| The process of master planning must fully engage the people who are affected by and a part of administering the master plan. Virginia’s most successful work with design results from attending to the process of achieving the design as much as attending to the final product. And this is done in with efficient use of money, human resources and time.
Virginia works in such a way that potential stakeholders in the project get involved and “buy in” to the project as it is evolving rather than having to be “sold to” after the design. Traditional master planning results are rarely implemented when they have been “sold”. She has come to realize that a master plan should be created with as many members of the community as are interested in joining in the process. Developing the plan with only the usual planning committee will not capture the wisdom of the many who love the community and who have an investment in the outcomes of the master plan.
Open Space Technology, a Large Systems Intervention technique, is often recommended because the results always exceed expectations, involve the stakeholders, and enables the plan to directly reflect the passions of the stakeholders so that there is “buy in” for the master plan during the process itself. In Virginia’s work, she discovered that human process is as important as the resulting master plan. |
