Creative Knowledge Economy

Champaign Transformation Project

COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION
ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET

ANALYSIS OF EXISTING INFORMATION
Develop data bases for the following categories if they do not exist. Compare existing information with the questions in each category

Educational Background
1. What is the average educational level of the community?
  If the level is below the national average, score 10; if the level is at the national average, score 20; if the average is above the national average, score 30; if the average is in the top 20% of the country, score 50.
2. How many students beyond high school ( college/community/tech )?
  If less than 25% go to beyond high school, score 10; if 25-40% go beyond high school, score 20; if 40-75% go beyond high school, score 30; if more than 75% go beyond high school, score 50.
3. Educational Interest Profile
  Develop an educational interest profile of leaders in your community. Find out what percentage are interested in liberal arts, how many are interested in science and technology, and how many are interested in professional knowledge.
  
  For those that mark professional knowledge only, score 10; for those that mark science and technology or liberal arts only, score 20; for those that mark both liberal arts and science and technology, score 30; for those that mark all three categories, score 50.
Technological Capacity
1. What % of offices and homes have broadband access to the Internet?
  If 5% or less, score 10; if 6-10%, score 20; if 11-15% score 30; if more than 25% score 50.
2. What private sector firms are involved with higher skills and advanced technology?
  If ten or less, score 10; if 11-20, score 20; if 21-40, score 30; if more than 50, score 50.
3. What role does education play to build technical skills in the local area?
  If there is no focus on building technical skills in the local high school(s) and community (tech) college, score 10; if there is a schools to work program, score 20; if trends are integrated into the curricula of both high schools and community college, score 30; if there is a virtual learning/future institute program in the community, score 50.
Leadership Development Programs
1. What existing leadership programs are available?
  If there are no leadership programs, score 10; if there is a basic leadership program, score 20; if there is a leadership program that adds transformational leadership ideas, score 30; if there is an effort to develop "process/transformational" leadership capacities through mentoring or parallel methods, score 50.
2. Are there "community research and development projects" in action?
  If there are no experimental efforts, score 10; if existing organizations have come together in cooperation, score 20; if more than three efforts exist in which new ideas are involved, score 30; if there are five or more "process projects" which are introducing new concepts, methods and techniques into the thinking and activities of the community, score 50.
Per Capita Income
1. What is the per capita income of the local area?
  If the per capita income is below the national average, score 10; if the per capita income is at the national average, score 20; if the per capita income is above the national average, score 30; if the per capita income is in the top 25%, score 50.
2. What is the growth of per capita income?
  If the growth of per capita income for the last decade is zero or below, score 10; if the growth of per capita income for the last decade is 0.1-2%, score 20; if the growth of per capita income is above the national average, score 30; if the growth of per capita income is in the top 25%, score 50.
Diversity of the Community
1. What is the ethnic diversity of the community?
  If the community is composed of more than 70% of any group, score 10; if the community has growth of any two ethnic groups of 10% or more over the last ten years, score 20; if the community has five or more ethnic groups with at least 10 percent of the population, score 30; if the community has no more than 30% of any one ethnic group, score 50.
2. What different worldviews are found in the community?
  If there are 50% or more of the people who are traditionalists, score 10; if there are at least 80% of the population surveyed who are combined traditionalists and modernists, score 20; if there are at least 15% of the population surveyed who are "cultural creatives," score 30; if there more than the national average of cultural creatives ( 26% ), score 50.
Existing Collaborative Efforts
1. How many people surveyed know the difference between competition, cooperation and collaboration and which do they choose as their mode of behavior?
  If 50% or more mark competition as their mode of choice, score 10; if less than 70% mark cooperation or collaboration, score 20; if more than 60% mark an understanding of collaboration, score 30; if more than 75% mark an understanding of definition of collaboration and more than 60% mark it as the dominate mode of behavior, score 50.
2. How many collaborative efforts presently exist?
  If there are no existing collaborative efforts, score 10; if there are 1-4 efforts, score 20; if there are more than 10, score 30; if 70% or more of all decisions are made with some form of collaboration, score 50.

INDIRECT ANALYSIS OF TYPES OF COMMUNITY
1. "We need to do something"
  1. Who are in control of your local community organizations?
    If men over fifty are in 75% or more of key organizational positions, score 10; if men are less than 50% of key community positions, score 20; if 80% of different demographic groups are represented, score 30; if there is a balance of demographics in key leadership positions, score 50.
  2. Are most community decisions made based on how it will impact jobs and the economy?
    If the business community is in total control of community decisions, score 10; if less than less than 60% of the community is satisfied with community decisions, score 20; if major community decisions are made by boards that reflect the diversity of the community, score 30; if the community has created a new mechanism to insure that all interested citizens are involved in building a consensus decision, score 50.
2. "Lets Work in Parallel Ways"
  1. Are key leaders aware of the need to deal with present issues at the same time that new "capacities" are integrated into the thinking and activities of the community?
    If 70% or more of leaders surveyed don't see the need to work on longer term capacities, score 10; if more than 50% of the leaders think old ways aren't working, score 20; if more than 60% of leaders surveyed want to recruit younger people for leadership, score 30; if 70% or more of the leaders show interest in the idea of "developing capacities for transformation," score 50.
  2. Are there many groups in the community that are involved with community planning?
    If there has been no longer range planning in the past three years, score 10; if there is an on going strategic planning process, score 20; if there is an effort to move beyond older strategic plans, score 30; if there is a collaborative effort among five or more key community organizations to build small "dialogue networks" of interested citizens across the community, score 50.
3. A 21st Century Community
  1. Is the community involved with building relationships and new ways of thinking about the future?
    If there is no new effort to help bring people together to talk about the future, score 10; if strategic planning involves diverse people to set specific outcomes and benchmark for accountability, score 20; if the local schools and community college are working in collaboration to introduce new job trends, score 30; if there are ten or more efforts to build small networks of diverse people to think about the impact of future trends, score 50.
  2. How do your community leaders respond to ideas that are not a part of their base of experience?
    If the normal reaction is to say "show me where it has worked," score 10; if no more than three organizations have initiated new projects to test out new concepts, score 20; if more than 50% of the major community organizations have new projects, score 30; if an organization has been created to introduce new ideas into the thinking of the community, score 50.
TRANSFORMATIONAL IDEAS, METHODS AND TECHNIQUES
1. Reading for Knowledge
  1. How many of the following books have you read:
    1. The Future and Its Enemies
    2. The Third Wave
    3. Birth of a Chaordic Age
    4. The Coming Plague
    5. Dialogue: And the Art of Thinking Together
    6. The Crisis of Capitalism
    7. Age Power
    8. The Community of the Future
    9. Bowling Alone
    10. Business at the Speed of Thought
    If you have read none, score 10; if you have read one or two, score 20; if you have read five or less, score 30; if you have read more than five, score 50
  2. Which of the following magazines do you read?
    1. Fast Company
    2. Business2.0
    3. American Demographics
    4. The Futurist
    5. Wired
    6. Atlantic Monthly
    7. Technology Digest
    8. Business Week
    If you read none, score 10; if you read one, score 20; if you read 2-3, score 30; if you read five or more, score 50.
2. Capacities for Transformation
  1. What are capacities for transformation?
    1. Electronic Infrastructure
    2. Understanding the impact of trends of the future
    3. Process/Transformational Leadership concepts, methods and techniques
    4. Helping each other succeed Ð 21st century concept of the common good
    5. Basic skills for the 21st century
    If you are involved with none of the above, score 10; if you are familiar with three or more but only involved in one, score 20; if you are involved with 2 and familiar with all the concepts, score 30; if you are familiar with all the concepts and involved with three or more, score 50
  2. Are you familiar with the following terms of transformation?
    1. Process leader
    2. Process projects
    3. Knowledge Democracy
    4. Knowledge Economy
    5. Transformational Learning
    6. Generative Dialogue
    7. Systems thinking
    8. Parallel Processes
    9. Futures context
    10. Webs and networks
    11. Collaborative individualism
    12. Ecological planning
    13. Self-organizing
    14. Transforming, not reforming
    15. Interdependence
    16. Living systems as model of society
    If you know three or less, score 10; if you know 4-8; score 20; if you know 9-11, score 30; if you know 12 or more, score 50.

Creative Knowledge Economy

Champaign Transformation Project

COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET

COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION
ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET