Our five-step discovery process to strengthen individuals, self-organized groups, and organizations coming together has been part of Wildflowers Institute’s toolkit for the past twenty years. In each step below, we assess, improve, and refine as a means to discovery.

1. Community-driven surveys to identify salient problems and solutions to them;

2. Panels of respected experts to assess projects;

3. Community assemblies to explore, discuss, and support new projects;

4. Workshops to build 3-D models of community formations and project plans; and

5. Gatherings to dialogue, reflect, and evaluate.

As one example, Wildflowers Institute’s patented 3-D Model Building tool is a unique methodology designed to help social groups, teams, and organizations enhance their social structures and problem-solving abilities. In workshops, participants collaboratively identify a shared community issue by building a three-dimensional model on a tabletop to represent their organization. Over multiple sessions, they refine individual and collective strategies, reaching consensus on direction, social order, and collaboration on the issue in question. The model-building process serves as both a mirror—reflecting the current organization—and a lens—revealing interdependencies within the community. This approach uncovers the underlying principles guiding the community, highlighting previously “unseen” individuals, groups, and organizations.

Click here for a video of Brad Paul, former Deputy Executive Director for Local Government Services with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), building a 3-D model of San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

Ethiopian community members in San Jose building 3-D models.