Fostering a culture of inquiry and the creation of systems for performance measurement, community learning and adaptation.

When we admit that our communities are very complex systems and that none of us really know the most effective way for achieving our collective well-being, we open ourselves to a new approach to planning and action. Plans, strategies and actions are seen as opportunities not only to make progress toward our goals, but also to learn, adjust and improve future choices and actions. We focus on community outcomes and develop measurement systems that we use either formally or informally to judge the desirability and effectiveness of our actions. “Such a system is capable . . . of improving itself in ways we could not predict, but which are more effective than what the most sophisticated analysts could create. Such self-improvement and adaptation however requires feedback – various kinds of information – to flow among the players who make the city what it is.”[i]

As with organizations, successful communities do more than simply establish indicators, data warehouses, and performance monitoring and evaluation systems; they create a “culture of inquiry” that encourages self-evaluation and sharing lessons – both positive and negative – among all community members. This learning, adjustment, and improvement occurs as people take action, collectively reflect upon how those actions impact desired outcomes, discuss and modify their understanding of how the system works, and then identify modifications to future actions that are more likely to create the positive impacts they are seeking to achieve. Learning and reflection occurs throughout the community – and not just as a “special planning project” or as the responsibility of one agency. “Good or bad, learning communities share the results of projects, actions, and events.” iii

iii Moore and Brooks, p. 12

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