One of the most critical moments in any community mobilisation process is the transition from the energy of the initial gathering to the sustained, organised action that actually changes things. Large celebratory gatherings generate momentum, connection and shared purpose. But without a structured next step that channels that energy into specific and manageable action, the momentum dissipates within days. People return to their normal lives, the connections formed at the gathering fade and the possibility that felt so alive in the room becomes a pleasant memory rather than a living practice.

The Festival of Ideas is designed as precisely that structured next step. It is a platform that allows the energy and the emerging themes of the initial gathering to be quickly organised into specific, actionable initiatives, led by the people who care most about them and grounded in the assets that the community already holds.

The self-organising principle

The Festival of Ideas operates on a principle of self-organisation rather than top-down programme design. Following the initial celebratory gathering, theme groups that have begun to emerge from the conversations are given the opportunity to convene themselves around the areas they care most about. This self-organisation is not anarchic; it is shaped by a clear structure and a consistent set of questions that each group works through.

The self-organising principle matters because it ensures that the initiatives that emerge from the Festival of Ideas are genuinely owned by the people who care about them, rather than being designed by a facilitation team and then presented to the community for adoption. When people choose their own theme and convene themselves around it, their commitment to the work that follows is qualitatively different from the engagement of people who have been assigned to a workstream by an external organiser.

The three-tier sorting of action

The heart of the Festival of Ideas is a structured process for sorting potential actions into three distinct tiers. The first tier asks: what can we do using pure local people power, with no external assistance of any kind? The second asks: what can we do with minor outside assistance, whether that is a small amount of funding, access to a specific skill or the use of an institutional space? The third asks: what do we genuinely need outside agencies to handle on our behalf, because it falls beyond our internal capacity?

This three-tier sorting is a disciplined act of honest self-assessment. It requires the group to look carefully at their actual internal assets before reaching for external support. It challenges the reflex to categorise everything in the third tier simply because it feels easier to outsource than to own. And it produces a clear and empowering picture of how much the group can actually begin, right now, without waiting for anyone to give them permission or resources.

Protecting against default dependency

The most important function of the three-tier sorting is its protection against default dependency. In most community and organisational settings, the implicit assumption is that significant action requires external resources: funding, professional expertise, institutional approval. This assumption is so deeply embedded that it operates below the level of conscious awareness. Groups present their ideas in the language of what they need rather than in the language of what they can do.

The Festival of Ideas explicitly challenges this assumption by requiring each group to begin with what they can do themselves and to work through the tiers in order. The experience of discovering how much falls in the first and second tiers, how much is achievable with existing assets and minimal support, is often genuinely surprising and reliably energising. It shifts the group’s relationship to the challenge from one of dependency to one of capable, self-directed action.

From festival to ongoing practice

The Festival of Ideas is not a one-off event. It is a format that can be returned to whenever a community or organisation needs to recalibrate its relationship to its own capacity, channel new energy into specific action or review the progress of existing initiatives against the original three-tier sorting.

Communities that adopt it as a regular practice develop a cultural fluency with the self-organising, asset-first approach that it embodies. Over time, the three-tier question becomes a reflex rather than a structured exercise: a habitual first response to any new challenge or opportunity that keeps the community oriented toward its own resources before it looks outward for help.

Questions for reflection

Think of a primary objective your group wants to achieve. What percentage of that goal can be accomplished immediately using only your internal skills, connections and existing resources?

How does categorising your goals into three tiers protect you from the reflex of defaulting immediately to a state of dependency on outside experts or institutional funding?

Think of a community or organisational initiative that stalled after a promising start. At what point did the transition from energy to action fail, and what would a Festival of Ideas have offered at that moment?

What is one specific theme or challenge in your community that would benefit from being taken through the Festival of Ideas process this month?

Inspired by: Russell, C. and McKnight, J. (2022) The connected community: discovering the health, wealth, and power of neighborhoods. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.