From The Hawkes Library; affiliated with FourthPillar.biz
© 20/10/09 Jon Hawkes <email> <web>
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Know Thyself

Cultural development within bureaucracies

A key area of cultural development at the local level is within the agencies responsible for facilitating cultural development. Without development within these agencies, their capacity to fruitfully assist communities to develop their cultures will remain inhibited and counter-productive.

The first challenge to be met is unawareness, and the response should be learning and advocacy.

A society's health and capacity to effectively respond to change is fundamentally dependent on the energetic engagement of its people. This can be encouraged, focussed and maintained by supporting local cultural development.

This argument needs to be understood and promoted.

The second challenge to be met is insensitivity, and the response should be listening and self-examination.

The values and behaviours that surround State interventions significantly affect their impact. Particularly in the area of local cultural development, the way that State agents choose to engage with the communities they serve will profoundly affect what happens.

Counter-productive tendencies need to be identified and worked on.

These challenges can be addressed through:

• Professional development of:
• Sympathetic ears: The art of 'really' listening and the exploration of alternate ways of facilitating community expression
• Golden tongues: The art of saying what one means in ways that strike responsive chords with the listeners - what might be called accessible expression
• Soft hands: The art of service as opposed to control; how to 'let go', how to trust in the capacities of communities
• Enquiring minds: The art of respectful curiosity - how to stay open to surprise, how to develop an appreciation, and capacity to express, the eternal synthesis between diverse cultures as they rub against each other
• Dancing feet: The art of facilitating community initiative - how to lead without threat, how to recognise and honour emerging and half-formed visions
• The design and application of internal procedures that enhance staff contribution to agency culture
• The design and application of internal procedures that enhance staff engagement in collaborative creativity
• The design of regular community gatherings at which communities can creatively mingle, engage in visionary discourse, celebrate their existence and be fruitfully listened to by the agencies responsible for facilitating their self-directed development.

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© 20/10/09 Jon Hawkes <email> <web>
From The Hawkes Library; affiliated with FourthPillar.biz

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