The following journal entries were either written by Matt Bell or were generated by AI trained on all the team communication over the project's duration. Any AI generated posts are clearly marked with a disclaimer.
Behind the Scenes: Money, Transparency, and What I Learnt About Finance in Belong in Plymouth
Whoever controls the money, however it is held and distributed, inevitably has one of the most significant influences on how work progresses. Of all the moving parts in Belong in Plymouth, managing t...
By Matt Bell.
Starting conditions - summary
We developed an operational model built on four key starting conditions: open communications, self-employed contracts, fixed pay rates, and open finance. These approaches created flexibility and trans...
By Matt Bell.
Starting conditions - open communications
We established openness as the default communication principle rather than keeping information closed. This transparency was implemented through groups.io as the primary platform, though it wasn't wit...
By Matt Bell.
Starting conditions - self employment/sub contractors
The self-employed contract model at Belong in Plymouth created a distinctive structure where most contributors worked approximately one day per week. This approach brought numerous benefits that ulti...
By Matt Bell.
Starting conditions - fixed pay rates
We implemented a straightforward compensation system with standard rates: £40 per hour for delivering work and £20 per hour for attending meetings. While this dual-rate structure created clarity in pr...
By Matt Bell.
Starting conditions - open finance
Financial transparency was a journey of continuous improvement at Belong in Plymouth. Initially, the system was in constant flux, making it difficult for team members to follow. This challenge was com...
By Matt Bell.
Three-Way Sharing
This is a structured technique for deep listening and collaborative insight gathering. It involves three roles
By Matt Bell.
Ball of Wool Exercise
An interactive activity used within a circle to visually demonstrate and solidify collective connections and contributions. As people offer ideas or contributions to a shared goal (e.g., planning a ce...
By Matt Bell.
Storytelling
A foundational approach used across various aspects of the work to create connection, provide context and meaning, and articulate vision. It was central to the Community Researchers' method of gatheri...
By Matt Bell.
Multi-agency workshops
Events designed to bring together diverse participants from various sectors and roles (e.g., psychologists, GPs, city council, healthcare professionals, artists, service users, local residents, young ...
By Matt Bell.
Cover Story Mock-up
An engaging activity designed to transform ideas into concrete, inspiring proposals by having groups imagine their successful solution as a front-page newspaper story. Participants articulate their pr...
By Matt Bell.
Open Collective, Airtable and Xero
A combination of digital tools used to manage the financial aspects of the programme with a commitment to radical transparency and accountability. Airtable was used for displaying overall numbers and ...
By Matt Bell.
How Might We (HMW) Statements
A solution-oriented framework used to reframe problems as actionable challenges. Instead of simply stating a problem (e.g., "People have poor mental well-being"), an HMW statement transforms it into a...
By Matt Bell.
Community Researchers / Conversations
A grassroots approach to gathering authentic stories of lived experiences by training community members to be "good listeners". These researchers are trained to have conversations (not interviews) wit...
By Matt Bell.
Kumu
A digital tool used for visualizing and mapping complex relationships, specifically employed to represent the "Map of Belonging" by connecting factors extracted from community conversations. It allows...
By Matt Bell.
Gratitude practices
A simple yet powerful technique to counter negative assumptions and untended "wounds" that can "spoil" relationships and perspectives. Consistently practicing gratitude is suggested as a solution to e...
By Matt Bell.
Collaboration cards
Over the course of our 3 years we developed a set of Collaboration Cards to go alongside the Collaboration Handbook. These are available on request (for a small fee for the printed cards) or can be ac...
By Matt Bell.
Round Robin Exercise
A co-design activity aimed at sparking imagination and developing ideas together, particularly from people who might be less inclined to speak out spontaneously. It ensures that everyone has an opport...
By Matt Bell.
Map of Belonging
A visual representation of interconnected themes and factors influencing community connection and place-based well-being, derived from numerous community conversations. These factors are defined as pa...
By Matt Bell.
People's Assemblies
Designed as unifying bodies to bring diverse community voices together, enabling everyone to feel heard, exercise democratic muscles, and feel more powerful. They are based on radical inclusivity, act...
By Matt Bell.
Conversation Processing Workshops
Collaborative sessions designed to convert raw conversation fragments into measurable "factors" related to social isolation and loneliness, which are then mapped onto the "Map of Belonging". Participa...
By Matt Bell.
Policies and procedures
Essential elements that provide clarity and certainty within an emergent and uncertain working environment. The sources suggest that how things are done – such as submitting and signing off proposals,...
By Matt Bell.
Theatrical Performances
A creative outreach method used to engage communities, particularly in low-trust environments where traditional methods like leaflets fall flat. Performance pieces (e.g., an "escape room" themed aroun...
By Matt Bell.
Insight Clustering / Sense-Making
The process of moving from individual story fragments to collective understanding by organizing insights into broader thematic headings. After gathering rich individual insights, groups collectively d...
By Matt Bell.
Levels of Listening
A framework for understanding and consciously choosing where to place attention during listening, aiming to create empathy, learning, and reflective understanding. It distinguishes three levels
By Matt Bell.
Collaboration handbook
Our thinking behind collaboration can be found here
By Matt Bell.
Modelling vulnerability
A practice of being real, exposed, and authentic in interactions, including sharing oneself and integrating personal reflection, to build deeper connections and foster psychological safety. This is pa...
By Matt Bell.
Money pot
A method of allocating funds directly to specific groups of people rather than to rigid line items, to foster ownership and allow the group to decide on the deployment of resources for the benefit of ...
By Matt Bell.
Asset-based community development and community organising
An approach that focuses on recognizing and building on the existing strengths, passions, and inherent assets within a community rather than solely on identifying problems. It empowers local people to...
By Matt Bell.
Personal Invitations
The art of crafting a welcome that resonates, disarms, and inspires action, especially in communities with a history of mistrust. The most effective invitations come from another human being, deliver...
By Matt Bell.
Check-ins
Regular sessions, typically held in full group gatherings, where participants share reflections and collaboratively discover patterns and approaches that best serve their diverse community. These rhyt...
By Matt Bell.
Groups.io
The primary digital platform for communication within the Belong in Plymouth programme. It was used to implement a principle of open communication, ensuring that everyone had access to the same inform...
By Matt Bell.
Embodied Connection/Activity
A transformative practice that helps people create meaning and drive action by fostering a deeper, more personal connection to insights, moving beyond purely intellectual engagement. This involves al...
By Matt Bell.
The Circle (for meetings/gatherings)
A deliberate seating arrangement where everyone is equally visible and heard, without a head or a foot, fostering connection, trust, and deeper relationships. This practice became a cornerstone for f...
By Matt Bell.
Design briefs
Concise, actionable declarations (often stemming from "How Might We" statements and clustered insights) that transform a broad area of interest into a specific, tangible challenge or opportunity that ...
By Matt Bell.
Map of Belonging cards
A deck of cards created from community conversations, each featuring a distilled insight on one side and a fragment of the original transcript on the other, directly connected to the factors and theme...
By Matt Bell.
Relational ways of working
Building Trust, Connection, and Authentic Relationships As time is given to the understanding of the context and in the building of relationships, this starts to push us into a way of working that is...
By Matt Bell.
Expression of Interest - March 2020
Please tell us why you are applying. What does the partnership want to achieve and why, and over what period of time? Why do you think you can be successful? In Plymouth, our aspiration is to ‘shift ...
By Matt Bell.
Stage 1 submission - September 2020
Please describe specifically which groups or communities your partnership seeks to benefit and how you will involve them in developing a plan over the first 6-9 months. How will your approach promote ...
By Matt Bell.
The areas we can be certain about
There is a long legacy of work that the Healthy Communities Together programme builds on. This written and embodied knowledge and experience is held in all of us. We know it as individuals, as colleag...
By Matt Bell.
Stage 2 submission - October 2021
In 4 years time, success looks like: An established, ongoing community conversation continually feeding into strategic decision-making. Quality support for immediate community action, which is furth...
By Matt Bell.
Collaboration - A Summary
Collaboration: "a process through which parties who see different aspects of a problem can constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their own limited vision of ...
By Matt Bell.
Moving away from command and control
When working in collaboration, there is no command or control. The normal organisational structure is lacking. Each organisation and each individual is a sovereign body in their own right. Working on ...
By Matt Bell.
Give patience and time
A long-term commitment is needed because that is the length of time that people and relationships work over. It takes time to physically reach people and to make contact. It takes time to gradually sh...
By Matt Bell.
Managing roles in uncertainty
The work to be done is mind-bendingly interconnected. We are highly interconnected as a society. To get to work, we rely on the world’s people and resources to get there before we have even started th...
By Matt Bell.
Systems and practices
The technical work has followed the interpersonal simply because the available technical tools and standard practices are designed for another context (as described above). As we have discovered, rela...
By Matt Bell.
Humility and curiosity
This has a number of different aspects to it. First, at a very human level, if members of a collaboration make assumptions that, because of an area of expertise or worse, positional power, they need t...
By Matt Bell.
Belong in Plymouth @ Matters of the HeART
On May 18th, Belong in Plymouth hosted an event at Ocean Studios to emphasize the importance of listening. The event aimed to make participants feel heard, regardless of their roles or labels, and to ...
By Matt Bell.