PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: the Health eHeart Alliance
We have had the opportunity to help develop the Health eHeart Alliance from the ground up - from forming an initial collective vision, mission, and values to many years now of evolution in the Alliance's work. We're particularly proud to see how the Alliance is still making decisions rooted in those initial co-created values - a great example of the deep, lasting power of collaboratively designed processes. For more background on this long-running Emergence Collective project, check out this two part blog series by Brooking about our work creating the first patient-powered heart disease research summit, in collaboration with UCSF and the Health eHeart Alliance, and Rebecca's take on designing ourselves out of the work.
You might also peruse this Stanford Social Innovation Review piece on breakout innovation, which features the Health eHeart Alliance approach, or the recently released Beloved Economies book / community based on findings from this same research project on transformational practices. And if you're still curious: ask Rebecca about the latest developments!
Testimonial:
"I usually dread virtual meetings, but I actually enjoy our conference calls for the Health eHeart Alliance. Rebecca and Brooking make each of us feel welcomed, respected and heard. They adjust the agenda based on the needs of the group. They ask for clarifications and definitions so we avoid jargon and acronyms. I wasn't really clear on what their role was when we started, but after a few months it became very clear - Rebecca and Brooking are doing the most to ensure that the patients are heard; much more than the standard 'we are doctors, sit at the table and listen,' approach that I am, unfortunately, accustomed to in physician-patient groups. Leaders in the patient-centered research movement would do well to bring these two in to moderate all their meetings! "
— Patient Rights Advocate, and Health eHeart Alliance member
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: Break Free From Plastic US
In 2016, UPSTREAM came to Brooking for support with a convening of environmental NGOs from across the US to try to find ways to work together collaboratively on the shared interest and growing problem of plastic pollution. Brooking designed a strategy retreat for the group of leaders to collectively identify key priority work areas for the year ahead, and worked with the group for a number of years facilitating virtual and in-person meetings and supporting strategic implementation of collaborative projects. She also helped them through a strategic merger with the emerging Global Break Free From Plastic movement as it turned attention to US strategy. This unusually collaborative merger process helped avoid unnecessary duplicative efforts (which are all too common in the nonprofit field), and helped expand the US effort to include crucial front-line communities impacted by oil and gas and plastic production here in the US.
Brooking has played multiple support role for the movement, including:
- Strategic advisor and content editor for US Break Free From Plastic
- Host of The Indisposable Podcast, a podcast dedicated to telling the stories of solutions to plastic pollution
- Consultant and coach for organizations within the movement transforming their own culture, collaboration skills, and strategies to meet missions in a fast-changing landscape
- Facilitator and meeting host
"Brooking is one of the most skilled facilitators and collaboration designers I’ve ever encountered. We had a complex network of actors with different priorities and backgrounds that needed to align around common goals and strategies. She was able to help us design a process to bring everyone on board in ways that were inclusive, engaging, productive and fun. I can’t recommend her enough.”
— Executive Director and lead convener of the Plastic Pollution Prevention Project (now merged with Break Free From Plastic)
“Now that I’ve seen how much you’ve helped us function more effectively together, I don’t know what we would have done without you!”
— Program Director with organizational culture change client
“I absolutely love listening to this podcast on my hour+ commutes! Brooking is a very open, curious-minded and gentle host and I love the way she encourages guests to speak more.”
— The Indisposable Podcast listener (anonymous)
RESOURCES
Written Musings on Our Methods
Video & Audio Resources
Written Musings on Our Methods
- Coaching for Awareness-Based Systems Change - Lessons from a Covid-era Experiment
- Designing Effective Meetings, whether virtual or not
- Understanding White Privilege and Racial Equity - Resources for White-Presenting Practitioners
- Tips for Successful Kick-off Meetings
- Designing for Uncertainty with Theory U
- Aligning for Impact in the Funder Community
- Working with Conflict in Groups
Video & Audio Resources
- Understanding the Drama Triangle in Group and System Dynamics - Brooking and coaching colleague Praveen Mantena on one of the most common and avoidable group pitfalls of human relational dynamics, the 'drama triangle'.
- Practice-related Podcasts hosted by Brooking via UPSTREAM's The Indisposable Podcast
- Step Inside: Perspective and personal experience on race and the environmental movement with Letise LaFeir - scientist, policy professional, poet, mother.
- From White Environmentalism to Anti-Racism: A candid co-interview between Brooking and UPSTREAM's ED on the internal work needed for organizations in the environmental movement to move toward more intersectional approaches to the work that prioritize racial justice.
- Repairing the Past for the Future's Delight: When your core interview question is How can we build bridges rather than putting up walls between one another? and your guest is as wise and bright a soul as Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, you know it's going to be a powerful conversation.
- Embodied Activism: the What, Why, and How: Another co-interview style episode with a dear friend and colleague Si Thacker that explores the challenges of staying centered in world-changing work, and tips and tricks to practice embodied activism in our work and in our everyday lives.
- Step Inside: Perspective and personal experience on race and the environmental movement with Letise LaFeir - scientist, policy professional, poet, mother.
- Video Interviews with Brooking and Rachel Sinha of the Systems Studio on what it means to be a systems change practitioner, The Emergence Collective's work co-leading The River Delta learning and practice community in North America, our systems change coaching pilot, and more.
- See also this impromptu video interview between Brooking and eco-artist Ashley Manzanec on what collaboration consulting is really all about, and other musings.
