With the goal of creating transformative change that lasts, The Weave tries to answer the question: what would the ideal engagement look like? It provides guidance for sustainability practitioners wishing to more deeply engage people in creating their sustainable future.

The Weave integrates the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), also known as The Natural Step Framework, with strategic process design principles and dialogue-based methodologies. The FSSD is the skeleton that provides the structure of planning for sustainability, while the ABCD process provides a high-level approach for moving through the strategic planning stages in a step-wise manner.

So, how can sustainability practitioners engage people in this process to create transformative change that lasts? Using dialogue-based methodologies is one approach because they were specifically designed to bring about meaningful conversations to engage groups of people. Any model of organizational transformation should have dialogue as a central element. Dialogue can create relationships of trust and transparency, leading to the emergence of new knowledge and shared meaning.

Participatory processes included in The Weave are used by the Art of Hosting network, a global community of practitioners using methodologies to engage groups in conversations that matter. The methodologies in The Weave are World Café, Open Space Technology, The Circle, and Pro Action Café, Appreciative Inquiry and Theory U. Expansion of this list is anticipated with ongoing development of this guide.

The Weave provides systematic guidance for designing participatory strategic planning engagements for sustainable development.

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