This spring, we are adding a forum capability to the GA Dialog so we can discuss the messages before voting on them. This discussion capability opens up a new use for the GA process as a prioritizer.
For example, a group of doctors from teaching hospitals is expected to use the process to prioritize neonatal practices for both clinical and teaching purposes. That is, which neonatal practices should be stressed more in the teaching of new doctors and used more in clinical practice? A committee will come up with the list of neonatal practices and then about 100 doctors in a network of South American teaching hospitals will discuss and prioritize the practices by rating them.
Wiser Earth might use
this prioritizing function as a "Shared Priorities" facility for the hundreds of millions of us who share the vision at the grass roots level.
This idea can be developed in several ways. For one thing, we prioritize along more than one dimension. For example there is the prioritizing of:
- best practices, as in the neonatal case
- goals
- guidelines
- tasks
- "message" - the PR face of Wiser Earth.
Underlying the Shared Priorities strategy is a belief that the global movement for a harmonious, sustainable and prosperous world can and should voluntarily self-coordinate from the bottom up. Part of the strategy is to promote the general concept that participating groups need to learn from each other and share mutually beneficial resources as opposed to "reinventing the wheel".
"Shared Priorities" is a powerful growth strategy for Wiser Earth as well as a facility for the global movement. Implementing the process at Wiser Earth might unfold in this manner:
I.
The process is initiated and implemented at the main areas of focus
(AoF) level before cascading down to the detailed area of focus level.
- One or more Editors oversee the Shared Priorities implementation for each main AoF.
- The Shared Priority
Editor for a main AoF initially engages Wiser Earth members from that main AoF
and then reaches out to the not-yet-Wiser-Earth members from the global
community asking for their list of priorities in each dimension.
- The community for each main AoF reads, discusses and votes on the priorities for that main AoF.
- At every stage editors seek a commitment from the members and contacts to share the top ten priorities with their email lists. (This commitment to share the priorities is vital as a growth strategy - more important even than the direct outreach.)
II. We also implement at the Wiser Earth level. That is, that we develop Shared Priorities at the level of the movement as a whole as well as at the main AoF level. The top priority from each main AoF should be automatically entered in this Common Priorities phase along with new priorities provided by the general membership.
