Here is the practical side of our work — the exercises, methods, and frameworks that help us listen better, design thoughtfully, and work more effectively. From listening practices to co-design techniques, these posts highlight the tools that support meaningful collaboration and reflection in community settings.
Listening at scale: How we used AI in a project about human interaction
Belong in Plymouth has always been about people — their voices, their ideas, and their connections to this city. Over three years, two powerful streams of work emerged. And when it came time to reflec...
By James Huggins.
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.