Our Current Pilot Support

 

Page status (temporary)

needs intro - Drigo 

needs additions from Fabi

Samara wants to provide a supportive structure for SEEDS Ambassadors that are active in local pilots. It is about bringing Ambassadors together in fruitful way to encourage knowledge sharing and mutually supporting each other and about disseminating relevant information in a structured way. Currently, the following support structures are being tested:

Samara is currently supporting Pilots through the following efforts: 

1. Pilot Pods as Communities of Practice

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly".^[1]

The purpose of pilot pods is for Ambassadors to be part of a community of practice around local adoption of Seeds and SEEDS. The pod serves as a sounding board for adoption strategies and for mutual help and support.

Pilot Pods consist of a (recommended) maximum of 3-4 Ambassadors working on Local Adoption Pilot Projects that are similar in characteristics, challenges and opportunities*. Ambassadors can join existing pods or form new ones with the help of the Pilot Projects Database. The database lists existing Pilot Pods as well as Pilot Projects to help Ambassadors self-organize into Pilot Pods.

A suggested format is to meet weekly or biweekly using i.e. the format of a Case Clinic (Presencing Institute) or Mastermind Group Meeting. Each meeting, one Ambassador presents their case while the other pod members deeply listen and then collectively offer support / feedback / ideas to help this case.

Pods will be encouraged to record their insights and define a lamp lighter to bring issues and learnings from the ground into the Global Pilot Sensing Calls.

*shared characteristics may be: demographics, culture, time zone, 'verticals' (i.e. regenerative tourism, food system, etc.) 

Status & Learnings

• there are currently some suggested pod assignments, however, only two of them have been activated
• positive feedback on format of Mastermind Group Meeting
• pod assignements are included in the Pilot Project Database

Questions to further explore:

• How do we make the self-organization into pods an easy and joyful experience?
• What are the most important characteristics of pilot projects to consider when organizing into pods?
• How do we support and facilitate regular pod meetings? i.e. by learning from the "Meet Seedizens" experience to prompt Ambassadors to schedule pod meetings
• How can be we collect and share learnings from the pods to make this an easy and rewarding experience for the involved Ambassadors?
• How do we synthesize and process insights from pods in a meaningful way?

2. Global Pilot Calls for Knowledge Sharing

Global Pilot Calls connect and share knowledge among Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots. 

Global Pilot Calls are coordinated through a facilitated community thread on the SEEDS Discord server in the Local Adoption Pilots channel. They take place weekly or bi-weekly and rotate between a speaker series (designed to introduce a variety of tools, resources and concepts within the SEEDS ecosystem relevant for Local Adoption Pilots) and sensing calls (bringing Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots together to share approaches, results, and lessons learned or raise concerns).

The Q&A sessions with speakers from the Global Pilot Calls are recorded and a protocol of the answered questions will be collected in a wiki and shared.

Status & Learnings

• Our first Speaker Series Call was hosted on April 7, 2021 with Steph from LocalScale (see below) and announced as an e-Townhall
• Q&A format with collecting questions through Slido was tested
• The schedule of future Global Pilot Calls and facilitation structure is still being coordinated
• Structure and means of collecting insights, feedback and requests from Pilot Calls need to be defined

April 2021

April 7, 6pm UTC: Q&A session with Steph from LocalScale
Description: Market platforms for regenerative products and services (both locally and globally) where Seeds are a (preferred) payment option play a key role in Seeds adoption. LocalScale is developing such a platform and virtual farmers market. Steph will present LocalScale, followed by a Q&A session. See alpha version of the virtual farmers market.  
Questions were collected in advance and during the call with Slido

Topics for upcoming sessions (currently being voted on on SEEDS Discord): 

3. Holding Space on the SEEDS Discord Server

The #local-adoption-pilot channel on the SEEDS Discord Server serves as a place holder to gather and communicate with Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots. It is there that the information about pods and pilot calls are shared. The channel is moderated and surveyed by Samarans.

Ambassadors that are designing campaign proposals to activate their communities or Ambassadors from the Ambassador Academy ready to launch a local adoption pilot are directed to this channel.

4. Synthesizing and Sharing Learnings

I have now incorporated Status & Learnings as well as open questions above. Not sure, if this is helpful – FV
I feel this is perhaps where we could link to the current collection of possible strategies and approaches as this would be how we synthesize learnings? 

To collect, synthesize and share learnings from the Ambassadors active on the ground in local adoption pilots in a meaningful and accessible way is key. The goal is to compile an evolving Pilot Wiki with

• Tools and Resources explained (recordings & notes from Speaker Series)
• Collection of further Useful Tools and Resources for Local Adoption Pilots
• Best Practices, Approaches and Strategies

Frequently asked questions and requests have to be fed back also to Hypha to help further evolve and improve the tools and existing resources.

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[1]  "Introduction to communities of practice - A brief overview of the concept and its uses". Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner. Retrieved 18 April 2021.