Transition Culture

24 Jan 2007

10 First Steps for a Transition Town Initiative #10. Let it Go Where It Wants to Go and Reflections…

This final one won’t take long, as it is really pretty straightforward, requiring very little elucidation. In essence, although you may start out developing your Transition Town process with a clear idea of where it will go, it will inevitably go elsewhere. You need to be open to it going where the energy of those who get involved want to take it. If you try and hold onto the idea that it will be a certain way it will, after a while, begin to sap the energy that is building to do certain things. It is what is so exciting about the whole thing, seeing what emerges. It is worth bearing in mind all the way through that your role is to act as a catalyst for the community designing this transition, rather than your role being to come up with the answers. Your role is facilitate people asking the right questions.

**Reflections on the 10 First Steps.**

This has been a very useful process, ordering my thoughts on the steps that have been taken so far with Transition Town Totnes and how they might be applicable for other communities wanting to do a similar process. There is of course a danger in trying to pin down a process that is still so formative, and almost certainly different projects in different places will find some of these work better than others, that they work better in a different order and so on, but hopefully you will find them useful. I am just putting these out there as the distillation of our experience thus far.

As I have said before, they do not offer a road map from A to Z, rather from A to C. How this pans out in the long run I can’t say. What I can say is that something about this process as it has unfolded thus far seems to have engaged the imaginations of a great many people, and feels deeply resonant for many. I hope you find them useful. Do share your experience of trying them out.

The key of all of this is to Create a Sense that Something is Happening, that this process is underway, is historic and important. On a personal note, I have found that thus far it has all been extraordinarily serendipitous, that I think “you know, what we need now is someone who knows about legal structures”, and next day there they are. It has been like this all the way through and is quite remarkable. We have no way of knowing if it will always continue, but if it is, what we really need now is a very generous benefactor who will sponsor some of the many projects that we have ready to get moving! Worth a try.

Anyway, I hope you have found this useful. I am starting to pull this material into a shape that will form the basis of a book, a handbook for groups wanting to start this process. Any feedback and comments, especially based on your practically trying it out, would be much appreciated.