The ongoing practice within the structures we build is important. This is the world of to do lists, conference calls and email exchanges. The invitation here is to practice working with one another in alignment with the designs we have created. The architecture of implementation refers to what you will build to sustain the work you have created. If you are doing innovative work your organization or community will need to develop an innovative approach to sustaining it. It is critical that you make decisions about how you intend to support the outcomes of the process before you begin to undertake the substantive work of the project. While you can also rely on commitment and sustainability to be generated within the process, it is important to do some early planning to know what has the best chance of supporting outcomes. • What resources (especially time, money and people) do we need to sustain our work together? • What power and influence do we need to enable our work and support results? • What capacity and learning do we need to build to sustain this work? • How do we leverage relationships and support the work that arises from them? • How do we sustain and nourish our own relationships after the work is over? • What commitments are we willing to make to contribute to the success of our endeavour? • What are you willing to do differently? • How do we end what we have started? Harvest • Resources and commitments that will support the sustainability of good outcomes STRUCTURING Once we have established the centre of a project by connecting a need and purpose to the people who should be involved, and we have an idea how we will support implementation, we can turn our minds to the kind of structures, processes and activities that help us address our purpose. We move through three stages of identifying a concept, investigating our limiting beliefs and then finally deciding on a project plan for moving. Concept As we move to a more concrete idea of what our structures are, we begin to explore the concepts that will be useful. This is a high level look at the shape of our endeavour. For example, if our need was to design a way to cross a body of water, we could choose a bridge, a causeway or a ferry. The concept is important, because it gives form to very different structures for doing our work. Coming up with a concept delays final decisions about structuring work, and it allows us to pause and check out our general direction with those who are resourcing and enabling the work. Avoid the temptation to jump immediately to a final design. 7 27
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