"Umsetzen, umsetzen, umsetzen!" (That's "Implement, implement, implement" in German)

By Jim Capraro, senior fellow, Institute for Comprehensive Community Development
Published: January 17, 2012

Imagine my surprise! 

It was at the very end of the two-and-a-half-day seminar, at the Ökologisches Bildungszentrum conference center, located in a beautiful, sprawling urban park/garden in Munich Germany.

During the final summary, when the facilitator asked the 36 students to acknowledge their coach (me), they started to chant:  "Umsetzen, umsetzen, umsetzen!" (That's "Implement, implement, implement" in German.) 

It was then that I knew how deeply we had connected and how much they appreciated the learning experience. 

I now had 36 new relationships with professionals who had embraced learning a new method for improving communal life in Germany. Thirty-six wonderfully caring human beings who had new knowledge to take back and “umsetzen” in local communities and districts in need of revitalization. Knowledge they will put in to practice. Knowledge they will turn into skill as they labor to revitalize a local community and its economy--and ultimately revitalize local human spirit. 

I am so eager to see how this will unfold!

Would it be meaningful?

During the summer of 2010, I met my old colleague Wolfang Goede for a reunion is New York. We had worked together as community organizers in Chicago in 1972-1973. During our all-to-brief reunion, Wolfgang had many questions about my current work. 

He was very curious about the current state community organizing and community development. So much time has passed since we organized together, but he and I still harbor the same level of passion for democracy and improving the human condition as we did when we first met in the autumn of 1972. I labored to explain the current state of the work, and my practice of it, as fully as I could in one evening. 

Within a few months I received an email from Wolfgang. He had taken our conversation back and related it to his colleagues, volunteers in Netzwerk Gemeinsinn (Network for Community Spirit). Together, they had brainstormed around the concept of holding a training session on community organizing and comprehensive community development in Munich. And then during the first half of 2011, the volunteers of Netzwerk Gemeinsinn worked long and hard to implement the idea. 

On September 6, I boarded a flight for Munich.  

I admit I was more than a little anxious as the plane made its way across the Atlantic. I was going to a foreign country. People there spoke a different language. The culture must be remarkably different.  

Would I be able to convey the American way of community organizing and community development in a manner that was understandable to Germans? And if they could understand, would they find it meaningful?

"I could hear them listening"

So, the seminar started with an evening session that was open to the public. I had seen the flyer that was created to advertise this session, but it was written in German and I couldn't read it.   Whatever it said, it seems to have been adequate to the task. The room was filled.

Netzwerk Gemeinsinn head Maren Schüpphaus is extremely skilled in group facilitation. She performed the role of moderator/facilitator for the two-and-a-half-day session. She welcomed everyone to the public meeting, explained the goals of the evening and the next two days and then handed the microphone to me.  

As I spoke, in English, I observed the audience first become very quiet. I wondered, “Do they understand me?” 

But then I watched as they became totally engrossed, actively listening as I explained the power of building networks of community relationships. People were listening so intensely that I felt I could hear them listening. 

Feeling right at home

It was then that I knew, right at the beginning, from this first session at the beginning of the seminar. I knew that we would connect well, and as the session continued I found that we would also connect deeply.

There were two additional speakers that evening: Professor Franz Kohout from the German Military University, who cited research that spoke of communal networks forming the launch point for democracy, and Eva Bruns who presented the great work happening in community districts throughout Munich. 

As I watched Eva’s power point presentation I thought:  “This looks like so many community development presentations that I have seen from neighborhoods throughout American cities.” 

I felt right at home.

The evening ended when Fritz Letsch of the Theater Gestalt Pedagogik Moderation conducted a community development theater workshop.  Participants gathered in breakout groups and created a short one-act play expressing their thoughts about the state of German “community spirit.” 

It was great fun, but also very meaningful and instructive for me to watch these Germans act out their community values.

A gratifying surprise

For the next two days, we burrowed deeper into the methods that we employ in America as we practice relational organizing and community development. Topics, organized around an outline of the steps to accomplish relational organizing and comprehensive community development, included:

• The promise of networks
• The purpose of deliberate relational meetings and how to conduct them
• Local leadership development
• The power of a collectively created and communally embraced vision
• Quality-of-life planning
• Collaborative and cooperative action
• Umsetzen, umsetzen, umsetzen (Implement, implement, implement)

In a visioning workshop, participants separated into breakout groups with the task of creating a future vision for the Munich (in German, Munchen) community of Pasing.  Within 40 minutes each group had created an attractive and compelling “future state” which this Munchen neighborhood could aspire to.

It was exciting to see participants revel in how much they could accomplish through a simple, structured 40-minute conversation.

Near the end of the seminar, Reinhard Schwarz, a Netzwerk Gemeinsinn member and Siemens process expert, conducted a peer-coaching workshop where members coached each other on to best apply what the lessons learned from the seminar.

And, finally, the session culminated when we passed out signed certificates, and tt was then that I received a wonderfully gratifying surprise when the group started chanting. "Umsetzen, umsetzen, umsetzen . . ."

Perhaps the best indicator of the value of our convening, a convening that focused on the power of intentionally creating human relationships is that, at the end, no one left. 

Folks lingered for about 90 minutes chatting and deepening their relationships. Many took a few minutes to tell me how they planned to use these new skills when they returned home.

As I said before, I am so eager to see how this will unfold!

No detail unattended

But I cannot end without acknowledging the stellar work accomplished by the volunteers of Netzwerk Gemeinsinn. This incredible team left no detail unattended. Here are the tasks that I observed them complete:

• Working with me to develop a two-and-a-half-day training curriculum
• Seeking and receiving support for the City of Munich for sponsorship of the training
• Arranging for a training venue
• Creating and distributing advance publications announcing the training session and explaining its content
• Receiving and registering training students from throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• Providing the correct audio/video technology and equipment
• Providing printed training materials
• Arranging for local professional expert presentations from Prof. Dr. Franz Kohout,Bundeswehrhochschule München, and Eva Bruns, Büro für Soziale Stadtentwicklung München, und Quartiersmanagement Ramersdorf/Berg am Laim
• Arranging for an Interactive community development theater experience, guided by the Drama teacher Fritz Letsch
• Arranging for a peer-coaching experience, conducted by Siemens process expert Reinhard Schwarz
• Providing the excellent, professional moderation of Netzwerk Gemeinsinn Executive Director Maren Schüpphaus
• Arranging for my travel logistics and accommodations

Whew, it makes me exhausted just to type this. 

To the members of Netzwerk Gemeinsinn, I am so impressed by your dedication and commitment. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to work together, and hope that this can be the beginning of a long, collegial association. 

Thank you so very, very much.

See our related stories:

• Implement, implement, implement! — the German perspective
• An international cultural exchange 'at eye level'

 

Posted in Thinking Out Loud

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