Documentary & Policy Final

How Documentary Can Help Craft Policy and Advance Social Change Everyday, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) works with policy makers, community leaders, and change agents dedicated to improving – even reinventing – the systems and services that help people, firms, and communities thrive. Together, we find ways to create new opportunities for working, learning, and engaging communities in building prosperous futures. We’ve been there to hear the “ah ha” moments that turn skeptics into champions. We’ve witnessed large groups of people move from making demands to offering contributions. And we know the hard work it takes to make even the most elegant, data-‐rich, and universally supported plans and strategies come to life. But these victories do not lend themselves to simple narrative description. While we have long been eager to share our experiences and lessons with colleagues, peers, and partner organizations, our traditional reports simply did not convey the richness of our experience in community interactions leading to change. So we began experimenting with video. Early Experiments Mid Michigan Innovation Team. In early 2007, with the support of a federal grant, education, economic development, and workforce partners from 13 counties launched an effort to reimagine and reinvent their region. Partners focused on aligning strategies and investments across five industry sectors in ways that also supported entrepreneurship and sustainability. It was a tall order for this largely rural region with no large metropolitan center, no shared identity, and little precedent for working together on such a comprehensive agenda. CSW supported the Mid Michigan effort in a variety of ways – including embedding a “Documentarian” (Melodee Hagensen) in the region to capture stories and lessons from the initiative as they emerged. Over time, we captured hundreds of hours of video. We interviewed initiative leaders, board members, project leads, students, teachers, even “people-‐on-‐the-‐street” (at farmers markets and in parks and other public venues). Almost immediately, the value of this approach became evident. First, video combined the perspectives people from across the 13-‐counties into a single narrative helped leaders from across the region focus on what their communities shared, rather than how and why they were different from one another. Second, it provided a reference point for conversations and ideas – partners could ask each other how their plans would help address the concerns of the region’s residents as expressed on video. Third, the simple act of recording partners forced them to think deeply about how they, personally, were invested in change and why – it shifted their attention away from CSW 900 Victors Way, Suite 350, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 734.769.2950 skilledwork.org startgrowtransform.org

“compliance with the terms of the grant” and helped them see new opportunities to leverage resources for community benefit. Over time, we built a library that tells many stories – how this community thinks about collaboration, the meaning and impact of its automotive heritage and capacity for the industries of the future, its commitment to a home-‐grown, yet globally-‐competitive innovation and entrepreneurship culture. We can now draw content for many different purposes from this library, sharing or contributing it in ways that enhance shared understanding and advance common aims. Building a Documentary Practice We have since built documentary work (video and otherwise) into many projects in a variety of ways. Enhancing Communications: Innovation Frontier Arizona. In Southern Arizona, community leaders launched a regional initiative to nurture talent, entrepreneurship, and collaboration for economic growth, and asked CSW to assist in communications and community engagement. Early on, we recognized that the formal interventions were necessary but not sufficient to accomplish the bold goals of the project. Informal activities were needed to grow entrepreneurial culture and encourage collaboration. We embedded a local documentarian and social media expert to raise awareness of these efforts by sharing video and creating communications platforms to support collaborative work. In projects where we embed documentarians, partners can request that we cut a brief video from our library to help illustrate any topic. Sharing this video across media platforms helps us create a more whole story.  Integrating video helps spice up presentations at meetings and conferences to keep audiences engaged and build support.  Adding video to an electronic newsletter increases the number of readers who open and click through to view the material, improving the chance that partners stay updated and involved in the project.  A shared video channel allows new participants to be quickly brought up to speed and “meet” the other members.  Inviting participants to share their videos helps build a shared sense of community and involvement in change efforts. Designing Events, Supporting Communities of Practice. We employ video as a method for engagement in events or websites we help to design, plan, or staff. For example, we partner with the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Sector Strategies Partnerships to build and maintain www.sectorstrategies.org which houses a toolkit for workforce practitioners who are working to advance sector strategies in their states. By adding video interviews with leaders from 11 states, we were able to mak the toolkit more personal, bringing connecting information seekers with experienced practitioners sharing their insight. Promoting Innovation and Experimentation. In Mid Michigan, where we are working with regional leaders in education to support a budding entrepreneurial culture, we have used YouTube competitions to reach out to students in the region to understand the work that they are doing to create new enterprise. We also used video to share the stories of how colleges and universities can be drivers of entrepreneurship in the region. Documentary, Policy, and Social Change 2

Building Capacity. We are not “videographers.” We help build the capacity of our peers and partners to understand and use video – and not just as a broadcast mechanism but a vehicle for engagement, learning, understanding. We work with our partners to identify documentarians in their communities who can work with them –on their budgets. We may manage student interns or professional documentarians, helping them identify and capture important storylines as they develop. Other times, we have introduced leaders to simple tools for creating their own videos, by using simple tools to capture exciting experiences in their work. Our partner organization in Mid Michigan, the Prima Civitas Foundation, now regularly integrates video into overall communications and engagement efforts. Increasing Transparency. We continue to experiment with new ways to visualize policymaking, systems alignment, and social change work, making it accessible, and ultimately, more effective. We call this “working out loud.” Lessons and Learnings While how we use video depends on the nature of specific projects and the goals we seek to accomplish, we have identified some general purpose lessons we try to incorporate into all of our work.  Consider specific fit and application of video. Video is fun. Having a camera can make everything look like a potential video. But video is at once a medium, a method, and a product: polished video takes time to produce and makes people proud, but unedited interviews can also meet the need. Thinking about the specific ways in which video will be used and in what form can help insure that the process and product meet stated goals, affordably.  Integrate planning for shooting, editing, and producing video up front – at the beginning of a project. When we first started integrating video into our work, we did so tentatively – capturing the formal side of events, and then wishing afterward that we’d also captured the informal side. There were also times we were asked to shoot video at a culminating project event, but had no footage from the project’s launch to compare or integrate. Over time, we’ve become more disciplined about treating video work in the same way we treat data collection, policy analysis, facilitation planning, or any other product or service.  Encourage others to shoot video and share it. Often, partners are already creating video, or can become excited by the possibilities when introduced to simple tools and technologies that help them share their piece of the story. Creating a space for sharing video allows us to reveal where others are already carrying our message and to encourage their support and connectivity more deeply.  Announce your intentions and carry necessary permissions. People are comfortable at events where documentarians are filming and interviewing when they know why the filming is happening and how it will be used. When introducing an event, share this information with the audience and invite them to get involved in the interviews and let them know how they can use your video after the event as well. Get the blessing of community members before you begin filming. Carrying image release forms allow you to formally recognize this permission whenever an opportunity to film arises. Documentary, Policy, and Social Change 3

 Have fun – and don’t let the technology get in the way. The very act of creating video is a shared experience. Try to be part of it even if you are holding the camera – the craft of video is more about understanding than using the technology so let the camera be a bridge and not a barrier. Conclusion Video has helped us to be better listeners, more inclusive community engagers, and better learners about the change processes of which we are a part. As producers of video, we have become more aware of how stories are shaped and told, the language that diverse stakeholders use to communicate, inspire, and take action, and the impact that this powerful medium can generate. As we continue integrate this visual and auditory medium into our work, we expect it will become the norm rather than the exception in the ever-‐more more transparent, networked, and socially-‐mediated world of public policy 2.0. Where to find us: (People) Kristin Wolff: kwolff@skilledwork.org (@kristinwolff) Melodee Hagensen: mhagensen@skilledwork.org (@melodeekay) (Websites, blogs) www.skilledwork.org www.startgrowtransform.org www.ifawired.org/ www.wetoo.org/ (Video) www.youtube.com/user/Co4Skilled vimeo.com/user343070 (Twitter) @skilledwork_org @wetoo Documentary, Policy, and Social Change 4

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Documentary & Policy Final

by kristin wolff

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