Kate Downing Khaled | Founder & CEO
Not many people know this about me, but I once carried a 120-pound, waterlogged canoe on my back for nine miles!
Years ago, I completed the Grand Portage to Lake Superior with a few friends, and let me tell you, hauling that canoe was not easy.
Even though it was tough, I found the strength to keep going because I had trained for this moment. I had gone on several canoe trips before this one, and my friends and I had gone over the terrain in great detail before heading out. I knew that this nine-mile stretch was coming. And more than anything else, I knew that I didn’t want to give up and disappoint my friends, who were counting on my support to collectively finish our journey.
My experience on the Grand Portage leaps to my mind whenever I’m supporting organizations and leaders to share power and increase participatory decision-making in their organization.
Participatory decision-making is a creative process that gives ownership of decisions to a community or a wide group of stakeholders, with the goal of making decisions that everyone can live with.
And it sounds great in theory! But in practice, it can be as difficult as carrying a waterlogged canoe.
If you want to start shifting norms and sharing power in your organization, it requires continuous practice. And just like any skill, you’ll have the best results if you start small, and commit to finishing what you started.
I always recommend a practice-based approach to participatory decision-making, because sharing power is always more scary, painful, and uncomfortable than we realize.
As leaders, we’re trained to carry an enormous amount of personal responsibility for fulfilling the mission and goals of our organization. That sense of responsibility is usually the reason we’re considered to be “leaders,” but it also means that relinquishing control can be extremely difficult.
And, good intentions aren’t enough to truly commit to sharing power. You can’t hear new ideas and then dismiss them as soon as the community leaves the room. Participatory decision making requires an unwavering commitment to actually apply community recommendations – even when no one is there to hold you accountable.
So just like I would never recommend the Grand Portage for your very first canoe trip, I would never recommend dramatically shifting all of your organization’s decision-making to be participatory, all at once.
That sets you up for failure and worse, sets you up to lose the trust of your community if you’re unable to commit to big promises. Think of your community as your fellow canoe trip companions. You can’t leave them behind as you make your way to the next shore.
Instead, start small with a pilot project when it comes to participatory decision making. It’s okay to paddle a small lake before you make your way to Lake Superior!
Start by making a list of all the places where decisions get made in your job or organization, including who makes those decisions. Narrow down that list to the 3 most impactful decisions that you will make this year. Choose the one that seems most feasible to execute with participatory decision-making, and invite the community to help you decide.
When the project is complete, evaluate success by reflecting on your organization’s ability to be flexible and agile throughout the process – not necessarily by evaluating the outcome of the decision itself. Remember, if the process felt challenging, you’re doing it right! Use what you learn to continue to bring participatory decision-making into more areas of your organization.
A great example of how to start small with participatory decision-making is the Giving Project Program run by one of our former clients, Headwaters Foundation for Justice. Each year, Headwaters coordinates a cross-class, multi-racial group of 20 folks that come together to make collective decisions about moving money to Black, Brown, and Indigenous-led organizations that focus on systems change.
Since the Giving Project launched in 2015, Headwaters has expanded this collective approach, and now relies on people from the community to participate in all of its grantmaking programs. Even seven years later, I’m willing to bet that their team is still experimenting, practicing, and learning how to better include the community in their work.
Participatory decision-making is a process…and unlike a canoe trip, there’s no final destination that will let you know you’ve arrived.
But I promise, eventually the journey will feel easier. And most importantly, you won’t be alone. You and your community will be transforming your system, together.
