The Essential Guide to doing Transition

Guides

PDF Document

Working in Community

Global

Transition is an ongoing social experiment, a movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world through a process of creating healthy human culture. It’s a movement you can join. It is inspirational, positive, evolving,and if you’ve made it here, it may well be just what you’re looking for. Whether you’re excited by visiting a Transition initiative,have a particular project in mind,or have been inspired by seeing a flm such as Demain or In Transition 2.0 and have decided it’s time to do something (you’re right), this Beginner’s Guide is here to help. So let’s start with the obvious frst question…

Download pdf file

Contents The Essential Guide to Doing Transition is a comprehensive resource designed to help communities initiate and develop Transition initiatives.…

The Essential Guide to Doing Transition is a comprehensive resource designed to help communities initiate and develop Transition initiatives. Drawing from over a decade of experience supporting Transition in 50 countries, this guide offers an overview of the Transition movement and outlines processes and activities to make it successful.
transitionnetwork.org

Key Features of the Guide:

Seven Essential Ingredients: The guide introduces seven essential ingredients crucial for embedding Transition within a community:
Healthy Groups: Emphasizes the importance of groups learning to work well together.
Vision: Encourages imagining the future the community wants to co-create.
Community Involvement: Stresses developing relationships beyond friends and natural allies to embed Transition in the community.
Networks and Partnerships: Highlights the value of collaborating with others in the community to realize Transition.
Practical Projects: Focuses on developing inspirational projects that change the community and build Transition.
Part of a Movement: Encourages connecting with, learning from, and inspiring other Transitioners.
Reflect and Celebrate: Advocates for reflecting on achievements and celebrating the difference made.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save;they just stand there shining.
Anne Lamott

Why this Beginner’s Guide?

We now have more than 10 years' experience of supporting groups bringing Transition to life in over 50 countries, in towns, cities, villages, institutions. We have a pretty clear idea now of what works and what doesn't, and we want to share that with you so you can be as efective as possible as quickly as possible.

We have created a lot of resources to support groups doing and being,Transition. In this Beginner’s Guide we will signpost you to everything you will need as you begin the journey to doing some extraordinary things where you live. Think of this as your Transition Starter Pack.

Take it, run with it, do amazing things.

Some Numbers

This Guide is based on 10 years experience of making Transition happen in 1,400 communities in 50 countries and contains:

64 pages

1 Transition Healthcheck

7 Essential Ingredients of doing Transition successfully

3 ‘Keepers’ every meeting should have

1 ‘Magic Number’

7 Ingredients for ensuring diversity in your group

11 Tips for Good Celebrations

5 Stages of Group Life

37 ideas for practical projects you could initiate

Welcome to Transition!

Transition is an ongoing social experiment, a movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world through a process of creating healthy human culture. It's a movement you can join. It is inspirational, positive, evolving,and if you've made it here, it may well be just what you're looking for. Whether you're excited by visiting a Transition initiative,have a particular project in mind,or have been inspired by seeing a flm such as Demain or In Transition 2.0 and have decided it's time to do something (you're right), this Beginner’s Guide is here to help. So let's start with the obvious frst question...

Above: Transition Town Tooting's 'Foodival' is an annual festival reimagining what local food means in an urban context.

What is Transition?

Transition is a movement that has been growing since 2005. It is about communities stepping up to address the big challenges they face by starting local. By coming together, they are able to create solutions together. They seek to nurture a caring culture, one focused on connection with self, others and nature. They are reclaiming the economy, sparking entrepreneurship, reimagining work, reskilling themselves and weaving webs of connection and support. Courageous conversations are being had; extraordinary change is unfolding.

We'll tell you some of their stories as we go through. It's an approach that has spread now to over 50 countries, in thousands of groups: in towns, villages, cities, universities, schools.One of the key ways it spreads is through telling inspiring stories. We really hope you feel inspired to take part, we'd be honoured if you did.

Why?

People get involved with Transition for all sorts of reasons:

• To get to know their neighbours

• To feel that they are making a diference in the world, both now, and for future generations

• To overcome the sense of disconnection they feel from self, others and from the nature around them

because the world's huge challenges feel more manageable if addressed at the local scale

• To catalyse all manner of new projects,enterprises and investment opportunities

• To learn new skills

• To feel like they are creating a more life enhancing story for their place

• To feel connected to other people, the natural world, and to something historic and exciting happening around them

• Because they feel it is "the right thing to do"

• Because they feel disenfranchised by politics and want to be able to take back a sense that they can infuence the world around them

Principles

Here are some principles which guide what we do:

We respect resource limits and create resilience: the urgent need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, greatly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and make wise use of precious resources is at the forefront of everything we do.

We promote inclusivity and social justice: the most disadvantaged and powerless people in our societies are likely to be worst afected by rising fuel and food prices, resource shortages and extreme weather events. We want to increase the chances of all groups in society to live well, healthily and with sustainable livelihoods.

We adopt subsidiarity: self-organisation and decision making at the appropriate level. The intention of the Transition model is not to centralise or control decision making, but rather to work with everyone so that it is practiced at the most appropriate, practical and empowering level

We pay attention to balance: in responding to urgent, global challenges, individuals and groups can end up feeling stressed, closed or driven rather than open, connected and creative. We create space for refection,celebration and rest to balance the times when we’re busily getting things done. We explore diferent ways of working which engage our heads, hands and hearts and enable us to develop collaborative and trusting relationships.

We are part of an experimental, learning network: Transition is a real-life, real-time global social experiment. Being part of a network means we can create change more quickly and more efectively, drawing on each other’s experiences and insights. We want to acknowledge and learn from failure as well as success - if we’re going to be bold and fnd new ways of living and working, we won’t always get it right frst time. We will be open about our processes and will actively seek and respond positively to feedback.

We freely share ideas and power: Transition is a grassroots movement, where ideas can be taken up rapidly, widely and efectively because each community takes ownership of the process themselves. Transition looks diferent in diferent places and we want to encourage rather than unhelpfully constrain that diversity.

We collaborate and look for synergies: the Transition approach is to work together as a community, unleashing our collective genius to have a greater impact together than we can as individuals. We will look for opportunities to build creative and powerful partnerships across and beyond the Transition movement and develop a collaborative culture, fnding links between projects, creating open decision-making processes and designing events and activities that help people make connections.

We foster positive visioning and creativity:our primary focus is not on being against things, but on developing and promoting positive possibilities. We believe in using creative ways to engage and involve people,encouraging them to imagine the future they want to inhabit. The generation of new stories is central to this visioning work, as is having fun and celebrating success.

Head, Heart and Hands

Doing Transition successfully is about fnding a balance between these:

The Head: we act on the basis of the best information and evidence available and apply our collective intelligence to fnd better ways of living.

The Heart: we work with compassion, valuing and paying attention to the emotional,psychological, relational and social aspects of the work we do.

The Hands: we turn our vision and ideas into a tangible reality, initiating practical projects and starting to build a new, healthy economy in the place we live.

So, let’s get started shall we?

1. Healthy Groups

Learning how to work well together

People often look at the great projects that come out of Transition: community energy projects; local currencies; ambitious food projects and so on, and they assume they happen by magic. But central to any project being successful is a healthy group. Creating healthy groups is something we aren't taught in school, or in most work settings. It requires a set of skills and tools that we may well not have. So over the last 10 years we have created various resources that will support you to co-create a group culture based on the trusting, caring and compassionate relationships needed to make decisions efectively, run nourishing and successful meetings and events, avoid burnout, navigate confict healthily and maintain members in the longer term.

Crystal Palace Transition Town members who formed Crystal Palace Food Market: “We want the children to grow up thinking this is normal”. Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.

Creating healthy groups is something we aren't taught in school, or in most work settings.It requires a set of skills and tools that we may well not have. So we have created a number of resources about healthy groups that will give you a clear understanding of how groups develop,the ability to make decisions, the ability to run successful meetings, keep people in your group,document what you're doing and manage confict.

“When we get together, it’s like everyone is feeding everyone else.There’s this atmosphere of ‘I tell you… you tell me’. Everyone listens, then someone comes up with another idea. It’s like collective excitement, collective inspiration, collective knowledge, coming together for the proft of the group. You can feel the thrill.”

Emiliano Muñoz, Portillo en Transición, Spain.

Food is a time-honoured way of creating a good group culture. At the Transition in Action Youth Exchange in Hungary, Italian participant, Andrea, shares his pizza-making skills with the rest of the group. Photo: Hajnal Fekete

Transition Network Resources

You can fnd our guides to creating and maintaining healthy groups,making decisions and our Inner Transition activities for meetings at https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/starting-transition/7essential-ingredients/healthy-groups/

The Stages of Group Life

In 1965, Bruce Tuckman suggested there are 4 stages of group development:Forming; Storming; Norming; Performing. To his list we add a ffth, Mourning.They should help you make sense of what you see happening in your group,at whichever stage it may be.

Forming

At this stage everything feels wonderful. The air is rich with possibility, everyone is getting along great. We think our group is fantastic. We might look at other groups and wonder why they seem to struggle so much! But the reason it’s working like this is that we haven’t yet agreed our group culture, and are managing to avoid diferences and disagreements. During this stage, it is important that your group:

• Take time to really meet and listen to each other.Create a shared sense of purpose

• Get to know each other better. How is each person under stress, what do they care about, how good are they are sharing their thoughts and emotions?

• Agree structures that will help the group work well

Create group agreements,particularly around decision-making.

• Recognise that rather than just leaping into doing stuf, giving attention to this stuf is just as, if not more, important.

Storming

After a while you might fnd tensions arising, arguments happening, people who have taken on roles of responsibility being challenged. Things can feel contentious, uncomfortable and upsetting, especially to people who don’t like confict. But this is a key stage, and if your group can get through it, it will be much stronger and more resilient as a result.

What’s happening is that you have reached a stage where there is enough trust in the group for people to feel able to challenge and disagree with each other. Groups often fail at this stage, but it is essential, it is your group working out how to operate.Several things can help get you through this stage:

• Good listening

• A neutral facilitator

• Repeating back: “what I heard you say is…”

• Patience

• Shared purpose

During this stage, some people may leave, and that’s OK. This tends to be when the need for processes and structures is most keenly felt.

Norming

In this stage, agreements are reached about how you’re going to work together, roles are defned, structures agreed upon, procedures for meetings. Relationships have deepened to a level very diferent from the Forming stage. In this stage,all group members move towards sharing the responsibility and commitment to work for the success of the group’s goals.Things that help this stage go well include:

• Honouring people who leave: this may not work for everyone. If people choose to step out,

fnd a suitable way to honour everything they have brought to the group

• It’s happening: a sense that the group is coming together, is able to work well: it feels like being part of something exciting.

Performing Mourning Thoughts

This is when you fnd It may be that projects your In the life of a group it is rare yourselves feeling that you group initiates will fail, that that its evolution happens in are being efective and people leave the group, or the sequence set out here.getting things done easily. even that the whole group Often they happen alongside That feels good! You’ll fnd stops for one reason or each other. Your Norming your group competent and another. It’s important to could be accompanied by a lot motivated, with each person mark these endings of Storming, for instance!clear as to their role and task. appropriately.There is good communication and people work well together.

If one or more people leave, that when new people join,You should also be mindful mark the occasion: share a there will be a new Forming The group is good at making who’s joined without losing meal; give a gift, a card. stage to include the views of decisions together, and can If the group is ending, have the valuable work which has hold people accountable for a shared event to celebrate gone before.their tasks. all that you have achieved.Diferences and the loss and sadness people of these stages at: https://Make space to talk about You can read a fuller account disagreements are seen as might be feeling, and to transitionnetwork.org/part of a healthy group appreciate what it is that resources/groups-develop culture. Achievements are you have enjoyed about infosheet/regularly celebrated, and working with each other.space is made for refection as to where the group might like to go in the future.

You may need to agree a way to pass on any assets the group may be left with.

A Transition Berkeley Pot Luck.Photo: Transition Berkeley.

Your first meeting

Your frst meeting is really important. It will set the tone, and the culture, of how your group will work together. The aim is to get your group of to a good start, agreeing what you’re all here to do,fnding out about each other, establishing how you will work together, becoming friends. Some groups try to get on with doing things really fast, but often come unstuck later so let these early stages take a bit of time. This will give you a solid foundation to build on.

There are a few things you’ll need to do in advance of the meeting:

• Invite those who are going to attend: give some thought to who should be there, and, so far as it’s possible, try to get as much of your community’s diversity in the room as you can

• Choose a venue: somewhere comfortable, that doesn’t exclude anyone (whether through accessibility, religious or cultural reasons, or inaccessibility for those dependent on public transport)

• Appoint a facilitator: it’s important to get into the habit of having a facilitator.This role can rotate, but for the frst meeting, make sure someone knows they will be taking the role

One of the keys to good meetings is to open and close them successfully. So here are some ideas for your frst meeting, as well as some suggestions for how to open and close them well.

Opening: Start with a check-in.

Start your meeting with a go-round where everyone speaks, uninterrupted, for a couple of minutes. They should introduce themselves, talk about how they are,what’s happening in their life. You could also ask everyone, once they’ve done that,to refect briefy on something they are grateful for at the moment or something they love about living in this place. Starting in this way sets the culture that we meet as friends who care about each other rather than as colleagues with an agenda to speed through. It really makes a diference.

It can also be useful to appoint 3 ‘Keepers’:

A Keeper of the Time: whose role is to keep the meeting to time, to allocate times to diferent items and to make sure everything fnishes on time

A Keeper of the Record: who keeps a record of the meeting, whether as minutes, a mindmap, or in whatever format the group feels would be useful

A Keeper of the Heart: whose role is to pay attention to the group’s energy and dynamics, to point out when any intervention might be needed due to low energy levels, underlying tensions or other issues that might emerge and afect the smooth running of the group

The body of the meeting:

You could do all sorts of things during the meeting itself:

• Get to know each other, fnd out more about why each person is here and their hopes for the Transition group

• Develop a shared understanding of Transition

• Decide what area you want your Initiative to cover

• Find out what skills people have and other groups they may be linked to

• Understand each other’s ways of dealing with stress: see our activity at https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/become-stress-busting-experts-inner transition-activity/

• If you have a programme of events planned, involve people in helping with these –it’s good to do some things together to fnd out how you work as a team

• Actively develop the group, its relationships, understanding and ways of working

Take time to get to know each other. It is the relationships that you form that are a key part of what is going to keep you going through the rough patches, when there are disagreement and things maybe aren’t going very well.

Our activity sheet 'Inner Transition activities for meetings' has some great practical exercises for bringing depth and energy to your meetings you can fnd it here:https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/inner-transition-activities-meetings/

Closing: Make time to refect on the meeting

It is good to get into the habit of making time at the end of your meeting to refect on how it went and what worked, as well as what didn’t work? What could be done better next time?Without it, there is no way to pick up if people are feeling excluded, frustrated or confused.It also creates a space to thank those whose good work made the meeting go well (see ‘Stages of Group Life’ above).

You might also need:

Tea, biscuits/cake, fipchart paper and pens, a laptop for taking notes, some way of keeping time.

2. Vision

Imagining the future you want to co-create

One of the key challenges with creating a low carbon, more resilient future is imagining what that might be like. Vibrant, diverse, delicious, connected and nurturing, or eating mouldy potatoes in a damp cave? Transition groups are great at helping people create visions of the future they'd like to see and then start taking steps towards it.

Transition Laguna Beach's vision of a low-carbon future. They're going to get some terrible salt spray damage on those aubergines. Image: Transition Laguna Beach.

Having a shared vision can help provide a real focus for your group and helps communicate to others what you are doing and why. It can also inspire local people and other groups to get involved and help make that vision a reality. Possibly most importantly, it encourages people to think of new possibilities for their future, which can be really empowering.

One of the simplest tools for visioning is just to invite people to close their eyes and imagine themselves walking down the street in 2030 and stopping to look around. Ask them what they can see or hear. Invite them to record their impressions through drawing, painting, or writing poetry, stories, or perhaps small ad columns from a future local newspaper. Much of what we read in the popular press is based on confict, so creative exercises that, for example, invite people to write newspaper articles from the future, can work really well for some people.

“I was deeply disturbed and sad about the state of the natural world and society. Getting involved with Transition Pasadena has meant going from despair to community and being able to follow a passion and get help with it. It changed my relationship to the problems”.- Laurel Beck. Transition Pasadena, US.

A 'gallery' of crowd-sourced visions of the future: Transition Network conference 2010,at Seale Hayne, Newton Abbot, Devon, UK. Image: Mike Grenville.

Transition Network Resources

You'll fnd our guides for ‘Visioning a post-Transition future’ and ‘'Producing a Timeline' here: https://transitionnetwork.org/do transition/starting-transition/7-essential-ingredients/vision/Open space events are also a great way to generate visions you can fnd the guide for running them here: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/run-open-space-events-guide/

What's your vision of the future?

Here are some ideas to get you started...

Urban Agriculture

In a Transition world, food will be grown closer to home, organically, in intensive systems that enhance biodiversity, and we’ll all have the skills to do it. It will change the way our towns and cities look and feel.

Celebration

Vital to this being successful is ensuring as many opportunities for celebration as possible. This process should after all, as Richard Heinberg put it, “feel more like a party than a protest march”.

Food Belt

The land adjoining our towns, villages and cities will be reconnected to feeding that place, creating more jobs, and reconnecting people with how, where,and by whom their food is grown.

Community Energy

Energy generation, where possible, will be in community ownership. This brings many benefts to local economies, creates jobs and decentralises power (in both meanings of the term).

Productive Trees

In the future, why would we plant ornamental, unproductive trees, when we could plant fruit or nut trees?Let’s reimagine our towns and cities as food forests.

Transition Network ofers From Burnout to Balance workshops to support the co-creation of new culture based on collective and self-care, fnd out more here:https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/training/trainings/burnout-balance-re-building-resilient communities/

From Burnout to Balance

Transition groups are learning how to co-create a new culture based on collective and self-care and which recognises our own health and wellbeing as essential to truly helpful engagement in Transition. Some groups have mentoring schemes, where professional counsellors and therapists support those at the heart of Transition, minimising the risk of burnout.

Participatory Democracy

Decisions are made in a far more decentralised, engaged,bottom-up way, with the role of government being to support what communities are deciding.

Cycling

Many Transition groups promote sustainable transport, learning bike repair skills,supporting new cyclists to gain Local economyconfdence.

We can reimagine our local economies to serve the many, not the few: incubating new enterprises and valuing the local.

3. Involvement

Inviting your community to get involved in Transition

Through the work of thousands of Transition groups, we are learning loads about how to involve our wider community in Transition. We have learned that it is primarily about learning to develop relationships beyond just our friends and natural allies - and that this takes time and patience. Rather than asking how can we engage people in Transition, we need to start by asking: how can we make Transition relevant to everyone in our community? We need to ask and listen to what people's respective needs are - especially those who are most marginalised, both economically and socially.

Doing this well can really help to raise awareness about Transition, and help people to understand the issues that Transition addresses. It also helps people to see that they can actually make a change in their community, and it can inspire new people to get involved.

Cardif Transition's public picnic was a great way to invite the public to meet the project and to get involved. Photo: Cardif Transition.

Community involvement is absolutely crucial to the success of Transition in your community.As more people come into the project, you will help them form their own self-sustaining projects,or theme groups that work with a particular focus such as Food, Energy, Communication or Wellbeing.

“It’s more than a garden, it’s a place in the neighbourhood where we can stay and have a few words with the neighbours, people you normally pass by. We are seeing all diferent people talking to each other, all ages, from children to old people. It’s a social meeting point”.

Sébastien Mathieu, 1000 Bruxelles en Transition.

Transition Haslemere's 'Sustainable Harvest Picnic': Photo: Transition Haslemere.

Transition Network Resources

You can download all our resources for community involvement including the ‘Big List’ exercise ( a very simple way to identify people and groups in your community who could help you deliver Transition), our ‘Planning and Putting On Events’ guide (which will come in very helpful), the 'How to get and keep people involved in Transition' guide and our 'Events and fun things to do' infosheet here: https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/starting transition/7-essential-ingredients/community-involvement/

Working to ensure our

Transition groups are as

diverse and inclusive as

possible isn’t easy, but it’s vital that we do it.

Here, taken from our Transition guide, 7 Ingredients for a just, fair and inclusive Transition, are those ingredients:

Listening

When we really listen, we are able to fnd common ground and start from where people are at. Real listening is about being prepared to be changed by what we hear.

Meeting everyday needs

An important question for Transition groups working with marginalised communities is how can people even begin to think about building resilience against the future impacts of peak oil and climate change if their fundamental needs are not being met in the here and now? What are our fundamental needs? Although our wants and desires may vary, we all ultimately hold the same basic needs in common. According to the Development Specialist, Manfred Max-Neef,there are nine basic, fundamental needs:subsistence, protection, afection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity,freedom. These are very useful to bear in mind when planning Transition projects.

Deepening inclusion

There are many ways to place inclusion at the heart of your Transition group: making sure your meetings are not in venues that exclude some people, not presented in ways that exclude people and are physically accessible to all. Individually, people can be very committed to ideas around diversity and inclusion but as a whole, they can form a culture that feels exclusive to others. All too often, this culture is drawn from, and refective of, the culture that is dominant in society. Those that are excluded by it are therefore also the people who tend to have less power or privilege in society at large.

Building bridges

How can Transition succeed in building resilience if it doesn’t build friendship and trust across all “barriers”? Think about who needs to be part of what you’re doing, and go and see them - don’t expect them to come to you. ‘Hard to reach’ is only hard to reach if we don’t try to reach out and fnd out how to make Transition relevant to everyone.

Celebration

Diversity opens the door to celebrating the diferent ways we have of expressing the things that we hold in common. Celebration enables people to comfortably move out of their comfort zone. Celebration enables people to revel in life and creative expression.Make sure you weave celebration through all that you do.

Exploring rank and privilege

As Process Worker Arnold Mindell says, “Any power, good or bad, if not recognised, can become oppressive and harmful”. We need to make a concerted efort to understand our relationship with power and privilege to enable us to use this to co-create a more caring, just, equitable and life-enhancing world - in solidarity with those who our current culture most marginalises.

Embedding diversity

If we are to build a truly inclusive and equitable Transition, perhaps the most important ingredient we need to take away is that of threading a commitment to diversity and social justice through everything we do.Our ‘7 Ingredients’ guide ofers a wealth of advice on this.

You can download our guide 7 Ingredients for a just, fair and inclusive Transition here:https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/7ingredients-just-fair-inclusive-transition inner-transition-guide/

Left: Transition Town Tooting's 'Tour de Tooting' began with a question: "Once upon a time in a town called Tooting, there was big windmill whose sails had not turned for a very long time. A group of children got together and wondered - if they took to the streets asking everyone to create energy from their whistles,clicks, thumbs up, high fives and smiles - could the 25get the sails to turn again?" Photo: Luke Harris.

Networks & partnerships

Collaborating with others

Collaboration is vital to building Transition in your community. The skilful building of partnerships and collaborations will enable you to reach much further and achieve much more. It will enable you to:

• Avoid duplicating each other's work

• Meet new people

• Develop new opportunities, ideas and solutions

• Scale your work up to efectively address the gravity of challenges we currently face

• Develop joined up strategic approaches to co-creating innovative,cross-cutting, impactful and long-lasting solutions

The Aardehuis ecovillage project in the Netherlands is a great example of a Transition initiative working in a symbiotic way with a project that was already underway in the local community.Photo: Vereniging Aardehuis

One option is to build a network of groups that support each other locally, another is to work in partnership with groups on shared projects. Transition is about the art of fnding, and building,common ground, and this is particularly true in this context.

“One thing we have is the ‘Power to Convene’. Somebody comes and has a great idea, such as 'I really want to start a bicycle taxi business', and young people who are graduates of a local bike mechanic programme say 'we know how to take care of bikes, we’d like to start a business'.So we pulled together a community event, and got 70 people there who were interested, and we got a whole bunch of new stakeholders and allies, and now they have a working group and are working on setting up that business. I think we just keep doing that in every area where there is both a problem and people who want to do something about it.We can get a crowd together, help identify resources and spark them”.

Chuck Collins: Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition, Boston, US.

5 ways you can work in partnership

Sharing information: share information with your network about other things happening locally, and invite them to do the same with your events. This helps avoid clashes in terms of events, and opens up new possibilities for collaboration,and avoids any sense that you are trying to “take over”. [Commitment level: low]
Asking good questions: this is a great way to build support and relationships, and shows you are open to the views of others. [Commitment level: low]
Deciding together: fnd efective ways to maximise meaningful engagement in decision-making around key projects from local stakeholders. [Commitment level:medium]
Harnessing ‘the Power to Convene’: inviting your supporters to invest time, money or energy in local projects, A Local Entrepreneur Forum is a great example of this.[Commitment level: medium]
Delivering projects together: this kind of partnership working can be great, and can generate some great creative challenges. Our guide to ‘How to create partnerships’ has lots of advice on this. [Commitment level: high]

Transition Network resources

Read all our guides for creating Networks and Partnerships here: https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/starting-transition/7-essential ingredients/networks-and-partnerships/ You could also do our Big List activity, which ofers a simple way of identifying people and groups in your community who could help you to deliver Transition you read more here:https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/big-list-activity/

Build a network

Most of us are naturally part of networks, be it our family, friends or community. Networks empower people as the health of the whole community depends on the health of the community as a whole, so the more you can work together and support each other the more you strengthen and nourish each other. Building networks is about building mutual friendships and support for your project and the work of others.

They help build Transition in your community by raising awareness of what you are doing and building a network of support that can bring all kinds of surprises, such as:

• More opportunities may come your way when developing projects

• You may fnd that you already have a relationship with potential partners

• May fnd you start to get help and support from your community just when you need it

• You unleash the collective gifts and genius of parts of your community you weren't even aware of

Building networks is all about supporting each other

Strong efective networks develop when people support and trust each other, the following are some of the ways that you can do this:

• Organize an event where local resources can be promoted and shared

• Support & publicise other groups' projects and events on your web site and newsletter etc...

• Ask a local group or agency to host a web site listing all the brilliant and dedicated local groups and projects working for a more caring and life-enhancing world

• Ask local groups and a diverse range of respected leaders to be Advisors to your Transition group

Who to network with and ways to build your network

The Big List Exercise here: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/big-list-activity/ is a great exercise to really think about all the potential groups or individuals in your community who may support your work. This might help you to decide some of the groups and people it could be useful to develop networks and partnerships with.

Building networks is all about developing relationships, so it is always great to meet people in person if possible. It really helps if you do it a bit of research on the group/person you are meeting beforehand so that you can:

• Learn a bit about the group, for example what their aims are, what needs they are addressing and how long the group has been going for

• Think about what it is that you like about their group

• Consider how you will introduce yourself and your group

• Think of some of the ways that you can support their group

• Think about mutual benefts of being in contact with each other

• Prepare some good open questions that help you to better understand how Transition might be relevant to them and the needs and challenges they are facing

Remember Transition is about collaboration not competition, so if groups already exist in your community who are doing Transition-type activities, then think about how you can support each other by working collaboratively. It is also very important that people don’t feel that you are trying to take over their group. When interacting with people always be thinking about collaboration, ask for their advice on what you want to do, ofer them opportunities to get involved and so on.

Example of a frst meeting outline

• Honour the past accomplishments & ongoing work of a group before telling them about Transition, and most importantly, ask questions that will help you to better understand their needs and challenges - and how Transition could be relevant to them

• Learn about their mission, goals, programs

• Find out who they reach, or seek to reach, in the community?

• Share information about some of the challenges that Transition is attempting to address such as rising energy costs and the economic impacts on the community

• Ask them how the Transition movement could support their organisation’s work in the community?

• Ask them for support, what would they like to give to support the community’s transition? (e.g. help connect to other groups and leaders, places to meet, copying,events, etc.)

Building long term relationships:

As Transition is about a whole community process then it is very important to maintain your networks, stay in contact with groups and support each other wherever possible.Here are a few ways you can do this:

• When planning events or projects always think about other groups that you could get involved, especially those who include the more marginalised members of your community

• Support an existing project, such as helping a community orchard out during harvesting time

• Promote other groups' events and work at your events

• Invite other groups to your social events

• Consult with groups when planning new projects

Transition needs to have strong networks to be really efective at the necessary levels of scale, so take time to build up those relationships as you never know where they might lead. We are indebted and deeply grateful to Tina Clarke for this activity.

Practical projects

Inspiring others with what you do

The success of the Transition movement rests on us making tangible changes in the world. For some of us this means stepping out of our comfort zone and moving beyond ideas and meetings to taking tangible action. There is real power in stepping across into action, into making tangible changes to the place where you live. There is no prescriptive list of projects you should do,rather these will emerge from your group, its interests and its passions. You will, however, fnd a list of suggestions for ideas of small practical projects you can run as Transition overleaf and here: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/small-practical-projects-initiating-group-infosheet/ As time goes on, these projects will become increasingly ambitious and impactful.

Members of 1000bxl en Transition in Brussels building the raised beds for their ‘Potager Alhambra’ food garden in the centre of the city’s red light district. See more about their work and other projects in the video to the right. Photo: Jan Leerman.

"It's amazing. I've been living in Portalegre forever, 37 years, and I have felt my community and my city crumble, people turning their backs on each other. The community garden we created tells me it is possible to do things with other people. It is possible, we just need to wake up to each other again".

Sònia Tavares, Portalegre em Transição, Portugal.

Practical projects provide lots of diferent ways for people to get involved in Transition, as well as acting as really important demonstrations and public manifestations of Transition in action.

Ultimately, they can be what leads to the creation of new enterprises in your community, and of new livelihoods and employment and training opportunities. One of them might even morph into your new career! They are also vital because they show that not only is change possible, but that it is already happening.

https://vimeo.com/143176993

Transition Network Resources

You can download our guide to ‘Developing Practical Projects’, which is packed with insight and good ideas for ensuring your projects have the best chance of success here: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/developing practical-projects-guide/

It may be that running Open Space events is a great way of generating ideas and enthusiasm for your Practical Projects, see the guide here:

https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/run-open-space-events-guide/

Doing stuff

You could start a bakery, or...

Photo credits for the following pages:

Right:

Sylvia Holmes, New Forest National Park Authority, Don Hall, Rob Hopkins, Coin en Transicion, Luke Harris , Annie Leymaire, Fiona Ward, Karolina Walicka, Transition Bro Gwaun, Paul Shepherd, Tish Rickard.

Over, page 34:

Michele Vander Syp, Julian Andrews/Eye R8 Productions Ltd, Cristiano Bottone, Maud Dan, Jonathan Goldberg, Rob Hopkins,Kazuhiro Hakamada, Karen Whitelaw, Chris Rowland, Leamington Spa Courier, Ann Carranza, Loughborough Echo.

Over, page 35:

Jonathan Goldberg, Alfredo Càliz, Transition Town Totnes, Jonathan Goldberg, Mike Thomas, Paul Mackay, Jonathan Goldberg,Jonathan Goldberg, Romania in Tranzitie, Transition Usk, Transition Network.

Create a Surplus Food Cafe Run a community Open Space Help a school to grow food

Fishguard, UK Fujino, Japan Newent, UK

Anywhere!

Part of a movement

Linking up with other Transitioners

Transition is happening in over 50 countries around the world. So once you start an initiative, you become part of that huge learning network of people sharing their insights, learnings and wisdom. Make the most of it! Becoming more connected to what's happening around the world helps you to do several things:

• Share what you have learnt

• Find out if your country has a national 'Hub' organisation and make contact with them

• Save time by learning from what others are doing

• Support each other

• Make new friends

• Deepen your understanding of what Transition is about

• You will feel you are not alone. Many small actions add up to something bigger

Whether it's webinars, TransitionNetwork.org, our conferences, networks of regional Transition groups or connecting through social media, becoming more connected to the wider movement,according to our experience, really helps Transition groups to do better. You may also fnd that there are regional networks of Transition groups where you live who can give you support and advice.

And don't feel you can only share your successes. Sharing your challenges and hurdles, and your refections on why things didn't work, is just as useful. There's a movement out there, make the most of it!

“When we get together, it’s like everyone is feeding everyone else. There’s this atmosphere of ‘I tell you… you tell me’. Everyone listens, then someone comes up with another idea. It’s like collective excitement, collective inspiration, collective knowledge, coming together for the proft of the group. You can feel the thrill.” - Emiliano Muñoz, Portillo en Transición, Spain.

“Transition provides me with the knowledge and contacts I need for the uncertain future ahead”.

Russ Carrington.

Read our guide to Making the most of being part of the

Transition movement here: https://transitionnetwork.org/

Why does it matter to be part of an international network of Transition initiatives?

We asked people

attending the

Transition Hubs

Gathering in

Copenhagen (2014):

"It’s so remarkable to speak with people from 20countries, the perspectives,the genuineness, it’s been really moving".

Carolyn, US

"I made a lot of new friends internationally and I had a chance to really explore how I can connect more to the international part of Transition. Also it's been really enriching to experience how things get cooked and prepared on this scale. And also it's been really funny, this is inside information, it's been really fun and I loved it".

Andre, Romania

things we have to do"

"Things can seem so fuzzy when you’ve been working all day long with Transition in a group process, it can get a bit complicated, you don’t always see exactly a clear focus. To talk with all the people here and get feedback from people who are doing such similar jobs,that really helps to see more clarity and also to feel confdence that you are going in the right direction".- Lynn, Netherlands

Lynn, Netherlands

"It really has become a family including all the people who have not been here before, so even the people who are within the national network for the frst time feel very included right from the beginning, if we can keep this spirit and this kind of meetings then globally Transition is going to be wonderful".

Gerd, Germany

"It’s been great because of all the diversity of the gathering,sharing stories and the friendship, the interconnection, the heart and soul and the brain also for dealing with our own realities back home and it's been a very friendly environment so thanks for the invitation".

Raúl, Mexico

"We feel like we are not alone here. We feel that this change is possible and it’s already happening, so I am very happy".

Juan, Spain

"The last few days have had

lots of creativity and

inspiration and I think I’ve got

lots of energy for the coming

Ana, Spain

Every revolution needs its banners: the role of creativity in Transition

An extract from a blog post by Rob Hopkins

Every movement, every coming together of people to bring about positive change, needs its fags, its icons. Transition is no exception.When you are doing Transition in your community, always invite in creativity, design and the arts. One manifestation of Transition’s ‘let it go where it wants to go’ spirit is in the huge diversity of logos groups create for themselves.

One of the greatest icons of the Transition movement is the Brixton Pound £10 note. The one featuring David Bowie. Notice how you had already heard of it and, most likely, could already visualise it. In the event that you didn't, here it is, among its fellow notes.It's bright, it's simple, it's colourful. I have taken it to many places. What has often amazed me is how its reputation has gone ahead of it so that, on at least 4 occasions, just my holding it up during a talk has generated a round of applause. When I went to Paris recently and visited a project run by Le Pre Saint Gervais en Transition, we were visited by the local Mayor Gérard Cosme.

Did he want to have his photo taken with the group of people there? With me? Not really.The key thing he wanted was a photo of himself with the Brixton Pound £10 note, "the one with David Bowie on" (see photo below).

It starts conversations. It embodies the sense that a Transition future could be more fun than the alternative futures currently on ofer.It embodies possibility. It is delightful.Why would anyone want to settle for the dull money currently on ofer, when we could have bright funky money with David Bowie on?No, seriously... why would you?

And if you won't settle for that, why settle for anything else? It opens the possibility of actually refusing to accept the planet-trashing,attention span wrecking, community atomising, wealth-concentrating nonsense that makes up so much of what we accept in modern society.

My point is that we need more things in our life that we care about. Personally speaking, I care more about a Totnes £21 note than I care about a £20 note. The things Transition does,whether urban gardening, new food markets,Transition Streets groups, are all about creating things that people care about.

The remarkable 'Transition Town Anywhere'activity Lucy and others facilitated at the Transition Network conference in 2009, where 350 people built a living, working High Street economy from string and cardboard left me caring far more deeply about my own High Street than I had before. And art and design have a vital role to play in that.

Every revolution needs its icons, its tokens,which embody much more than appears at frst glance. But it's about more than art and design. It's about what those things can act as a gateway to. I always loved Jean DuBufet's quote:

"Art does not lie down on the bed that is made for it; it runs away as soon as one says its name; it loves to go incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what it is called".

For me, the moments when Transition most touches and inspires me are the moments when it "forgets what it is called", when it comes up with unexpected and delightful approaches. A £10 note with David Bowie on is a perfect example of that. So is$^ { 1 1 } a$ shop with nothing for sale but lots on ofer".

So is a project to plant fruit trees that is also an art project with oral histories, tours, poetry,maps and storytelling. So weave creativity through your Transition project, allow it to be beautiful, challenging, inclusive. And share the stories of what you do with the wider movement.

Refect & celebrate

Acknowledging the diference you're making

Refecting on how your group is doing and celebrating what you’ve achieved is an essential part of Transition. It’s important to create space to assess what you have done and explore how well you work together as a group.

Discussing and addressing issues early, can help you avoid burnout and respond in a healthy way to confict. And, if you take time to understand the impact your activities are having in the world then you know if you are moving towards the vision you have developed for your community.Remember appreciation is usually a good place to start!

Make sure you stop and celebrate what you have achieved. Otherwise, you can forget all the great stuf you have done and it’s also a good excuse to get together and have a party.

“Food is really, really important. In a slightly personal way, I bake biscuits for the council meetings that I chair. And it’s really interesting how that broke down a whole formality, just by starting a meeting with tea and cofee and biscuits that come from a recipe that my mum made. It makes the whole thing more human and acceptable, and that’s exactly the kind of thing that Transition groups are doing all the time”.

Peter Macfadyen, former Mayor of Frome and founder of Transition Frome.

Transition Brixton's amazing 'Unleashing Cake'. Photo: Amelia Gregory.

The invitation: Make sure your invitation is clear, that people know it will be fun, what's happening, what's 2. Food and Drink: It's a celebration, and celebrations need being celebrated. Invite people refreshment. Feast well. Celebrate your local food culture. personally. This is celebration after all!

A capturing of what's being celebrated:Give form to what you've done and achieved, and what's being celebrated. Create a timeline, a display 4. Look Forward: This celebration is not the of photos, a flm of your story so far. Celebrate the end of the whole thing, merely a pausing point.small things as much as the bigger things. Where might the group go next? Find fun and engaging ways to capture people's ideas for where to go next.

No graphs!: By all means have someone along to give a 8. Document It!: Have someone there to take photos, or video, or to talk, but keep it upbeat and document the event in some way or other. You'll be glad subsequently positive. Tell stories, make it that you did. Getting all those people together in one place won't happen funny. Keep the energy up. It's again in the same way. a celebration, remember!

How to do good celebration

Lessons from Transition Town Lewes' 'Seven Year Itch' Transition Party

Keep it changing: At the Transition Lewes event there was a choir, a couple of talks, some poetry, a rafe, more singing, bagpipes, dancing, the opportunity to interact with Transition Town Lewes projects,mention of the campaign for a community take-over of the site we were on, food, drink. Keep it changing.

Dancing. A good celebration really benefts 7. A sense of context: Invite other local from the opportunity to have a good dance. The organisations you've interacted with to have stalls,perfect way to wrap up a good celebration.

whatever they like. Celebrate the web of connections and relationships you've created and the sum total of what you have produced between yourselves.

Critical Mass: A really good celebration needs a good turnout. Try to make sure you have a good crowd in.

In Depth: How to start Transition

The aim of this Beginner’s Guide is to get you up and running doing Transition, and to point you to the online resources you’ll need in order to do that most successfully. We'll tell you more below, but for now, we just need to make an important point.

One of the things that we have learned from doing Transition is to distinguish between the kind of group you will now be forming, –either an Initiating Group or a Core Group – and the kind of group that your Transition initiative will end up being.

Our Transition Launch training is one of the best foundations for starting Transition. Find out more here: https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/training/trainings/transition-launch training/

Getting Transition started in a community needs a group who can commit time and energy and have a range of skills and experience. It doesn't happen by magic! This group will carry out the frst stage of the Transition process and we call them the Initiating Group. It would be ideal if everyone involved in this process read this guide and then meet to come up with a plan on how to start Transition.

A Core Group

The Core Group comes a bit later, built on the foundations laid by the Initiating Group. It may contain none, some or all of the same people. The Core Group is the group that in general catalyses all those great projects you associate with Transition. But it stands on the shoulders of what the Initiating Group did. We’ll tell you more about that in the next section.

Above: Core group meeting. Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.

Initiating Groups

Some key things to think about

People.

We can't do this on our own. There certainly are lots of things we can do on our own,cutting energy use, eating more seasonal food and so on, and all that stuf really matters. But doing Transition needs more people than just us. You might already know some others who might get involved. They might be friends,colleagues at work or University. They might be members of a diferent group you are already part of. If you don't already know them, here are a few suggestions for how you might fnd people:

• Contact friends, like-minded people or groups that are already doing similar things

• Publicise it through your networks and social media channels

• Put on a flm, talk or other event and invite people to join, fnd out how here: https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/starting-transition/7-essential-ingredients/community-involvement/

• Talk about Transition on your local radio station

• Go along to groups with similar aims and start to make connections

We were once contacted by a woman in Australia who bemoaned the fact that no-one else in her town would be interested in Transition, that she was the only person who cared about that kind of thing.

A month later she rang us back, her despondency replaced with elation. She had put an ad in her local paper, and had received over 120 replies, and thus her Transition group was born.

The Magic Number? 1? 12? Or somewhere in the middle?

As we said before, if your group consists only of you, it is defnitely too small. So how big is too big, and how small is too small? From our experience, the ideal group size is between 5and 8. 12 is probably too many. Although it may sound obvious, it is important that those people are interested in Transition, interested enough to, perhaps, read this Essential Guide,or some of the other literature about Transition. Even better, they might have done a Transition Training, or perhaps visited an existing Transition initiative.

Who?

Starting Transition successfully needs many diferent kinds of people. Here’s a list of skills or qualities that we have found to be really helpful. If you’re a small group looking for some more members it is useful to go through this list, fnd out what skills you already have.Then see if you can bring in what’s missing either by inviting other people, or getting people trained up. Don't let this list put you of as people can develop skills needed and you can always ask people for specifc help.

• Skills in organising: managing projects,getting a group to work well, coordinating diferent people’s activities, working with volunteers

"Are you sure?" we asked her.

Questions we hear a lot:

How can we put on events that are appealing and relevant to our community?

Some people will be interested in broad global issues like climate change or energy supplies.Many more are interested in local issues – health and well being, feeling connected in their neighbourhood, house prices, or unemployment. Making Transition issues relevant to local concerns is a real skill. How can you celebrate local history through stories from older people?Or create local food celebrations, healthy outdoor activities, projects which connect neighbours and allow people to feel safe in the own homes and streets?

On Earth day 2015, Transition Granja Viana in Brazil spent the day with the kids from the local OCA Cultural School, learning about climate change, collecting waste around the school, ending with a lantern walk. Photo: Isabela Maria Gomez de Menezes

• People skills: being friendly and welcoming, working with diferent outlooks, culture and worldviews,knowing how to work well with diferences and confict

• Skills in running efective, enjoyable meetings: setting up and running meetings,and developing how the group works

• Designing and running good events: public speaking, booking rooms, showing DVDs,running Open Space, facilitating discussions

• Experience of networking: with existing organisations and people

• Publicity skills: contacting press, designing posters and fyers, writing blogs and using social media

• Managing information: email lists,bulletins, phone lists

• Designing and maintaining websites

• Connections with and knowledge of local community groups

• Knowledge of local history and local issues

As well as gathering together the right skills,it’s also helpful to fnd people who are:

• Able to dedicate some of their time: and it’s OK to be specifc about this (half a day a week? a day per month?)

• Fun: they know how to make this kind of work enjoyable

• Reliable: they do what they say they’ll do

• On the same page: they share some understanding of the reasons why Transition is needed, and what it is

• Caring: are realistic about what a group of volunteers can do, and pay attention to well being

• Inclusive: they're good at including others,so one or two don’t dominate the group or its decisions - an awareness of issues around power, privilege and rank and how this impacts on both our groups and more widely

You may well not have all these skills from the beginning, but you can actively seek out new people who might bring them. Remember too that support is available through Transition Training, this Essential Guide and our 7essential ingredients.

Putting on great events

Engaging widely with your community will require putting on events that are inspiring,thought-provoking and which provide as many opportunities for interaction as possible.

Transition groups learned pretty early on that putting on a bleak flm is not a very efective way of inspiring and motivating people to get involved. We can do better than that.

Transition groups around the world have put on countless events, so here are a few of their tips for how to put on great ones.

Maximising the opportunities for people to meet each other is really important. Start every event by inviting people to turn to their neighbour and say their name, where they’ve come from and why they’re here. Listen to the energy in the room buzz! We have also heard of several relationships that formed as a result of two people meeting in this way, and even of one baby!

If you’re showing a flm or giving a talk give people a chance to talk in a small group – 3 or 4 maximum – afterwards, maybe before you invite questions. See our tips for hosting good events for more details here: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/planning putting-events-guide/

Have clear pathways for people to get involved, for example:

• Always take emails or contact details at events – and ask if people are willing to help out

• Have someone designated to talk to people who might be interested in getting more involved, a “welcome” person or “volunteer coordinator”

• Look out for people who might be a little shy or under-confdent and ask them to help with specifc tasks or events

• Find ways that people can contribute their time without coming to all the meetings –have a list of people willing to help with events or projects

• Have an online list of “help wanted”, or publish this in your bulletins or newsletters

There are a few things you need to nail down quite early on.

Transition Where?

Getting the scale right is important for a Transition initiative. Towns of a few thousand to tens of thousands seem to work well.Within a city it’s usually good to work within a neighbourhood, though some have worked with a whole city of several hundred thousand.In rural areas you might have an Initiative that covers one or several villages.

Your decision will be based on what feels manageable, and where you feel you can have an impact. It's good to consider what is the recognisable identity of the place you live, is it a neighbourhood, a city, a district? On the whole we recommend starting smaller and letting things grow – and inspire your neighbours!

Transition Brasilandia. Photo: Boa Mistura.

Questions we hear a lot:

I live in a village in a rural area. Surely I can’t do Transition here?

Where people are spread out often many villages combine to create a Transition Initiative. If there’s a town with an initiative near you they may also provide some groups and meetings that you can work alongside.

Working with others

In the same way that we can't do Transition on our own, your Transition initiative will struggle to do what it wants to without networking with other groups.

For example, in the early days of Transition Town Totnes, a lot of energy was put into networking with other groups and co presenting events and so on. See our 'How to create partnerships' guide here: https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/create partnerships-guide/

Start networking

This is a good point to register as an initiative with Transition Network, a very simple process.You should also sign up for the Transition Network newsletter by registering as an individual so you can keep up with news and developments. You could also fnd out which other initiatives exist near you, and make contact with them, or with your regional network if one exists. All of this can be done here: https://transitionnetwork.org

Luxembourg. Photo: Carole Reckinger.

Up and running

Transition Kensal to Kilburn’s ‘Unthinkable Drinkable’ urban winemaking project celebrates its frst taste of the fnal product. Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.

Congratulations! Your Transition group is now up and running. That feels good doesn't it? By now you probably fnd yourselves making connections with organisations, groups and individuals who are largely supportive, fnding ways to put on events together and promote each other’s work, and building the Transition Initiating Group to become efective at working together.

You might also take time to do some training or a workshop together – learning about efective meetings, exploring “The Work that Reconnects” (the work of Joanna Macy),attending a Transition:Launch training (this is also available on-line). As you engage more people you’ll be building a contact list, maybe setting up a website or social media site such as a Facebook page, keeping people informed about what’s happening and much more.

There are some questions that often come up in this phase: see the FAQs here:http://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/starting-transition/how-to-start/ for some answers to things like

• Should the group be open or closed?

• When should we seek funding?

• How should we structure ourselves?

In the Healthy groups ingredient here:https://transitionnetwork.org/do-transition/starting-transition/7-essential-ingredients/healthy-groups/ you will fnd information on how to run efective meetings, how a group develops, how to get and keep people involved in your Transition initiative and how to make decisions, but there are some other things to think about as the Initiating Group:

• Initiating Group meetings may be more relaxed than big public meetings, but you should still take them seriously and make sure that you decide on actions and agree who will carry them out

• It is very important to decide as a group how you are going to make decisions,as you will need to make lots of them

• Make sure to have fun as the Initiating Group, celebrate successes, value each person’s contribution, and have a social side to your group as well as doing stuf together! This might be the most important thing of all to do

6.Part of a movement

Scaling up your impacts by linking up with Transitioners elsewhere