a Create with Nature zone facilitated by Zach Pine and I'm so glad we did. I want more of it. I want more art and let's have some live musicians playing at breaks and lunch. Let's sing and dance, play and create. 

How you sit directly affects how you interact. 

At past conferences we had the room arranged with theater-style seating. Rows of chairs, all facing the same way. There must be some psychological training that happens to us all when we sit down in that arrangement. We turn off. We prepare ourselves to be bored. Because of the large space and the availability of beautifully reclaimed oak tables, conference attendees sat at tables. They laid out their stuff, engaged in conversations, and leaned in. The body language was completely different, and I think resulted in much more meaningful experience. 

Who you put on the stage gets reflected in the audience.

I'm very proud of the diversity we had on the stage this year. There were men and women of all kinds, colors, and backgrounds. While there is a long way to go to diversify the audience, I believe that we inched our way towards that goal with a diverse group of speakers. I'll continue to do this, and continue to push myself and us as a movement towards inclusion and diversity. 

At 4pm the day before the conference I said that I was excited already for next year's conference. I can't wait to take what I learned and apply it. I can't wait to make the tweaks and adjustments. It's always a challenge and a really fun one at that.

 

What does Bay Area land conservation mean and who's changing

Over the past 5 years, I've been involved with building and expanding the land conservation community in the Bay Area. During that time I've been a part of 5 Open Space Conferences (now working on my 6th) and I have curated 20 Gatherings. Each of these events bring together people from the 10 counties of the Bay Area on timely and relevant topics. In order to set the topic, identify the speakers, and market the event, we need to know what the hot topics are, what is going unsaid, and what people/groups aren't currently talking that should be talking. We need to have an ear to the ground and to read between the lines.

I joined a panel at the George Wright Society last week to talk about urban protected areas. And in so doing, I realized that I've learned a thing or two over the past 5 years. There is a story to tell about Bay Area land conservation. Here's what I told the crowd last week:

Land conservation of yesterday is gone. And the ways land conservation is practiced in other cities/regions/states is not the way it's done here. The Bay Area is unique in so many ways, and also so full of potential. If anyone is going to adapt to a changing climate, Bay Area land managers are. If anyone is going to band together to do more than we could individually, it's the Bay Area. If anyone is going to include and engage people of color and others who have not historically been included, Bay Area land conservation organizations are. There is so much potential.

That potential is incredibly exciting, almost as exciting as baseball's opening day.

Nature versus nurture

If we're paying attention to what works and what doesn't work in an organization or on a project, there are always signs of tensions. The tensions are there, and they're something to deal with on an ongoing basis. They don't go away, and they can't be swept under the rug. They're something to manage. 

One example is how fast do you want to move and how many people need to be involved. By involving a lot of people in the process, the process slows down. It takes time to get people - with their opinions and hang ups and busy schedules - to move forward together. Sometimes doing all that work is worth it. It's just something you have to consider on a case by case basis, and figure out what path you want to take. 

I frequently hear one particular one tension in land conservation. One side of the tension is the goal of protecting land for the wilderness, the plants and animals, and for the big wide open pristine places. The other side is the goal of protecting land for people, called public access in the industry. I'm so glad that we have people who are advocating for and working tirelessly to protect land for wilderness. I'm also so glad we have people in the world who are connecting people to the land, getting people of all kinds outside. Because we need both. 

This isn't an either-or question. It's both.