Instructions From The Cook

Instructions from the Cook
Published by DesigningLife Books

1020 Kenilworth Avenue
Cleveland OH 44113
www.DesigningLife.com
Copyright 2008 George Nemeth & Jack Ricchiuto

All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-0-9661703-8-2
Paperback
1. Community development
I. Title
First Printing, July 2008

Printed in the USA
Production: BookMasters, Ashland OH
Cover Design: Tia Andrako

Cover Photography: Jack Ricchiuto
Book Photography: Maurice Small
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is now available at DesigningLife.com
The single copy price is $12.95. For multiple-copy

discounts, email: jack@designinglife.com.
If you buy multiple copies and send us email

addresses to people you distributed them to, we
will send them a personal email of thanks.
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Contents
6/ Invitation
7/ Stone Soup
9/ The New Conversations that Build Community
10/ Improbable Collaborations
11/ Gifts Together
13/ 5 Indicators of Vital Communities
13/ The Recipes Explained
16/ The Power of Slow & Small
18/ The Power of the Intangible
19/ The Power of Possibilities
25/ The Power of an Intentional Model
26/ The Model
28/ The Dream Space Conversation
29/ The Small Acts Conversation
30/ The Gifts Conversation
31/ The Invitation Conversation
37/ The Innovation Continuum
41/ The Problem with Problems
49/ Shadow Conversations
50/ How Many Leaders Does it Take to Change a
Community?
50/ Planning that Builds Community
59/ Authentic Engagement
71/ Frequently Answered Questions
72/ Postscript
77/ Authors
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Recipes
15/ Local Foods

21/ Studio Launching
21/ River2River
22/ Poets on the Road
33/ InterGen Tea Party
34/ Landlord Welcome Wagon
35/ Supporting the Well-being of our Animals
36/ Literacy Breakfasts
36/ eBay Nation
46/ Engaged Students
47/ Virtual Hospice Gratitude Community
48/ Professional Entrepreneurs
64/ NextGen Energy Workers
64/ New Green Lease on Life
65/ Tool Exchange
66/ Boarded up Solar Houses
67/ A Thriving Built Environment
68/ Church Kitchen Incubators
69/ Salsa Barter
69/ Pavement Garden Paradise
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Invitation
Instructions from the Cook is an introduction to a

powerful and simple model of building community.
It is based on the observation that communities
thrive when people intentionally engage each other
in conversations that energize, engage, and
empower them.
The model we present here is an introduction to the

deeper and compelling model Peter Block presents
in Community from his work with A Small Group.
The model we present in Instructions from the Cook

is a way to become familiar with the kinds of
conversations Peter talks about that eliminate the
fragmentation responsible for many things we call
problems in communities. We invite you to practice
and unleash its power in your community.
We deeply appreciate the contributions of Tia

Andrako for the cover design, Maurice Small for the
book’s photos and his recipes, and to Mark
McDermott, Patricia Ross, June Holley, and Linda
Fabe for their recipe ideas and Elaine Barnes with
editing. Thanks to BookMasters for production and
to all of our friends who have supported the
evolution of this project.
George Nemeth & Jack Ricchiuto

July 2008
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Stone Soup
Once upon a time, a wise cook came upon a village

plagued by a terrible famine. “We have nothing, what
have you brought us?” pleaded the villagers.
“I have only these four magic stones,” the cook humbly

offered. The villagers gasped as one of them came
forward and asked. “What can you do with them?”, to
which the wise cook replied, “I will need a large pot of
water and a fire.” Some of the people set forth to their
houses and brought a large pot and started a fire with
what they had.
The wise cook filled the pot with water and carefully
placed the four stones in the pot. After sitting silently, the
cook said, “It is always good to have some carrots for the
soup.” And after a heavy pause, some of the villagers said,
“We think we have some carrots at home,” and they
disappeared behind the crowd that gathered.
A few minutes later, the villagers appeared with some

carrots from their garden. The wise cook was pleased, and
continued, “Wouldn’t be great if we had some potatoes?”
A villager responded, “I have some potatoes. They’re all I
could grow this season.”
And quickly returning, the potatoes were added to the

pot, followed by requests for some herbs and all sorts of
vegetables until a great soup was assembled to feed all
the people in the village. And with Instructions from the
Cook, the people of the village discovered the power of
their gifts together.
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New Conversations that Build Community
We have been studying communities for a long time

and have observed that there are 4 kinds of
conversations that build community, conversations
that call us to realize our power. They are
conversations that emerge from our expectation that
we are smarter, stronger and more whole together
than we could ever be in isolation or opposition.
The four new conversations of our model are

Dream Space, Small Acts, Gifts, and Invitation
conversations.
In Dream Space conversations, we talk about what

we imagine the qualities of a thriving community to
be. Our best Dreams are declarations of possibilities
we desire for our shared future.
In Small Acts conversations, we talk about small

experiments we can engage in to realize our
Dreams. In a world of fragmented and limited
assets, small is the new big.
In Gifts conversations, we talk about the talents,

resources, and assets we all bring to the table. The
Dreams and Small Acts that matter most to us are
those that engage our Gifts.
In Invitation conversations, we talk about who else

we can invite as partners in co-creating new futures
together.
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These are the four kinds of conversations that have
always brought people together in community.
Explore the history of any jewel in any community
and you can see how it emerged at the intersections
of Dreams, Small Acts, Gifts, and Invitations.
Improbable Collaborations
Many new Dreams require new levels of

collaborative creativity and innovation. Joining our
Gifts together in Small Acts inspired by Dreams we
Dream together requires new kinds of
collaborations we have never seen before in our
communities.
We have come to discover that new ideas that work

are more likely to emerge at the edges and
intersections of networks, where improbable
collaborations are most likely. This is the reason
why diverse groups can be more creative and
innovative than homogenous groups where
everyone looks, sounds, and thinks alike.
Improbable collaborations happen between and

among people who share common interests but are
usually not connected in creative ways. They may
have been fragmented for historical or political
reasons. Or they don't think of themselves as parts
of larger networks of collaboration or resource
sharing. They may have considered each other
competitors constrained by deficiency beliefs.
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Many of the community building recipes we present
throughout the book feature improbable
collaborations where people cross boundaries to do
together what they couldn't do alone.
Inspired and engaged in new conversations, the

possibilities of new kinds of collaborations are
endless.
When communities start to think in terms of

improbable collaborations, people are surprised by
the new chemistries of strengths and passions
coming to the table. Best of all, the more
connections across boundaries, the more the
community grows and the more likely new
innovations will emerge.
Gifts Together
When we become fluent in the four new

conversations that build communities, we can
easily move together in the directions of our
Dreams. Four truths enable us to come together and
offer our skills generously:
✦ Everything in life happens the moment it

becomes fully possible
✦ Whatever story we tell ourselves about
reality is only one possible story
✦ Whatever we're doing right now is only
one possible thing to do
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✦ We don't need a different reality to do what
else is possible right now
When we allow these truths to permeate the culture

of our community, we move from being victimized
by problems to being empowered by possibilities.
We discover that we can do more together than we
could ever do apart. We discover what all living
systems on all scales have known for millions of
years, that our Gifts have the most sustainable value
when we bring them together.
Community. Gifts together.
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5 Indicators of Vital Communities
The origin of the word community is "gifts together."

Community doesn’t exist simply because people
occupy their own houses in a neighborhood, their
own jobs in an organization, or their own seats in a
church. Community exists to the degree that people
actively engage and connect their Gifts in the
realization of shared Dreams realized in Small Acts.
When a community is vital, people know each

other, look out for each other, connect each other,
barter with each other, and engage each other. We
don’t need to order complex studies to notice; they
are obvious just living in the community.
When a community is vital, people don't wait for

institutional or political leaders to make this
happen. They continuously take and share
responsibility for being the kind of community they
Dream to be.
The Recipes Explained
Instructions from the Cook is written in the spirit of

two books of the same title, one by Bernard
Glassman and Rick Fields and the other by 13th-
century Zen Buddhist monk Tenzo Kyôkun:
Instructions for the Cook. Written as manuals that
teach zen principles, Kyôkun’s offers an ancient
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how-to for the preparation of meals for the monks
of a monastery.
Glassman and Fields’ book details the modern-day

Zen communities of the Greyston Mandala, a
thriving network that includes a commercial bakery,
apartments for the homeless and other not-for-profit
community development projects in Yonkers, New
York.
Throughout Instructions from the Cook, we present

several recipes for building community. These are
short narratives describing conversations that will
catalyze change wherever they’re convened.
Each recipe has four unique features:
✦ The articulation of a Dream

✦ A Small Act that can realize the Dream
✦ The Gifts that people bring to the table
✦ The Invitations to others who can contribute
We present them to you to inspire innovations and

experimentations with your own recipes. The
possibilities are infinite, limited only by your
imaginations.
Expect to get better at thinking in recipes. Expect

that simple recipes will lead to more complex and
interesting recipes with creative ingredients and
synergies.
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As any cook will tell you, a recipe serves as a guide.
We encourage you to try the recipes we’ve included
here, substitute available ingredients, increase or
decrease the proportions to suit your tastes, create
your own, share them with others and most of all,
enjoy the experience and the community that
emerges from it!
Local Foods
Dream/ A neighborhood Dreams of a thriving

restaurant district that serves delicious food, while
supporting local organic agriculture
People gather 2-3 local farmers and 2-3 local

restaurant or college/university chefs to explore chef
needs and farmer capabilities for growing seasonal
vegetables, herbs, meat and dairy products,
cheeses, and table flowers. They begin with
established restaurants, adding one menu item
every growing season weekend that features locally
grown food products.
Ingredients
* 2-3 local organic farmers

* 2-3 local chefs
* 6-8 menu items
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The Power of Slow & Small
We live in an age of fast and big. We impatiently

wait for a 10-second technology delay. We expect
everything to move at the speed of electrons. Instant
is the measure of our tolerance for results.
Our bias for big continues to eclipse our

appreciation for the power and possibilities of
small. Local enterprises and micro loans pale in
public esteem compared to globally sized strategies.
In this era where maximum and optimum are
equated, we have our greatest faith in megastores,
megachurches, megawars, and megasolutions.
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People with small and intangible assets are
described as “needy”, while those with large and
tangible assets are described as “powerful.”
In a culture of big and fast, we risk postponing the

power and possibilities of small and slow. Engaging
the Gifts of the community is always about
engaging the small that people have rather than the
big they don’t. It’s always about moving at the speed
of trust since trust is the only currency that has the
power to authentically bring people’s Gifts together.
We need to start thinking about what's possible

given reality as it is. What are our assets and what
can we do today with them? Why should we wait to
have more in order to do differently? What’s wrong
with moving at the scale of our Gifts and the speed
of our Invitations?
Different is the point of transformation and the good

news is that different is possible at any speed and
any scale. So much of what is big and fast that
thrives today started small and slow. The reality is,
authentic and sustainable growth always happens in
organic steps, stages, and phases.
Skipping foundational steps in order to get to scale

fast results in eventual collapse. Building in steps
makes efforts sustainable and allows for more
creativity and innovations along the way.
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The Power of the Intangible
There are two kinds of assets in any community:

tangible and intangible. Tangible assets are things
like private money, public funding, properties,
buildings, public infrastructure, green and open
spaces, natural resources. Intangible assets are
things like talents, expertise, skills, knowledge,
experience, connections, and the social capital of
trust and trustworthiness.
If we constrain our conversations to tangible assets,

we constrain our Dreams, Small Acts, and
Invitations. Discovering even a little-known
intangible asset opens up all kinds of new
possibilities in the community that would never be
considered in a world constrained to tangible
assets.
The fastest way to keep intangible assets unengaged

in a community is to focus exclusively on tangible
assets.
Many community master plans leverage tangible

assets to create a built environment of commercial,
residential, financial, and public spaces. What
happens in these spaces is ultimately determined by
how the community engages intangible assets.
That’s the profound power of intangible assets.
New conversations thrive in communities

passionate about the discovery and engagement of
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intangible assets. The bottom line is that where
tangible assets are finite and easily hoarded,
intangible assets tend to be more open-sourced, and
easily shared.
The Power of Possibilities
When people come together to build their

community, it has often been from a problem focus.
Many communities still believe that by focusing on

problems, they can energize, engage, and empower
people. The reality is that while problems have the
power to bring people together who have been
otherwise isolated or fragmented, they don't have
the power to help people move toward a new future
together.
Nothing creative or collaborative comes from talk

about what's wrong, what we don't like or want,
what bothers us, what we don't have and haven't
achieved or who's to blame and be held responsible
for the solutions. These are the old conversations
that only have the ability to divide, depress, and
disengage us.
People move forward with conversations about

possibilities. People have the ability to create new
futures together when they have conversations that
focus on what they want and like, what attracts and
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calls them, what they are already in the process of
achieving, and what they have and can do.
People move forward together when they spend
more time making promises rather than excuses and
accepting responsibility for action instead of
postponing it until other institutions and leaders in
the community take action on their behalf.
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Studio Launching
Dream/ Graduating art students have the space and

mentoring to start their first studios and careers
Art enthusiasts envision a thriving artistic

community were patrons support emerging artists.
They convene art institute faculty and area
commercial employers with unused industrial and
commercial spaces, who are willing to donate these
in exchange for utility contributions from graduating
art students who will use these spaces as incubators
to get their studios and careers off the ground.
Retired artists are invited to mentor these students
on getting these projects launched and successful.
Ingredients
* 1 art faculty
* 2-3 graduating art students
* 1-2 local commercial firm owners
* 1 retired studio artist
River2River
Dream/ Cyclists can transverse neighborhoods with

path continuities from one river to the next
Bike riders wonder about the big possibility of being

able to traverse single routes between watershed
rivers in urban areas. They join with local
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government planning folks who help them create
bike lanes that span continuous surface street routes
through urban and suburban neighborhoods,
connecting rivers that run perpendicular to the
routes and parallel to each other. Small business
owners at the two ends of river-route intersections
convene and decide to collaborate with local
brewers to craft an ale that celebrates the new
connections river to river.
Ingredients
* 4-5 cyclists
* 1 river to river bikeable street way
* 2 local businesses
* 1 local micro brewery
Poets on the Road
Dream/ Local poets have ample opportunities to

read their work in community settings
We want to give local poets support for publishing

their work, so we connect them to local catering
groups who have upscale suburban and urban
clients. Caterers and clients collaborate to host "the
best of" poets and poetry as pre-party features at
their events.
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Ingredients
* 3 local poets
* 1 poetry reading organizer
* 1 local catering group
* 1 party event host/planner & client
* a handful of "best of" poems
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An Intentional Model of Building Community
New conversations
Conversations that have the power to reveal, inspire & engage our strengths
Problem Deficiency
What's wrong? What are we lacking?
Dream Space Gifts

Conversations Conversations
about about
possibilities assets
Invitations Small Acts
Conversations Conversations
about about
engagement projects
Blame Consensus
Who's to blame for these problems? What can we all agree on?
Old (Shadow) conversations

Conversations that have no power to reveal, inspire & engage our strengths
An introductory model to Peter Block's work on building community

2008 George Nemeth & Jack Ricchiuto
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The Power of an Intentional Model
We’ve found that when communities have a model

for moving forward together, more is possible.
The community’s assets become more transparent

and engaged. People express more courage in their
Dreams because the Dreams they have together can
be bigger than Dreams they have alone.
When communities lack a model of having new

conversations, they stay stuck in the old shadow
conversations that have no power to move things
forward. They insanely repeat solutions with the
hope of different outcomes. They paradoxically
maintain the very status quo they Dream of
transcending.
Using an Intentional Model gives us a new and

sustainable way to move from isolated and
fragmented efforts to collaborative and cohesive
efforts in building communities that are attractive,
affordable, and agile in the seven core areas of
quality of life: learning, housing, food, health care,
transportation, public spaces, and economic
opportunities.
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The Model
We build community with conversations about

Dreams, Small Acts, Gifts, and Invitations.
✦ Dream Space: how we describe the

qualities and characteristics of a thriving
community
✦ Small Acts: small experiments that help us
realize our Dreams
✦ Gifts: the talents and assets we bring to the
table
✦ Invitations: the inclusion of those who can
bring other Gifts to the table
The Dream Space Conversation
The Dream Space conversation is about future

possibilities that have the power to inspire,
empower, and bring us together as never before.
Anything we imagine one generation out is a

worthy Dream. What do we want to be true about
our communities in 20 years? What choices do we
want people to have? How would we love our
community to connect to others? How would we
like to see this community renew itself?
Dreams are the ways we would love to describe the

world far beyond tired and failed solutions to
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today’s problems. In Dream Space we see the world
with the eyes of hope, courage, and faith.
When people come together in community, they

are drawn together by faith in a different future.
They yearn to be inspired by new possibilities rather
than just relieved from present crises.
There are many ways to invite and frame the Dream

Space conversation:
✦ What kind of people, businesses, and

institutions would we love to attract
into our community?
✦ What would we love to create together that
we couldn’t create alone?
✦ What would we consider ideal features of
our community?
✦ What kind of community do we want the
next generation to be born into?
Dreams can start fuzzy and gain more power when

we make them as specific as we can.
Because the future is uncertain, it is important to

understand that Dreams are not predictions,
speculations, or arguments about the future.
Dreaming is a description of what makes us feel

most alive when thinking about the possibilities of
our shared future. Dreams are ideal states we want
to become prepared for. They enable us to see
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present Gifts and opportunities more clearly. We
Dream not to see the future, but to use the future as
a lens to more clearly see our power in the present.
The Small Acts Conversation
A Small Act is something we can do today to begin

to realize what we Dream as possible. It’s what we
can do with what we do have, what’s possible given
reality as we perceive it. It’s the opposite of what we
might be able to do if things were different. A Small
Act is what we can do with things being exactly as
they are.
A Small Act doesn't depend on the permission or

support of others. It's within our capabilities and
willingness. Small Acts are the opposite of actions
that seek speed and scale beyond our Gifts and
Invitations. Small Acts aren't constrained by speed
and scale.
They are enough to spark movement in the

direction of big possibilities. Small Acts are always
small experiments inspired by a compelling future
possibility. Each of the recipes throughout the book
are examples of Small Acts inspired by our
conversations in Dream Space.
Small Acts are relative to the capabilities of the

people engaged in them. To an investor, a Small Act
is a micro-loan or grant. To a group of teachers, a
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Small Act is an event with a few students, parents,
grandparents, and business owners. One person's
Small Act may be another's large one.
When Small Acts are connected, they create larger

and often unpredictable impacts. In a dynamic and
interdependent world, one Small Act can be like the
small seeds or microbes that start rich ecologies and
habitats.
The Gifts Conversation
Everyone in a community has some talent that has

engaged or potential value to the community.
Talents include assets like imagination, aged
wisdom and experience, degreed expertise,
researched genius, and passionate entrepreneurial
spirit. Child raising, teaching, manual labor,
cooking, and gardening are all examples of Gifts.
When we're engaged in Gifts conversations, we
aren't distracted by what we're lacking, our
deficiencies, obstacles, weaknesses, threats, or our
shortfalls.
In a Gifts conversations, we're talking about assets,

talents, and resources in the community that aren't
yet being engaged as they could be. We're talking
about our own Gifts and how we can engage them
in Small Acts inspired by big possibilities. We're
constantly exploring, identifying, and discovering
unrealized and hidden Gifts. This is a self-fulfilling
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expectation. The more Gifts we expect to find, the
more we’ll find.
In Gifts conversations, we’re talking about what

each of us brings to any conversation in
community--any form of knowledge, ability,
resources, or funding.
The Invitation Conversation
Sometimes our Small Acts require Gifts beyond

those present at the table. As communities learn to
Dream more expansively, they easily Dream
Dreams beyond their available assets. As people
learn how to translate Dream Space into Small Acts,
they think of Small Acts that call for other talents
and assets in the community.
In these cases, we need to engage other people with

Gifts complementary to our own. There may be
times we need to invite other people to help us
transition from a Small Act to Dream Space, or
transition from Dream Space to a Small Act.
In Invitation conversations, we're not interested in

talking critically about people outside the room, no
matter how tempting or routine that may be. We are
clear that doing so is a distraction from engaging
them and their Gifts.
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New futures always depend on new collaborations.
Small Acts often require more people than those in
the present conversation.
Instead of talking about people not present, we

invite them and their Dreams and Gifts into the
conversation. We engage them in improbable
collaborations that have the power to move us in
steps closer to futures that call to our hearts.
The Innovation Continuum
When we want to efficiently create support for any

Dream or Small Act, it matters who we invite to the
table. When it comes to reacting to change, there
are five kinds of people in every community: the
New, Nexus, Norm, Never, and Napping.
New people are those who are interested in

anything new - any new idea, solution, product,
service, or experience. Invite them to the table and
they will try anything new we have to offer. They
make great participants in small experiments and
pilot projects. They will also help your group
research and develop anything new.
Nexus people are those who embrace change and

new things simply because they have trust
relationships with New people. Norm people only
accept change when "everyone else" embraces it,
starting with the Norm people who are influenced
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by their trustworthy Nexus friends, families,
colleagues, and neighbors.
Never people are simply against a change and will

do anything to defend and protect the status quo -
the "way we've always done it." The Napping are
simply not paying attention to anything emerging or
changing and don't notice.
If we want to get a new idea going, we are wise to

get a lot of New people involved. When we want to
get Norm people involved, we get Nexus people
involved. People are interested and passionate
about change to the degree that others they trust
are.
Change happens through relationships, not mass

communication, marketing, threats or incentives.
People support the change that the people they trust
support. People trust change trusted by people they
trust. In the early stages of a project, do not
squander a lot of time and resources trying to
convert the Norm, Never, and Napping. Leverage
the right people at the right time and see the results.
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InterGen Tea Party
Dream/ A neighborhood where no one locks their

houses, garages, or cars, where children and parents
feel free to allow children to play outside the
supervision of parents.
We start by inviting a few grandparents into the

Dream conversation, in part because some
neighborhood grandparents are visible and engaged
on first name basis with children and their parents.
We consider Small Acts of children hosting tea
parties for neighborhood retirees, exchanging Gifts
of food they make by hand for each other.
Invitations go out to one or two local grade school
full time and substitute teachers. Invitations go out
to local student musicians to play, using their
emerging Gifts, at the tea party.
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Ingredients
* 4-5 children, any size or shape

* 9-10 cups of child brewed teas
* 2-3 senior neighbors with hand made food
* 1-2 local grade school teachers
* 1 local student musician
Landlord Welcome Wagon
Dream/ A neighborhood filled with tenants who feel

as engaged & invested in the quality of life
An urban neighborhood group has come to the

collective conclusion that many community
"problems" derive from tenants of houses and
buildings managed and owned by neglectful
landlords. A small subgroup studies good renters
and realize that they tend to have good landlords.
They decide they want a neighborhood with all
good landlords. They collaborate with good
landlords to create a new landlord welcome wagon
and network group so old and new landlords can
support one another with peer support,
connections, help, and services.
Ingredients
* 2-3 neighbors
* 2-3 good landlords
* study of available services and support
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Supporting the Well-Being of our Animals
Dream/ Every shelter dog gets walks and exposure

to the community
A retired husband and wife couple who love

animals notice that animals in the shelter are
chained up daily as their cages are cleaned.
Animals cannot be walked because of recent staff
reductions. They arrive at the shelter at 8:30 and
walk the dogs as cages are being cleaned. There are
not enough dog walkers, so they enlist more family
and friends. They, with 2 children & 4 grand
children, walk the animals 5 days a week. Others
walk the dogs, too. They have established a regular
dog walking program. One person does organizing
and scheduling, another holds volunteer
orientations twice monthly. Now all dogs get
walked daily not to mention the love and attention
and people in the community area get healthier in
the process.
Ingredients
* 1 animal lover/couple
* 2-3 volunteer walker family & friends
* 4-6 shelter dogs
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Literacy Breakfasts
Dream/ Local income challenged parents start to

become savvy consumers, creating budget
efficiencies for themselves and their families
Local high schools train students in financial

literacy, specifically the many ways to stretch their
limited consumer dollars. Students team with
libraries to host breakfasts for grade school parents
where they pass along their training to these
parents.
Ingredients
* 1 high school finance teacher

* 4-5 finance students
* 1 library
* 1 librarian
* 6-10 grade school parents
eBay Nation
Dream/ Struggling parents have zero unused items

from raising their children and instead gain income
from unused items
Local web designers and bloggers team with

libraries to teach block club members how to use
their cell phone cameras and library computers to
sell their unused clothes and other valuables on
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eBay. Portions of profits go back to web designers
and bloggers. Libraries hold classes on consumer
literacy to help people discover best quality low
cost options in their areas for the money they make
on eBay.
Ingredients
* 1 student and web designer and/or blogger

* 1 library & librarian
* 2-3 block club members
* 1 cell phone camera
* a small collection of sellable goods
* library sponsored classes on consumer literacy
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The Problem with Problems
The problem with problems is not that problems are

invalid ways of inviting community engagement.
We can always find victims of anything willing to
come to any table to give voice to their grievances.
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The problem with problems is that they tend to
keep people talking in circles of old conversations
where movement into productive action becomes
less and less likely. Talking about problems tends to
invite conversations about what's already been
tried, why it isn't working, and who's to blame.
It's the shortest distance to inaction and maintaining

the status quo. In fact, many people who fear and
resist change sustain a problem focus because this
focus almost guarantees the kind of inaction that
can keep things from being too different.
As long as we focus on problems and not

possibilities, we prevent real research, design, and
experimenting with more innovative approaches.
The opposite of a conversation that begins with a

problem is a conversation that begins with a
Dream.
Instead of talking about violators and violations, we

talk about better engaging the community in
volunteer and employment opportunities. Instead of
talking about drop-out students, we talk about co-
designing schools and programs so compelling that
students want to stay later to work on new projects
that engage their Gifts and speak to their passions.
Instead of talking about the high costs of health
care, we talk about how to build healthy living into
each of the community's institutions.
| 39 |
Dream Space automatically creates larger spaces of
possibility, innovation, and creativity. When we start
out 20 years from now, the breadth of our vision
inspires the depth of our passion.
Dreams invite and inspire approaches we've never

thought of or talked about before. We become less
likely to get stuck in ideas that win little support,
excitement, or investments of time and assets by the
community. We become more likely to consider
and explore that which has no precedent in the
community, that which we’re not so prepared to
argue about or defend.
| 40 |
Shadow Conversations
When we come together in community, there are

conversations that protect the way things are.
Everyone knows these conversations. They are the
ones that encourage speeches followed by inaction
and cynicism. They are conversations that may
engage loud and large voices lost in the noise of
endless and futile debate. They are shadow
conversations.
The problem with shadow conversations is not that

they're wrong or invalid. It's that they have no
power to make a difference in the world. They don't
have the power to build community, only to divide
it.
The four shadow conversations are problem,

consensus, deficiency, and blame conversations.
Problem conversations are about what bothers us.

It's a conversation about what we don't like, don't
want, what annoys and frustrates us, and the people
we call enemies and adversaries.
Problem conversations bring out the worst in us

individually and collectively because they are a
denial of our Dreams and Gifts and a postponement
of Small Acts and Invitations.
All communities have complaints, grievances and

wounds and there is always mythology around the
| 41 |
notion that venting toxicity will create space for
Dreams, Small Acts, Invitations, and Gifts. This is
good in theory but in practice, it is often a
postponement of new conversations. There is little
empirical evidence that a problem focus moves
communities forward. It has been mostly a
superstitious mythology passed along from one
generation to the next. There is however, much
mounting evidence that a possibility focus has the
power to bring people together as never before.
Consensus conversations are about the kinds of

agreements and permissions we think we need
before we engage in a possible Small Act on our
Dream. It's a focus on the political endorsement
and majority agreement we lack and think we need
for Dreams and Small Acts.
By definition, Small Acts are actions we can take

without complete agreement by the community,
permission from opinion leaders, or support by the
majority of people at or absent from the table.
Waiting for consensus can be a postponement of

Invitations and Small Acts. Trying to get everyone to
sign up to any one idea prevents people from
pursuing their own Dreams as owners of these
Dreams. The reality is that we don't need to agree
on everything for a small group of us to engage in
Small Acts in the direction of our Dreams.
| 42 |
There are many Invitations and Small Acts that do
not require permission, support, or even interest
from the whole. One of the more effective ways to
slow down action in a community is to use voting
to narrow down the rich diversity of projects and
possibilities.
Deficiency conversations are about what we're

lacking. They're about gaps and needs, obstacles
and constraints, threats and fears. They fuel fear,
asset hoarding and win-lose competition that adds
no value to a thriving community.
Many communities have a long history of viewing

people and institutions as needs and problems
rather than as Gifts. It’s a self-fulfilling expectation
where the less we look for Gifts, the fewer Gifts we
see, and the more needs and problems keep people
stuck, divided and trying to compete for and hoard
assets.
Deficiency conversations are about what we don't

have and can't do. Focusing on deficiencies can be
an excuse to avoid commitments to action. Truth is,
we will always have deficiencies of one kind or
another. More than that, every advancement in the
history of human experience came about in a
context of incredible amounts of deficiencies.
Focusing on what we lack distracts us from what we

have. Engaging imperfect Gifts can do more than
any amount of waiting for better or more Gifts.
| 43 |
Blame conversations are about who we hold
responsible for the deficiencies we believe are
holding us back from our Dreams. They are self-
inflicted declarations of our innocence.
They’re about who's not in the room that we can

criticize and mount campaigns against. It is always
tempting to assign responsibility for our future to the
people, leaders, and institutions that we believe are
more powerful than we are or ever could be. It’s
easy to blame people who are doing big acts to save
us from our perceived victimhood.
Blame conversations are about who hasn't taken

care of the problems we believe we need to solve in
order to have a better future. It’s blaming our
politicians and police, pastors and professors in
ways that takes from us our freedom and
responsibility to create our own futures together.
Talking about the absent and guilty is easy and

excuses us from acting with the freedom we have to
move toward a new future. As long as we don't
invite them into the conversation, they may never
have the opportunity to partner with us in creating a
new future together. Blame is a declaration of our
innocence that galvanizes our identities as victims.
It is how we give our power away generation after
generation.
These are the conversations that start with questions

about how we can change the minds of leadership,
| 44 |
the board, funders, or community members who
"don't get it." The problem is that these
conversations postpone the engagement of the
willing and interested few who can help us inspire
new Dreams and act in small, significant ways.
The shadow conversations keep us stuck, at odds,

feeling like hopeless victims of forces and changes
outside our control. They prevent access to our
sense of imagination, our capacity for passion, and
the depth of our individual and collective strengths.
They take away our vision and power; they make us
sightless and helpless.
Some shadow conversations are sincere, driven by

heart-felt agendas. Others are more divisive,
expressions of unhealed injustices people either
experienced themselves or inherited.
What’s important is that we keep inviting people to

refocus away from shadow conversations, no matter
how compelling, and into the four new
conversations that build community. Any time spent
in shadow conversations takes away people’s sense
of shared responsibility for doing together what
can’t be done in isolation or competition.
However attached people seem to be to shadow

conversations, we need to keep inviting them into
community building conversations until they either
engage or leave to pursue other interests.
| 45 |
Engaged Students
Dream / Local high school attendance is over 90%
High school faculty team up with local employers

and retired mentors to push learning outside the
classroom into the community in ways that tap into
the interests of students who fail to thrive in
traditional classroom environments because they're
more kinesthetic than visual or auditory learners.
Math classes are held on construction sites,
chemistry classes in chemical engineering plants,
writing in newspaper and marketing firms. Students
learn in the context of doing actual projects that
benefit the sponsoring organizations.
Ingredients
* 2 high school faculty

* 5-10 students
* 2-3 early retirement mentors
* corporate sponsors
Virtual Hospice Gratitude Community
Dream/ People in hospices around the world can

post daily personal reflections on gratitude while
grieving families and others can find unique
inspiration from their posts.
| 46 |
Hospice staff working with young hospice patients
realize that a practice of gratitude enriches the
quality of their life. They team up with local
bloggers to design and host a blog where patients
can daily post what they’re most grateful for that
day. It becomes an inspiration website for patients,
their families, and anyone suffering from grief.
Ingredients
* 2 hospice staff
* 1-2 hospice patients
* 1 local blogger
| 47 |
Professional Entrepreneurs
Dream / The talents of local retired professionals are

engaged
Local law, medical, and nursing school faculty

collaborate with local economic development
organizations to identify graduating students who
want to start their own businesses and clinics. They
also identify local retired professionals who commit
to mentoring these students before they graduate on
career and business entrepreneurial development.
| 48 |
Ingredients
* 1 law school faculty

* 1 medical school faculty
* 1 nursing school faculty
* 4-5 graduating entrepreneurial students
* 4-5 retired professionals with entrepreneurial
experience
How Many Leaders Does it Take to Change a

Community?
If a community says it has a 100 leaders and none

have competencies in inviting, convening, and
engaging new conversations that build community,
then the community has 100 leaders in the
community but not 100 community leaders. If
they're all good managers of businesses and
institutions, then they are good managers but it may
be unfair to expect them to be community leaders.
For someone to be a community leader, they need

to develop the skill and will to engage people in
new conversations about Dreams, Small Acts, Gifts,
and Invitations. They need to know how to help
people make the radical transitions from shadow to
new conversations.
It helps if they have many strong and diverse

connections in the community; that they are willing
| 49 |
and able to introduce and connect people for new
collaborations. It helps if they are aware of hidden
tangible and intangible assets in the community. It
helps if they model and inspire trustworthiness and
innovation.
What are unnecessary for community leadership are

political position and power, economic capital and
wealth or the willingness and ability to control and
manipulate people to their agendas. They don't
need to be content experts with PhDs or to have
broad travel portfolios.
How many leaders does it take to begin change in

any community?
One. Change can start with one person’s Small Act.
Planning that Builds Community
In new conversations, planning is the process of

describing the future we want to see and engaging
in action today that allows us to realize however
much of this future we can.
Planning is not substituting talk for action. It is not a

postponement of Small Acts today in order to
engage in bigger acts tomorrow. Planning is a
promise to do what’s possible in the present. We
look out 20 years to better see what’s possible and
desirable in the present.
| 50 |
The only plans that have integrity are plans that
invite people to engage their Gifts in Small Acts that
realize their Dreams.
There is no integrity in plans we’re not taking action

on in the present. We don’t need to pack large
binders with plans for the future. Reality is that our
sense of the future we want will continuously shift
thanks to the continuous new learning that emerges
from each Small Act and Invitation in the present.
As long as we aren’t constrained by commitments

we’re not acting on we have the freedom and
resources to learn about new opportunities, assets,
and possibilities.
So what does planning look like for an uncertain

future? It’s Dreaming and translating Dreams into
acts that we can commit to in the present. At the
end of the day, intellectually honest planning does
not produce a binder of anything, it only
commitments to entering Dream Space and doing
Small Acts.
Smart planning is the process of making

commitments that create more new opportunities
rather than close off and decrease options.
| 51 |
Authentic Engagement
In many communities, people look to civic

institutions and managers to build community even
though many are not positioned and prepared to do
so.
Civic institutions include schools and universities,

government bureaus and agencies, regional and
public planning commissions, community
development organizations, churches and temples,
and economic development organizations.
| 52 |
Many institutions only know how to engage their
own isolated assets in fulfillment of their own
Dreams. Many don’t dream at all, instead investing
all of their gifts in fire-fighting the smoldering and
sometimes raging symptoms of problems.
Many institutional managers have no experience in

or knowledge of how to engage a community in
new conversations. Their only public engagement
with the community is standing in front of or over
people, talking at people, making speeches and
political pronouncements.
The good news is that some institutional managers

and leaders are beginning to learn how to convene
and host authentic engagement.
One of the ways civic institutions can build

community is through authentically engaging the
community during the events they convene.
An event invites authentic engagement when four

conditions are designed into the process:
✦ Participants are invited to focus more on

possibilities and strengths than problems
and weaknesses
✦ Participants are invited to engage each
other, conveners, and attending experts in
dialogue
| 53 |
✦ Participants are clear about any decision
makers and processes, and decision criteria
and constraints
✦ Participants are given the time & resources
to research, develop, and test new ideas
Given this set of criteria, authentic engagement

cannot occur in a single event; only a series of
conversations.
We talk about an event or process being one of

authentically engaging when it engages the Gifts of
the community - its assets, strengths, talents,
relationships, and social capital. Conveners invite
people to share in the shaping of their common
future.
When people are authentically engaged, they are

active participants who together think through
possibilities. They are not passive listeners,
unengaged consumers, uneducated voters, or the
targets of control or conversion.
The opposite of an authentically engaging event is

one that is unengaging. In these events, conveners
are not transparent about who makes ultimate
decisions or are unclear about the process and
criteria for decision making.
Participants are unclear about the constraints within

which their ideas and inputs must perform. As a
result, participants are at risk of generating and
| 54 |
voicing ideas that are already pre-destined for
failure, rejection, or an unknown fate.
In inauthentic, unengaging events, participants

speak to select people, usually sitting at the front of
the room, but do not engage them or each other in
meaningful and generative dialogue.
Because the interactions are based on the shadow

conversations, speech-making is often divisive and
prevents real learning, discovery, curiosity, and
collaboration. Worse is when only the people in
front get to give speeches and the rest of the invited
can only voice questions and grievances.
The process is often weakness and problem focused

rather than asset and possibility based, making any
new conversations unlikely. Ideas are voiced, but
no ideas synergize with others to form more
complex and compelling options to be considered.
Experts are isolated in the front of the room rather
than embedded into small group dialogue designed
to co-create new options and possibilities.
One of the classic forms of inauthentic, unengaging

community dialogue is inviting the community to
be converted to an intractable set of conclusions
pre-decided by conveners. This practice violates the
sociological principle that people will authentically
support what they help create.
| 55 |
In events that are authentically engaging, conveners
and experts are participants, informing and inspiring
group engagement around real questions and real
work.
Multiple conversations allow for the natural and

necessary research, development, and testing of
ideas and alternatives. People's Gifts are engaged,
not just their grievances voiced. Participants feel
like adults sharing responsibility for a common
future rather than like children delivering
unfulfillable demands to parents.
When engagement is authentic, conveners are

transparent about the “politics” of any decision
owners, processes, criteria, and constraints.
Constraints include sacred cows, goats, and bulls.
Sacred cows are things that we are committed to

not changing or deciding.
Sacred goats are things we do not have the power to

change or decide on. In these events, participants
are clear on what's on and off the table and why.
People are treated as adults capable of
understanding any rationales and realities, rather
than being treated as children who will be told
things only on a patriarchal "need to know basis."
Sacred bulls are things we must change, things

we’re committed to making different.
| 56 |
In authentic engagement, participants feel like they
are co-owners in a common future they share
together and with the conveners. Conveners only
act in ways that build trustworthiness and design
events that only increase the collective mutual
trustworthiness in the community.
Community building happens at the speed and

scope of trustworthiness on all levels. When people
are treated as Gifts to be engaged rather than
problems to be fixed, mutual trust builds naturally
and accelerates the movement of new conversations
to the kind of visible and palpable improvements in
the community that no one needs to spend time
measuring for reports.
The success of events that are authentically

engaging is not on the number of ideas generated,
grievances voiced, speeches given, or institutional
policies and practices defended. Their success is
measured in how many Dreams are expressed, Gifts
engaged, Invitations made, and Small acts
achieved.
| 57 |
| 58 |
Frequently Answered Questions
Is the model for grassroots or institutional efforts?
It's for both. The new conversations help people

move from shadow to community building
conversations, no matter what the scale and scope
of their tangible and intangible assets and roles in
the community.
It is just as important that those referred to as being

“on the margins" feel as much of a sense of freedom
and responsibility as the "who's who" people in
Dreaming, engaging Gifts in Small Acts, and
inviting people into the process.
These conversations are just as important at kitchen

tables and coffee shops as they are in boardrooms
and public committee rooms. In fact, these
conversations have the power to bridge people
across levels and sectors, connecting people across
asset, power, cultural, and political boundaries.
How small should Small Acts be?
The size of any act in a community is directly

related to the size of the Gifts and Dreams at the
table. A Small Act for a public entity can be a multi-
million dollar investment over 10 years. A Small Act
for a group of volunteers can be the launch of a tool
barter program in their neighborhood. Every Small
| 59 |
Act, however relative in size, has the possibility of
adding value to the community.
A Small Act is something that can happen in days or

weeks rather than months and years. Each naturally
leads to the next Small Acts that together provoke
meaningful long-term impacts in the community.
How does the model help us get to scale and

speed?
Speed and scale in any Dream is a function of how

fluently we transition through the new
conversations and keep out of the shadow
conversations.
Dreams move at the speed and scale of our Small

Acts, and Small Acts move at the speed of our
engaged Gifts and Invitations. The more Small Acts
a community engages in, the faster growth the
community realizes.
As architect Christopher Alexander suggests in A

Pattern Language, "A town is a concrescence of a
million acts." The more Gifts we engage and the
more people we invite into Small Acts, the more
speed and scale we realize on the way to realizing
our Dreams.
| 60 |
The important issue is not to allow conversations
about speed and scale to paralyze us and support
the postponement of the possible slow and small.
What kind of community leadership does the

model require?
The power of leadership in community is the power

of the questions they uniquely bring to the table.
Good leaders bring questions that inspire, engage,
and empower.
The more people learn and practice the model, the

less direction they require to move together in the
direction of their Dreams. The model gives them the
questions they need to move from problems to
possibilities, from fragmentation to invitation, from
victimhood to self-organization, from abstractions
to meaningful actions.
When a small group needs any kind of asset, from

expertise to funding, they use new conversations to
make this happen. Not stuck in the shadow
conversations, they are no longer self-constrained
by postponing actionable steps for illusive
permission from leaders and managers.
What's the role of ideas in the model?
Many communities have become good at

generating more ideas than anyone has the
resources or time commitment for. It's especially
| 61 |
easy for many of us to have ideas we leave to
someone else’s care. In the worse cases, ideas go
through debate, voting, and ultimately die quiet
deaths on lists in planning documents and
proposals.
When ideas emerge in new conversations, we're

interested in those we are willing to take action on
now. We're interested in ideas that engage and
connect our talents and assets in Small Acts that
reflect our Dreams.
We're interested in ideas into which we can invite

other people to join us. We're more interested in
learning from our ideas through action than in
debating their potential while we postpone action
on them. We practice the innovation principle that
the power of an idea is in its ability to give shape to
a new experiment.
How much funding does the model require?
When groups use the model, they realize that the

question about engaging and inviting tangible and
intangible assets we do have is a more actionable
conversation than talk about by funding we don't
have.
If we are committed to Small Acts that require more

funding than we have available, it's an opportunity
for Invitation conversations about who else we can
invite into the conversation. Are there funders,
| 62 |
friends of funders, or grant writers and researchers
in the community we can invite to the table? If so,
Invitations are next steps in our process.
If people and leaders in communities have

conversations with funders, they need to be in the
context of the new conversations. Collaborative
innovations need to replace competitive proposal
processes because of their power to invite richer
intersections of Gifts, inspired by more inclusive
and compelling Dreams.
The key is that we don't get stuck in deficiency

shadow conversations about assets and resources to
which we lack access. An Intentional Model of new
conversations moves us in the direction of Small
Acts for which we have assets and resources. If we
have to move smaller and slower, we'll get there
more quickly than postponing even these actions
for funding we don't have.
How do we get started?
New conversations start where you are. It can be

over coffee, during a commute, in a planned
meeting, over an instant or text message, in an
accidental conversation.
Whoever shows up are the right people and

whenever it starts is the right time. Each new
conversation engages us in the next step toward
building our community. Whether we have faith in
| 63 |
anything else, we can have faith in ourselves, each
other, and this.
NextGen Energy Workers
Dream / Local energy employers have new talent to

choose from every year
A college/university renewable energy program

collaborates with a few local renewable energy
firms to co-design curricula, advertising campaigns,
internships, and jobs for the next 4 years of
graduates.
Ingredients
* 2 renewable energy program faculty

* 6-8 energy program students & graduating
students
* 2 local renewable energy firm leaders
New Green Lease on Life
Dream / Local ex-offenders are trained for green-

collar jobs
People who lead programs for ex-offenders

collaborate with local green firms, such as
construction recycling firms, to create new jobs and
| 64 |
workers. They invite local probation staff to get
high-risk program members involved as well.
Ingredients
* 1 ex-offender program staff

* 1 construction recycling firm
* 1 probation officer
* 1 local college training program expert
Tool Exchange
Dream / Everyone in a neighborhood has all the

tools they need when they need them
Tool owners in a neighborhood get together and

create a list of share-able tools and equipment. The
list of owners, current users, next available dates are
posted on a wiki (a collaboration website like
Wikipedia) so everyone can see the status on all
share-able options.
Ingredients
* 4-5 tool and equipment owners

* a handful of available tools and equipment
options
* 1 free wiki
| 65 |
Boarded Up Solar Houses
Dream / Every boarded up house is a local energy

source
At a block party, people come together in

complaints about how many houses are boarded
up. They Dream of these houses one day bringing
money into the neighborhood instead of being
sources of fear and vandalism. Someone invites a
pot luck of interested neighbors and students from a
local green energy university program. Students
help neighbors get grants to roof and side the
houses with solar panels that create power for the
neighborhood. Habitat For Humanity is engaged to
help install the new panels.
Ingredients
* 5-6 interested neighbors

* 2-3 university students in green studies
* 1 internship program coordinator
* a set of donated/funded solar panels
* a land bank abandoned house
* energy experts who can help with energy
conversion & sharing
| 66 |
A Thriving Built Community
Dream / There are no vacant or abandoned

commercial or residential properties
Neighborhood block clubs and merchant

associations "adopt" a single vacant or abandoned
property to assist owners with volunteer expertise to
advertise and network for new tenants and owners.
Ingredients
* 1 block club
* 1 merchant association
| 67 |
* 1-2 vacant/abandoned properties & owners
* 1 building/housing leader
* 2-3 volunteer experts in marketing, fund-raising
Church Kitchen Incubators
Dream/ Local urban kitchen facilities that provide

bulk discount preparations for anyone in the
neighborhood
Local church volunteers invite hospital and clinic

nutrition specialists to collaborate with local college
culinary schools to use unused church kitchen
space as a food incubator for gardening neighbors
where they grow and buy bulk meats, vegetables,
and fruits and do canning and preparations to take
home. Participants pay half for fresher food and the
rest of their investment goes to participating
churches and schools.
Ingredients
* 2 nutrition specialists
* 1 culinary school faculty
* 1 church kitchen with unused space
* 1 local food shopping trip
* food prep & storage equipment and materials
| 68 |
Salsa Barter
Dream / Small gardeners grow their products
Local gardeners engage local graphic artists and

marketing experts to design award winning labels
for their salsa products. The gardeners, who also
happen to be decent web designers trade web
design services and a year's worth of great salsas for
graphic and marketing services to take their
products to local and national markets.
Ingredients
* 2 local gardeners
* 1 graphic artist
* 1 marketing expert
* local salsa products
Pavement Garden Paradise
Dream / Every empty parking lot is a thriving

neighborhood garden
Local gardeners team up to build thriving

community gardens on top of several feet of wood
chips and mulch in abandoned local parking lots
Ingredients
* 4 local gardeners
| 69 |
* 1 abandoned parking lot
* truck load of wood chips and mulch
* garden materials & supplies
| 70 |
Postscript
When people come together in community, people

know each other, look out for each other, connect
each other, barter with each other, and engage each
other. People are conscious, caring, and committed
to what’s more possible together than in isolation or
competition.
Given the political, architectural, and social

experiments in the past several generations, it is
clear that community is not the natural outgrowth of
rapid development of built environments, the
accumulation of power by political parties, or even
the practices of representational governance
models.
Community builds, grows, and thrives when the

right kinds of conversations bring out the best in
people. The quality of any community will always
reflect the quality of its conversations. We are now
learning from experience that new kinds of
communities emerge naturally and sustainably from
new kinds of conversations. It is as profound as that.
| 71 |
Authors
George Nemeth
George Nemeth is an innovator and thought leader

in online collaboration and community building.
He brings to the table experience in website design,
network architecture design, strategic technology
sales and marketing, technology integration
research, and technical support & consulting. With
a BA from John Carroll University in Business
Administration, George's work focuses on the uses
of technology as a means of managing knowledge
and collaboration in organizations.
George has to his credits the creation and

promotion of online and offline communities and is
a Chief Information Office for the innovative online
newsletter, Cool Cleveland. He hosts and develops
one of the premier blogs, BrewedFreshDaily.com,
featuring a dynamic intersection of economic
development, technology, and quality of life posts
and links.
As a Microsoft Certified Professional, George has

worked in information management systems with
companies including Swagelok and NCS DataCom,
and is fluent in XML, RSS, scripting languages, and
a variety of data bases. George has also been an
instructor at several area schools leading students in
a self-directed exploration of graphic
communication, focusing on the user of blogs,
| 72 |
wikis, and other traditional forms of print and
electronic media.
Most recently, Nemeth joined the board of trustees

for ArtsCollinwood, an organization in his
neighborhood that believes a flourishing arts
community enriches a neighborhood’s quality of life
both economically and culturally. "Supporting a
stimulating arts environment and encouraging
continuing education in the arts where I live is one
of the reasons we chose Collinwood", says George.
George is also serving organizations in the

development of blogs and other collaborative and
social media.
| 73 |
Jack Ricchiuto
For 30 years, Jack has worked with groups across

over 24 industries in over 24 urban, rural, and
virtual communities and markets. He works with
groups from 5 to over 500 including organizational
teams, project teams, community groups, task
forces, governing boards and committees, and
leadership teams. His work is about transformation.
Jack's industries and markets have included:

Aerospace, Architecture, Automotive, Bio Tech,
Communications, Consulting, Consumer Products,
Commercial Products, Community Development,
Design/Build Firms, Economic Development,
Education, Sustainability, Finance, Government,
Health Care, Industrial, Information Technology,
Internet Startups, Leadership Development, Legal &
Accounting, Manufacturing, Marketing, Non-Profit
Services, Publishing/Media.
Jack's books include Collaborative Creativity

(1997), Accidental Conversations (2002), Project
Zen (2003), Appreciative Leadership (2005),
Mountain Paths (2006), Conscious Becoming
(2007).
Jack’s work with leaders and organizations focuses

on issues including strategic planning, executive
and life coaching, project management coaching,
leadership development, organization development,
| 74 |
board effectiveness, innovation management, social
network development and community and
economic development.
Jack’s undergraduate degree is from John Carroll

University (1974) and graduate degree from
Goddard College, Vermont (1980). In his early
training in his 20's, he was mentored by the
pioneers in American, European, and Japanese
models of personal growth and development. He
continues teaching and curriculum design with
undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctorate
programs in colleges and universities including Kent
State University, Vanderbilt University, and UC
Berkeley.
| 75 |
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Beyond the Book
If you want to order new or additional copies of

Instructions from the Cook, and read more from the
book’s website and blog, visit:
Book orders & more / www.IntentionalModel.com

Blog / www.RadicalTransitions.net
You can also invite George and Jack to provide

speaking and workshops to your group or
community by contacting them at:
georgenemeth@gmail.com and
jack@designinglife.com
or 216.373.7475
Email George or Jack with new recipe ideas and

success stories.
Thank you.
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Instructions From The Cook

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Instructions From The Cook

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Instructions from the Cook

Published by DesigningLife Books

Copyright 2008 George Nemeth & Jack Ricchiuto

First Printing, July 2008

Cover Design: Tia Andrako

The single copy price is $12.95. For multiple-copy

If you buy multiple copies and send us email

15/ Local Foods

Instructions from the Cook is an introduction to a

The model we present here is an introduction to the

The model we present in Instructions from the Cook

We deeply appreciate the contributions of Tia

George Nemeth & Jack Ricchiuto

Once upon a time, a wise cook came upon a village

“I have only these four magic stones,” the cook humbly

A few minutes later, the villagers appeared with some

And quickly returning, the potatoes were added to the

We have been studying communities for a long time

The four new conversations of our model are

In Dream Space conversations, we talk about what

In Small Acts conversations, we talk about small

In Gifts conversations, we talk about the talents,

In Invitation conversations, we talk about who else

Many new Dreams require new levels of

We have come to discover that new ideas that work

Improbable collaborations happen between and

Inspired and engaged in new conversations, the

When communities start to think in terms of

When we become fluent in the four new

✦ Everything in life happens the moment it

When we allow these truths to permeate the culture

Community. Gifts together.

The origin of the word community is "gifts together."

When a community is vital, people know each

When a community is vital, people don't wait for

The Recipes Explained

Instructions from the Cook is written in the spirit of

Glassman and Fields’ book details the modern-day

Throughout Instructions from the Cook, we present

Each recipe has four unique features:

✦ The articulation of a Dream

We present them to you to inspire innovations and

Expect to get better at thinking in recipes. Expect

Dream/ A neighborhood Dreams of a thriving

People gather 2-3 local farmers and 2-3 local

* 2-3 local organic farmers

We live in an age of fast and big. We impatiently

Our bias for big continues to eclipse our

In a culture of big and fast, we risk postponing the

We need to start thinking about what's possible

Different is the point of transformation and the good

Skipping foundational steps in order to get to scale

There are two kinds of assets in any community:

If we constrain our conversations to tangible assets,

The fastest way to keep intangible assets unengaged

Many community master plans leverage tangible

New conversations thrive in communities

The Power of Possibilities

When people come together to build their

Many communities still believe that by focusing on

Nothing creative or collaborative comes from talk

People move forward with conversations about

Dream/ Graduating art students have the space and

Art enthusiasts envision a thriving artistic