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RESET Communities Collective
RESET Communities Collective
... scaling the learnings of Campus for Communities & Associates
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OUR GUIDING VALUES AND PRINCIPLES 


This document summarizes the Values and Principles that serve as a North Star for guiding our work with communities, partners, and systems. 

Ultimately, it is about change and the direction we are moving toward together, knowing that every place will start from a different reality, with various constraints, opportunities, and histories. Additionally, leadership, organizational, and community capacity will differ.

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Our VALUES

From the grassroots to global levels, values are shifting toward recognizing the critical role of interconnected systems. As a result, early signals suggest that cross-sector and systemic collaboration are emerging as a priority. Organizations, businesses, governments, and community members are beginning to embrace systems innovation and impact as an effective path to sustainable, equitable solutions for the most pressing local and global challenges. 

We recognize that not all of our values are entirely in place in every context. The intent is that they will guide how we design our work, support partners, and make trade-offs when difficult choices arise.


Our work embraces these values:

  • Well-being: advancing social, environmental, cultural, and economic well-being for people and place.

  • Inclusion: ensuring everyone feels valued and has genuine opportunities to participate in shaping their community, fostering a sense of belonging.

  • Respect for diversity: honouring all cultures, backgrounds, and local knowledge as being essential for informed, impactful decisions.

  • Asset-based mindset:viewing communities as "half full" rather than "half empty", focusing on existing leadership, organizational, and community strengths, relationships, and resources. 

  • Self-determination: supporting communities to lead their own change, at a pace and in ways that make sense locally.

  • ​Sustainability:balancing quality of life with economic development, not only for short-term gain, but long-term as well.

  • Collaboration and trust: investing in trusted relationships that are the foundation for collaboration and change.

  • Equitable shared ownership: Moving incrementally toward fairer sharing of resources, assets, and decision-making power among participants.

  • Willingness to embrace the messy:
    The solutions for today's complex issues and opportunities are rarely linear. The resulting initial lack of clarity often means beginning without having all the answers, listening and learning from one another, and embracing organic growth to achieve transformative change. 


Guiding PRINCIPLES for delivering our values and how they shape our COACHING Work

These principles describe how we aim to live our values in practice, fostering shared understanding and continuous learning as we approach our work.

 

We honour the following  Principles  as being core to our coaching work with communities: 

How these Principles shape our COACHING work:


Trusted Relationships: 

Trusted relationships are vital for the partnerships and collaborations that lead to sustainable solutions. We recognize the importance of investing time and patience, especially where there is a history of top-down approaches and/or little emphasis on cross-sector collaboration.

  • Early stages of work must focus on spending deliberate time to build or rebuild trust by listening and creating shared understanding (often through stories)

  • Co-defining values, principles, vision, and priorities before moving into action.​



Diversity Drives More Innovative Solutions and Impact: 

The more diverse the mix, the more inspiring the solutions. Differing perspectives across social, cultural, environmental, and economic perspectives lead to more innovative, inclusive, and ultimately more transformative and practical solutions. 


  • Transformative innovation is typically the result of systems collaboration across sectors, rather than coming from one individual, organization, business,  or silo. 

  • Getting to this "we" vs. "me" thinking requires designing and supporting processes that intentionally bring together people who rarely sit at the same table (government, social purpose groups, businesses, and community members).

  • Reducing barriers to participation will be prioritized.​

  • Coaching and support will be essential for local leaders to serve as neutral system catalysts, ensuring that diverse voices and lived experiences, ideas, and assets contribute to integrating the best of both top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Community-Driven Development: 

We prioritize initiatives led by the people most affected, emphasizing local leadership to address multiple determinants of community well-being and their interconnectedness.

  • Support residents, social purpose organizations, businesses, and governments in seeing their communities as interconnected ecosystems rather than a set of isolated projects or issues.

  • When necessary, provide the scaffolding that will allow communities to act faster and more creatively than formal systems often allow.

  • Share promising practices and processes that reflect communities collectively defining priorities, co-creating solutions, and sharing in decision-making.

Global-Local Alignment: 

We connect local action to global frameworks, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so that social, environmental, cultural, and economic goals reinforce one another. 

  • Use the SDGs and similar frameworks as a shared language with funders, governments, and partners to show how local work contributes to bigger goals.

  • Begin with a modest 'quick success' initiative. Add complexity only as local capacity, trusted partnerships, and impact grow.

  • Support local efforts as a coordinated global movement, ensuring relevance, scalability, and measurable impact. 

Systems-Catalyst Leadership for Complexity: 

We support the capacity of community leaders  (with or without a formal title) to lead and adapt in complex, multi-dimensional environments. 

  • Co-create a learning ecosystem that accelerates innovation and breakthrough thinking.

  • Support leaders with or without a formal title.

  • Fully deliver the potential of revenue-generating, accessible  Systems-Catalyst Leadership as an emerging discipline (with the option of it being a micro-credential) based on established competencies. 

  • Recognition that many systems shifts happen outside formal programs ensures a variety of strategies for developing the systems-catalyst leadership competencies required, e.g., informal learning, hands-on experience, peer-to-peer networking and knowledge exchange, a variety of mediums, etc. 

  • Share insights, tools, and promising practices developed in one community across networks.

Balanced Impact-Driven Outcomes:

We balance economic outcomes with positive social, environmental, and cultural impact.

  • Support or incubate enterprises and businesses that benefit communities and individuals, i.e. co-operatives, employee-owned businesses, and contribute to: 

  • equitable economies and fair wealth distribution

  • enhanced innovation and productivity

  • increased trust and goodwill

  • environmentally responsible practices

  • strengthened local economies

  • reduction of poverty and inequality

  • greater resilience in times of crisis

  • long-term sustainability rather than traditional short-term profits, especially when aligned with the UN SDGs

  • contribute to social justice by aligning business strategies with social equity initiatives to create a fairer world.

  • Help partners surface tensions among financial, social, cultural, and environmental goals 

  • Ensure transparent and honest communication.


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R.E.S.E.T. Communities Collective increases responsiveness to complex challenges and opportunities by collaborating with multiple partners to provide a variety of support and services that enhance social, economic, and environmental well-being.

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Individual and organizational future-readiness is supported increasing capacity for (1) community and stakeholder-led development, (2) systems-practices,  (3) strategic foresight, and (4) digital optimization. We've learned these four components are necessary for the project and systems collaboration and informed decision-making we have experienced as being essential for transformative change and innovation.



Innovative approaches require being bold, perseverance, tenacity and a sprinkle of panic. 

-- Michelle Baldwin

Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike: the view changes once you start walking. You don't need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get started.   

--James Clear

Leadership today is about courage. Courage to realize our challenges are complex and no one individual, organization, or sector can resolve them on their own. That means  we have to let go of the idea that we alone have the answers. Instead, we need to strengthen our individual and organizational competencies in order to become sector connectors who call meetings before we have the answers, aren't intimidated by messy, and can ensure a culture where all voices are heard. Only then, can our collective gifts, experience, and wisdom be focused on building a better future for all.

--Brenda Herchmer 

 In times of change it is the learners who inherit the future.  Those who have finished learning find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

-- Eric Hoffer