A democratic process

The Civic Health Summit was hosted by the Washington State Lieutenant Governor, the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, the Jackson Foundation, and The William D. Ruckelshaus Center using participatory design-based practices that are simple yet impactful. This methodology allows for stakeholders to engage in meaningful conversations and share collective wisdom in order to better navigate the complexity of our work and find new solutions.

The design of the Civic Health Summit and facilitation process was based on the need to convene this group of people at this particular time around a purpose that the hosting team defined at the outset of the project: To bring together people who are concerned about civic health, creating hope and reducing isolation, to improve the governance demonstrated by elected officials in Washington, develop practical and transformative ideas, and create public accountability. Practicing in this methodology calls for designing our conversations around the harvest, or the results, that we want to emerge from the engagement.

The event itself was designed to ensure that each activity supported the purpose of the engagement so that conversation yielded something. Throughout the event, graphic recording was utilized to document the expertise and knowledge of participants. Documents such as these use visuals to help participants remember the conversation and connect to it later. Participants were invited to document in each small group conversation on template sheets, an action that connects their conversation to writing and drawing, enabling them to internalize and reflect on the information being shared.

Following the meeting, the hosting team reviewed the documents and the table hosts responded to identify underlying patterns that may shape future actions.