The Essential Guide

to Doing Transition
Getting Transition started in your street, community,
town or organisation.

By the Transition Network team

The Essential Guide to Doing Transition
Your guide to starting Transition in your street, community,
town or organisation.

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Transition Network

43 Fore Street
Totnes
Devon
TQ9 5HN
00 44 (0) 1803 865669
[email protected]
www.transitionnetwork.org

Created by Rob Hopkins and Michael Thomas, with input from

Sophy Banks, Ainslie Beattie, Ben Brangwyn, Naresh Giangrande,
Sarah McAdam, Claire Milne, and Transitioners around the world.

Designed by Jane Brady

www.emergencydesign.com

Cover illustration by Alister Wynn of thisisyoke.com.

This document is released by Transition Network under Creative

Commons.
Lighthouses dont go running all over
an island looking for boats to save;
they just stand there shining.
- Anne Lamott
 Contents

Why this Beginners Guide? 5

Part One: Welcome to Transition! 7

What is Transition?
Why?
Principles
Head, Heart and Hands

Part Two: The 7 essential Ingredients for doing Transition successfully 10

1. Healthy Groups: Learning how to work well together 12
2. Vision: Imagining the future you want to co-create 18
3. Get your community involved in Transition: developing relationships 22
beyond friends and natural allies
4. Networks and Partnerships: Collaborating with others 26
5. Practical projects: Developing inspirational projects 30
6. Part of a movement: Linking up with other Transitioners 36
Every revolution needs its banners: the role of creativity in Transition
7. Reflect & celebrate: Celebrating the difference you're making 41

Part Three: How to start Transition Developing an initiating group (in depth) 44
Starting an Initiating Group: some key things to think about

Part Four: Consolidate Moving beyond the Initiating group to an established 53

Transition initiative

Part Five: The Transition Healthcheck 58

Introducing the Transition Animal

Resources 63
Books
Films

4
Why this Beginners Guide?
We now have 10 years' experience of supporting groups bringing Transition
to life in over 50 countries, in towns, cities, villages, institutions. We have a
pretty clear idea now of what works and what doesn't, and we want to share
that with you so you can be as effective as possible as quickly as possible.

We have created a lot of resources to support groups doing and being,

Transition. In this Beginners Guide we will signpost you to everything you
will need as you begin the journey to doing some extraordinary things where
you live. Think of this as your Transition Starter Pack.

Take it, run with it, do amazing things.

Some Numbers
This Guide is based on 10 years experience of making Transition happen in
1,400 communities in 50 countries and contains:

64 pages
1 Transition Healthcheck
7 Essential Ingredients of doing Transition successfully
3 Keepers every meeting should have
1 Magic Number
7 Ingredients for ensuring diversity in your group
11 Tips for Good Celebrations
5 Stages of Group Life
37 ideas for practical projects you could initiate

5
 1
Welcome to
Transition!
Transition is an ongoing social
experiment, a movement of
communities coming together to
reimagine and rebuild our world
through a process of creating
healthy human culture. It's a
movement you can join. It is
inspirational, positive, evolving,
and if you've made it here, it may
well be just what you're looking
for. Whether you're excited by
visiting a Transition initiative,
have a particular project in mind,
or have been inspired by seeing
a film such as Demain or In
Transition 2.0 and have decided
it's time to do something (you're
right), this Beginners Guide is
here to help. So let's start with
the obvious first question...

Left: Transition Town Tooting's 'Foodival' is

an annual festival reimagining what local
food means in an urban context.

7
What is Transition?

Transition is a movement that has been growing since 2005. It is about

communities stepping up to address the big challenges they face by
starting local. By coming together, they are able to create solutions
together. They seek to nurture a caring culture, one focused on connection
with self, others and nature. They are reclaiming the economy, sparking
entrepreneurship, reimagining work, reskilling themselves and and weaving
webs of connection and support. Courageous conversations are being had;
extraordinary change is unfolding.
We'll tell you some of their stories as we go through. It's an approach that has spread now
to over 50 countries, in thousands of groups: in towns, villages, cities, universities, schools.
One of the key ways it spreads is through telling inspiring stories. We really hope you feel
inspired to take part, we'd be honoured if you did.

Why? Here are some short videos in

which people share why they
People get involved with Transition for all sorts
of reasons: do Transition.

To get to know their neighbours

To feel that they are making a difference in
the world, both now, and for future generations
To overcome the sense of disconnection they feel
from self, others and from the nature around
them
because the world's huge challenges feel more
manageable if addressed at the local scale
To catalyse all manner of new projects,
enterprises and investment opportunities
To learn new skills
To feel like they are creating a more life-
enhancing story for their place
To feel connected to other people, the natural
world, and to something historic and exciting
happening around them
Because they feel it is "the right thing to do"
Because they feel disenfranchised by politics and
want to be able to take back a sense that they can
influence the world around them

8
Principles We freely share ideas and power: Transition is
a grassroots movement, where ideas can be
Here are some principles which guide what taken up rapidly, widely and effectively
we do: because each community takes ownership of
the process themselves. Transition looks
We respect resource limits and create different in different places and we want to
resilience: the urgent need to reduce carbon encourage rather than unhelpfully constrain
dioxide emissions, greatly reduce our reliance that diversity.
on fossil fuels and make wise use of precious
resources is at the forefront of everything We collaborate and look for synergies: the
we do. Transition approach is to work together as a
community, unleashing our collective genius
We promote inclusivity and social justice: the to have a greater impact together than we can
most disadvantaged and powerless people in as individuals. We will look for opportunities
our societies are likely to be worst affected by to build creative and powerful partnerships
rising fuel and food prices, resource shortages across and beyond the Transition movement
and extreme weather events. We want to and develop a collaborative culture, finding
increase the chances of all groups in society to links between projects, creating open
live well, healthily and with sustainable decision-making processes and designing
livelihoods. events and activities that help people make
connections.
We adopt subsidiarity: self-organisation and
decision making at the appropriate level. The We foster positive visioning and creativity:
intention of the Transition model is not to our primary focus is not on being against
centralise or control decision making, but things, but on developing and promoting
rather to work with everyone so that it is positive possibilities. We believe in using
practiced at the most appropriate, practical creative ways to engage and involve people,
and empowering level encouraging them to imagine the future they
want to inhabit. The generation of new stories
We pay attention to balance: in responding to is central to this visioning work, as is having
urgent, global challenges, individuals and fun and celebrating success.
groups can end up feeling stressed, closed or
driven rather than open, connected and Head, Heart and Hands
creative. We create space for reflection,
celebration and rest to balance the times when Doing Transition successfully is about finding a
were busily getting things done. We explore balance between these:
different ways of working which engage our
heads, hands and hearts and enable us to The Head: we act on the basis of the best
develop collaborative and trusting information and evidence available and apply
relationships. our collective intelligence to find better ways
of living.
We are part of an experimental, learning
network: Transition is a real-life, real-time The Heart: we work with compassion, valuing
global social experiment. Being part of a and paying attention to the emotional,
network means we can create change more psychological, relational and social aspects of
quickly and more effectively, drawing on each the work we do.
others experiences and insights. We want to
acknowledge and learn from failure as well as The Hands: we turn our vision and ideas into a
success - if were going to be bold and find tangible reality, initiating practical projects
new ways of living and working, we wont and starting to build a new, healthy economy
always get it right first time. We will be open in the place we live.
about our processes and will actively seek and
respond positively to feedback. So, lets get started shall we?
9
 2 The 7
essential
2. Vision
Imagining the future
you want to co-create

ingredients
for doing
Transition

1. Healthy groups
Learning how to work
well together

3. Involvement
Getting the wider community involved
and developing relationships beyond
friends and natural allies
 4. Networks &
partnerships
Collaborating with others

6. Part of a movement
Scaling up your impacts by linking up with
Transitioners elsewhere

7. Reflect & celebrate

Reflecting on how you're doing and
celebrating the difference you're making

5. Practical projects
Inspiring others and building new
infrastructures
Healthy Groups
Learning how to work well together

People often look at the great projects that come out of Transition: community
energy projects; local currencies; ambitious food projects and so on, and they
assume they happen by magic. But central to any project being successful is a
healthy group. Creating healthy groups is something we aren't taught in
school, or in most work settings. It requires a set of skills and tools that we
may well not have. So over the last 10 years we have created various
resources that will support you to co-create a group culture based on the
trusting, caring and compassionate relationships needed to make decisions
effectively, run nourishing and successful meetings and events, avoid
burnout, navigate conflict healthily and maintain members in the longer term.

Crystal Palace Transition Town members who formed Crystal Palace Food Market: We want
the children to grow up thinking this is normal. Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.
People often look at the great projects that come out of Transition: community energy projects;
local currencies; ambitious food projects and so on, and they assume they happen by magic.
But central to any project being successful is a healthy group.

Creating healthy groups is something we aren't taught in school, or in most work settings.
It requires a set of skills and tools that we may well not have. So we have created a number of
resources about healthy groups that will give you a clear understanding of how groups develop,
the ability to make decisions, the ability to run successful meetings, keep people in your group,
document what you're doing and manage conflict.

When we get together, its like everyone is feeding everyone else.

Theres this atmosphere of I tell you you tell me. Everyone
listens, then someone comes up with another idea. Its like collective
excitement, collective inspiration, collective knowledge, coming
together for the profit of the group. You can feel the thrill.
- Emiliano Muoz, Portillo en Transicin, Spain.

Food is a time-honoured way of creating a good group culture. At the Transition in

Action Youth Exchange in Hungary, Italian participant, Andrea, shares his pizza-making
skills with the rest of the group. Photo: Hajnal Fekete

Transition Network Resources

You'll find our guide to creating and maintaining healthy groups here
and our guide to making decisions here. Our Inner Transition activities
for meetings will also give you some great tools.

13
The Stages of Group Life
In 1965, Bruce Tuckman suggested there are 4 stages of group development:
Forming; Storming; Norming; Performing. To his list we add a fifth, Mourning.
They should help you make sense of what you see happening in your group,
at whichever stage it may be.

Forming happening, people who have

taken on roles of
going to work together, roles
are defined, structures agreed
At this stage everything feels responsibility being upon, procedures for
wonderful. The air is rich with challenged. Things can feel meetings. Relationships have
possibility, everyone is contentious, uncomfortable deepened to a level very
getting along great. We think and upsetting, especially to different from the Forming
our group is fantastic. We people who dont like stage. In this stage, all group
might look at other groups conflict. But this is a key members move towards
and wonder why they seem to stage, and if your group can sharing the responsibility and
struggle so much! But the get through it, it will be much commitment to work for the
reason its working like this is stronger and more resilient success of the groups goals.
that we havent yet agreed our as a result. Things that help this stage go
group culture, and are well include:
managing to avoid differences Whats happening is that you
and disagreements. During have reached a stage where Honouring people who
this stage, it is important that there is enough trust in the leave: this may not work
your group: group for people to feel able for everyone. If people
to challenge and disagree choose to step out,
Take time to really meet with each other. Groups find a suitable way to
and listen to each other. often fail at this stage, but it honour everything they
Create a shared sense of is essential, it is your group have brought to
purpose working out how to operate. the group
Get to know each other Several things can help get Its happening: a sense
better. How is each person you through this stage: that the group is coming
under stress, what do they together, is able to work
care about, how good are Good listening well: it feels like being
they are sharing their A neutral facilitator part of something
thoughts and emotions? Repeating back: what I exciting.
Agree structures that will heard you say is
help the group work well Patience
Create group agreements, Shared purpose
particularly around
decision-making. During this stage, some
Recognise that rather than people may leave, and thats
just leaping into doing OK. This tends to be when
stuff, giving attention to the need for processes and
this stuff is just as, if not structures is most keenly felt.
more, important.
Storming Norming
After a while you might find In this stage, agreements are
tensions arising, arguments reached about how youre
14
Performing Mourning Thoughts
This is when you find It may be that projects your In the life of a group it is rare
yourselves feeling that you group initiates will fail, that that its evolution happens in
are being effective and people leave the group, or the sequence set out here.
getting things done easily. even that the whole group Often they happen alongside
That feels good! Youll find stops for one reason or each other. Your Norming
your group competent and another. Its important to could be accompanied by a lot
motivated, with each person mark these endings of Storming, for instance!
clear as to their role and task. appropriately.
There is good communication You should also be mindful
and people work well If one or more people leave, that when new people join,
together. mark the occasion: share a there will be a new Forming
meal; give a gift, a card. stage to include the views of
The group is good at making whos joined without losing
decisions together, and can If the group is ending, have the valuable work which has
hold people accountable for a shared event to celebrate gone before.
their tasks. all that you have achieved.
Make space to talk about You can read a fuller account
Differences and the loss and sadness people of these stages here.
disagreements are seen as might be feeling, and to
part of a healthy group appreciate what it is that
culture. Achievements are you have enjoyed about
regularly celebrated, and working with each other.
space is made for reflection as
to where the group might like You may need to agree a
to go in the future. way to pass on any assets
the group may be left with.

A Transition Berkeley Pot Luck.

Photo: Transition Berkeley.

15
 Your first meeting
Your first meeting is really important. It will set the tone, and the
culture, of how your group will work together. The aim is to get
your group off to a good start, agreeing what youre all here to do,
finding out about each other, establishing how you will work
together, becoming friends. Some groups try to get on with doing
things really fast, but often come unstuck later so let these early
stages take a bit of time. This will give you a solid foundation to
build on.

There are a few things youll need to do in advance of the meeting:

Invite those who are going to attend: give some thought to who should be
there, and, so far as its possible, try to get as much of your communitys
diversity in the room as you can
Choose a venue: somewhere comfortable, that doesnt exclude anyone
(whether through accessibility, religious or cultural reasons, or inaccessibility
for those dependent on public transport)
Appoint a facilitator: its important to get into the habit of having a facilitator.
This role can rotate, but for the first meeting, make sure someone knows they
will be taking the role

One of the keys to good meetings is to open and close them successfully. So here
are some ideas for your first meeting, as well as some suggestions for how to open
and close them well.

Opening: Start with a check-in.

Start your meeting with a go-round where everyone speaks, uninterrupted, for a
couple of minutes. They should introduce themselves, talk about how they are,
whats happening in their life. You could also ask everyone, once theyve done that,
to reflect briefly on something they are grateful for at the moment or something
they love about living in this place. Starting in this way sets the culture that we meet
as friends who care about each other rather than as colleagues with an agenda to
speed through. It really makes a difference.

16
 ACTIVITY

It can also be useful to appoint 3 Keepers:

A Keeper of the Time: whose role is to keep the meeting to time, to allocate times to
different items and to make sure everything finishes on time
A Keeper of the Record: who keeps a record of the meeting, whether as minutes, a
mindmap, or in whatever format the group feels would be useful
A Keeper of the Heart: whose role is to pay attention to the groups energy and dynamics, to
point out when any intervention might be needed due to low energy levels, underlying
tensions or other issues that might emerge and affect the smooth running of the group

The body of the meeting:

You could do all sorts of things during the meeting itself:

Get to know each other, find out more about why each person is here and their hopes
for the Transition group
Develop a shared understanding of Transition
Decide what area you want your Initiative to cover
Find out what skills people have and other groups they may be linked to
Understand each others ways of dealing with stress: see our activity here
If you have a programme of events planned, involve people in helping with these
its good to do some things together to find out how you work as a team
Actively develop the group, its relationships, understanding and ways of working

Take time to get to know each other. It is the relationships that you form that are a key part
of what is going to keep you going through the rough patches, when there are disagreement
and things maybe arent going very well.

Have a look at our activity sheet 'Inner Transition activities for meetings' which has some
great, very practical exercises for bringing depth and energy to your meetings.

Closing: Make time to reflect on the meeting

It is good to get into the habit of making time at the end of your meeting to reflect on how it
went and what worked, as well as what didnt work? What could be done better next time?
Without it, there is no way to pick up if people are feeling excluded, frustrated or confused.
It also creates a space to thank those whose good work made the meeting go well (see
Stages of Group Life above).

You might also need:

Tea, biscuits/cake, flipchart paper and pens, a laptop for taking notes, some way of
keeping time.

17
Vision
Imagining the future you want to co-create

One of the key challenges with creating a low carbon, more resilient future is
imagining what that might be like. Vibrant, diverse, delicious, connected and
nurturing, or eating mouldy potatoes in a damp cave? Transition groups are
great at helping people create visions of the future they'd like to see and
then start taking steps towards it.

Transition Laguna Beach's vision of a low-carbon future. They're going to get some terrible
salt spray damage on those aubergines. Image: Transition Laguna Beach.
Having a shared vision can help provide a real focus for your group and helps communicate to
others what you are doing and why. It can also inspire local people and other groups to get
involved and help make that vision a reality. Possibly most importantly, it encourages people to
think of new possibilities for their future, which can be really empowering.

One of the simplest tools for visioning is just to invite people to close their eyes and imagine
themselves walking down the street in 2030 and stopping to look around. Ask them what they
can see or hear. Invite them to record their impressions through drawing, painting, or writing
poetry, stories, or perhaps small ad columns from a future local newspaper. Much of what we
read in the popular press is based on conflict, so creative exercises that, for example, invite
people to write newspaper articles from the future, can work really well for some people.

I was deeply disturbed and sad about the state of the natural world
and society. Getting involved with Transition Pasadena has meant
going from despair to community and being able to follow a passion
and get help with it. It changed my relationship to the problems.
- Laurel Beck. Transition Pasadena, US.

A 'gallery' of crowd-sourced visions of the future: Transition Network conference 2010,

at Seale Hayne, Newton Abbot, Devon, UK. Image: Mike Grenville.

Transition Network Resources

You'll find our guide to engaging your community in creating a vision
here. One great tool for generating visions is Open Space Technology.
Check out our guide to running Open Space events here. Our activity
'Visioning a post-Transition future' can be downloaded here. Our
activity 'Producing a Timeline' is also very useful.

19
What's your vision of the future?
Here are some ideas to get you started...

Urban Agriculture
In a Transition world, food will be grown closer to
home, organically, in intensive systems that enhance
biodiversity, and well all have the skills to do it. It will
change the way our towns and cities look and feel.

Celebration
Vital to this being successful is ensuring as many
opportunities for celebration as possible. This
process should after all, as Richard Heinberg put
it, feel more like a party than a protest march.
"Food Belt"
The land adjoining our towns, villages
and cities will be reconnected to feeding
that place, creating more jobs, and
reconnecting people with how, where,
and by whom their food is grown.

Community Energy
Energy generation, where possible, will be in
community ownership. This brings many benefits
Productive Trees to local economies, creates jobs and recentralises
In the future, why would we plant power (in both meanings of the term).
ornamental, unproductive trees, when
we could plant fruit or nut trees?
Lets reimagine our towns and cities
as food forests.

* Transition Network offers From Burnout to Balance

workshops to support the co-creation of new culture
based on collective and self-care.
20
 From Burnout to Balance*
Transition groups are learning how to co-create a new culture
based on collective and self-care and which recognises our own
health and wellbeing as essential to truly helpful engagement
in Transition. Some groups have mentoring schemes, where
professional counsellors and therapists support those at the
heart of Transition, minimising the risk of burnout.

Participatory Democracy
Decisions are made in a far more decentralised, engaged,
bottom-up way, with the role of government being to
support what communities are deciding.

Cycling
Many Transition groups
promote sustainable transport,
learning bike repair skills,
supporting new cyclists to gain Local economy
confidence. We can reimagine our local economies to
serve the many, not the few: incubating
new enterprises and valuing the local.

21
Involvement
Inviting your community to get involved in Transition
Through the work of thousands of Transition groups, we are learning loads
about how to involve our wider community in Transition. We have learned that
it is primarily about learning to develop relationships beyond just our friends
and natural allies - and that this takes time and patience. Rather than asking
how can we engage people in Transition, we need to start by asking: how can
we make Transition relevant to everyone in our community? We need to ask
and listen to what people's respective needs are - especially those who are
most marginalised, both economically and socially.

Doing this well can really help to raise awareness about Transition, and help
people to understand the issues that Transition addresses. It also helps
people to see that they can actually make a change in their community, and it
can inspire new people to get involved.

Cardiff Transition's public picnic was a great way to invite the public to meet the project and to
get involved. Photo: Cardiff Transition.
Community involvement is absolutely crucial to the success of Transition in your community.
As more people come into the project, you will help them form their own self-sustaining projects,
or theme groups that work with a particular focus such as Food, Energy, Communication
or Wellbeing.

Its more than a garden, its a place in the neighbourhood where

we can stay and have a few words with the neighbours, people you
normally pass by. We are seeing all different people talking to each
other, all ages, from children to old people. Its a social meeting point.
- Sbastien Mathieu, 1000 Bruxelles en Transition.

Transition Haslemere's 'Sustainable Harvest Picnic': Photo: Transition Haslemere.

Transition Network Resources

You can download our guide to community engagement here.
Our Big List exercise is very helpful here, offering a simple way to identify
people and groups in your community who could help you deliver Transition.
Our Guide to Planning and Putting On Events will come in very helpful.
Our 'How to get and keep people involved in Transition' guide is here.
You may also enjoy our 'Events and fun things to do' infosheet.

23
Diversity
Working to ensure our How can Transition succeed in building
resilience if it doesnt build friendship and
Transition groups are as trust across all barriers? Think about who
needs to be part of what youre doing, and go
diverse and inclusive as and see them - dont expect them to come to
possible isnt easy, but its you. Hard to reach is only hard to reach if we
dont try to reach out and find out how to make
vital that we do it. Transition relevant to everyone.
Here, taken from our Transition
guide, 7 Ingredients for a just, fair Celebration
and inclusive Transition, are those Diversity opens the door to celebrating the
different ways we have of expressing the
ingredients:
things that we hold in common. Celebration
enables people to comfortably move out of
Listening their comfort zone. Celebration enables
When we really listen, we are able to find people to revel in life and creative expression.
common ground and start from where people Make sure you weave celebration through all
are at. Real listening is about being prepared that you do.
to be changed by what we hear.
Exploring rank and privilege
Meeting everyday needs As Process Worker Arnold Mindell says, Any
An important question for Transition groups power, good or bad, if not recognised, can
working with marginalised communities is become oppressive and harmful. We need to
how can people even begin to think about make a concerted effort to understand our
building resilience against the future impacts relationship with power and privilege to
of peak oil and climate change if their enable us to use this to co-create a more
fundamental needs are not being met in the caring, just, equitable and life-enhancing
here and now? What are our fundamental world - in solidarity with those who our current
needs? Although our wants and desires may culture most marginalises.
vary, we all ultimately hold the same basic
needs in common. According to the
Development Specialist, Manfred Max-Neef,
Embedding diversity
If we are to build a truly inclusive and
there are nine basic, fundamental needs:
equitable Transition, perhaps the most
subsistence, protection, affection, understanding,
important ingredient we need to take away is
participation, leisure, creation, identity,
that of threading a commitment to diversity
freedom. These are very useful to bear in mind
and social justice through everything we do.
when planning Transition projects.
Our 7 Ingredients guide offers a wealth of
advice on this.
Deepening inclusion
There are many ways to place inclusion at the You can download our guide 7 Ingredients for a
heart of your Transition group: making sure just, fair and inclusive Transition here.
your meetings are not in venues that exclude
some people, not presented in ways that
exclude people and are physically accessible Left: Transition Town Tooting's 'Tour de Tooting' began
to all. Individually, people can be very with a question: "Once upon a time in a town called
committed to ideas around diversity and Tooting, there was big windmill whose sails had not
turned for a very long time. A group of children got
inclusion but as a whole, they can form a
together and wondered - if they took to the streets
culture that feels exclusive to others. All too asking everyone to create energy from their whistles,
often, this culture is drawn from, and clicks, thumbs up, high fives and smiles - could they
reflective of, the culture that is dominant in get the sails to turn again?" Photo: Luke Harris.
society. Those that are excluded by it are
therefore also the people who tend to have
less power or privilege in society at large.
Building bridges 25
Networks &
Collaborating with others
partnerships
Collaboration is vital to building Transition in your community. The skilful
building of partnerships and collaborations will enable you to reach much
further and achieve much more. It will enable you to:

Avoid duplicating each other's work

Meet new people
Develop new opportunities, ideas and solutions
Scale your work up to effectively address the gravity of challenges we
currently face
Develop joined up strategic approaches to co-creating innovative,
cross-cutting, impactful and long-lasting solutions

The Aardehuis ecovillage project in the Netherlands is a great example of a Transition initiative
working in a symbiotic way with a project that was already underway in the local community.
Photo: Vereniging Aardehuis
One option is to build a network of groups that support each other locally, another is to work in
partnership with groups on shared projects. Transition is about the art of finding, and building,
common ground, and this is particularly true in this context.

One thing we have is the Power to Convene. Somebody comes and has
a great idea, such as 'I really want to start a bicycle taxi business', and
young people who are graduates of a local bike mechanic programme
say 'we know how to take care of bikes, wed like to start a business'.
So we pulled together a community event, and got 70 people there who
were interested, and we got a whole bunch of new stakeholders and
allies, and now they have a working group and are working on setting up
that business. I think we just keep doing that in every area where there
is both a problem and people who want to do something about it.
We can get a crowd together, help identify resources and spark them.
- Chuck Collins: Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition, Boston, US.

5 ways you can work in partnership

1. Sharing information: share information with your network about other things
happening locally, and invite them to do the same with your events. This helps
avoid clashes in terms of events, and opens up new possibilities for collaboration,
and avoids any sense that you are trying to take over. [Commitment level: low]

2. Asking good questions: this is a great way to build support and relationships, and
shows you are open to the views of others. [Commitment level: low]

3. Deciding together: find effective ways to maximise meaningful engagement in

decision-making around key projects from local stakeholders. [Commitment level:
medium]

4. Harnessing the Power to Convene: inviting your supporters to invest time, money
or energy in local projects, A Local Entrepreneur Forum is a great example of this.
[Commitment level: medium]

5. Delivering projects together: this kind of partnership working can be great, and
can generate some great creative challenges. Our guide to How to create
partnerships has lots of advice on this. [Commitment level: high]

Transition Network resources

Read our complete guide to creating Networks here and Partnerships
here. You could also do our Big List activity, which offers a simple way of
identifying people and groups in your community who could help you to
deliver Transition.

27
 Build a network
Most of us are naturally part of networks, be it our family, friends or
community. Networks empower people as the health of the whole
community depends on the health of the community as a whole, so the
more you can work together and support each other the more you
strengthen and nourish each other. Building networks is about building
mutual friendships and support for your project and the work of others.
They help build Transition in your community by raising awareness of what you are doing
and building a network of support that can bring all kinds of surprises, such as:

More opportunities may come your way when developing projects

You may find that you already have a relationship with potential partners
May find you start to get help and support from your community just when you need it
You unleash the collective gifts and genius of parts of your community you weren't
even aware of

Building networks is all about supporting each other

Strong effective networks develop when people support and trust each other, the following
are some of the ways that you can do this:

Organize an event where local resources can be promoted and shared

Support & publicise other groups' projects and events on your web site and newsletter
etc...
Ask a local group or agency to host a web site listing all the brilliant and dedicated local
groups and projects working for a more caring and life-enhancing world
Ask local groups and a diverse range of respected leaders to be Advisors to your
Transition group

Who to network with and ways to build your network

The Big List Exercise is a great exercise to really think about all the potential groups or
individuals in your community who may support your work. This might help you to decide
some of the groups and people it could be useful to develop networks and partnerships with.

Building networks is all about developing relationships, so it is always great to meet people
in person if possible. It really helps if you do it a bit of research on the group/person you are
meeting beforehand so that you can:

Learn a bit about the group, for example what their aims are, what needs they are
addressing and how long the group has been going for
Think about what it is that you like about their group
Consider how you will introduce yourself and your group

28
 ACTIVITY

Think of some of the ways that you can support their group
Think about mutual benefits of being in contact with each other
Prepare some good open questions that help you to better understand how
Transition might be relevant to them and the needs and challenges they are facing

Remember Transition is about collaboration not competition, so if groups already exist in

your community who are doing Transition-type activities, then think about how you can
support each other by working collaboratively. It is also very important that people dont
feel that you are trying to take over their group. When interacting with people always be
thinking about collaboration, ask for their advice on what you want to do, offer them
opportunities to get involved and so on.

Example of a first meeting outline

Honour the past accomplishments & ongoing work of a group before telling them
about Transition, and most importantly, ask questions that will help you to better
understand their needs and challenges - and how Transition could be relevant to them
Learn about their mission, goals, programs
Find out who they reach, or seek to reach, in the community?
Share information about some of the challenges that Transition is attempting to
address such as rising energy costs and the economic impacts on the community
Ask them how the Transition movement could support their organisations work in the
community?
Ask them for support, what would they like to give to support the communitys
transition? (e.g. help connect to other groups and leaders, places to meet, copying,
events, etc.)

Building long term relationships:

As Transition is about a whole community process then it is very important to maintain
your networks, stay in contact with groups and support each other wherever possible.
Here are a few ways you can do this:

When planning events or projects always think about other groups that you could get
involved, especially those who include the more marginalised members of your
community
Support an existing project, such as helping a community orchard out during
harvesting time
Promote other groups' events and work at your events
Invite other groups to your social events
Consult with groups when planning new projects

Transition needs to have strong networks to be really effective at the necessary levels of
scale, so take time to build up those relationships as you never know where they might
lead. We are indebted and deeply grateful to Tina Clarke for this activity.

29
Practical projects
Inspiring others with what you do

The success of the Transition movement rests on us making tangible changes

in the world. For some of us this means stepping out of our comfort zone and
moving beyond ideas and meetings to taking tangible action. There is real
power in stepping across into action, into making tangible changes to the
place where you live. There is no prescriptive list of projects you should do,
rather these will emerge from your group, its interests and its passions. You
will, however, find a list of suggestions for ideas of small practical projects
you can run as Transition here, as well as overleaf. As time goes on, these
projects will become increasingly ambitious and impactful.

Members of 1000bxl en Transition in Brussels building the raised beds for their Potager
Alhambra food garden in the centre of the citys red light district. See more about their work
and other projects in the video to the right. Photo: Jan Leerman.
 "It's amazing. I've been living in Portalegre for ever, 37 years, and I
have felt my community and my city crumble, people turning their
backs on each other. The community garden we created tells me it is
possible to do things with other people. It is possible, we just need
to wake up to each other again".

- Snia Tavares, Portalegre em Transio, Portugal.

Practical projects provide lots of different ways for people to get involved in Transition, as well
as acting as really important demonstrations and public manifestations of Transition in action.

Ultimately, they can be what leads to the creation of new enterprises in your community, and of
new livelihoods and employment and training opportunities. One of them might even morph
into your new career! They are also vital because they show that not only is change possible, but
that it is already happening.

Transition Network Resources

Our Guide to Developing Practical Projects can be downloaded here
and is packed with insight and good ideas for ensuring your projects
have the best chance of success.

It may be that running Open Space events is a great way of generating

ideas and enthusiasm for your Practical Projects. See our Guide to
running Open Space events here.

31
Doing stuff
You could start a bakery, or...

Pen and ink drawing: Rob Hopkins.

Photo credits for the following pages:

Right:
Sylvia Holmes, New Forest National Park Authority, Don Hall, Rob Hopkins, Coin en Transicion, Luke Harris , Annie Leymaire, Fiona
Ward, Karolina Walicka, Transition Bro Gwaun, Paul Shepherd, Tish Rickard.

Over, page 34:

Michele Vander Syp, Julian Andrews/Eye R8 Productions Ltd, Cristiano Bottone, Maud Dan, Jonathan Goldberg, Rob Hopkins,
Kazuhiro Hakamada, Karen Whitelaw, Chris Rowland, Leamington Spa Courier, Ann Carranza, Loughborough Echo.

Over, page 35:

Jonathan Goldberg, Alfredo Cliz, Transition Town Totnes, Jonathan Goldberg, Mike Thomas, Paul Mackay, Jonathan Goldberg,
Jonathan Goldberg, Romania in Tranzitie, Transition Usk, Transition Network.

32
 Start a Repair Cafe Host a Local Food Summit Organise a 'Food Gleaning'
Pasadena, USA New Forest, UK Sarasota, USA

Mentoring for burnout Create a new food market Organise a street carnival
Totnes, UK Coin, Spain Tooting, London, UK

Share skills Open a community shop Start a Hop Club

Totnes, UK Slaithwaite, UK Crystal Palace, London, UK

Create a Surplus Food Cafe Run a community Open Space Help a school to grow food
Fishguard, UK Fujino, Japan Newent, UK
 Start a local currency Community wine-making Give a public talk
Grez, Belgium Kilburn, London, UK Cristiano Bottone, Italy

Hold large public events Run a 'Potato Day' Start a co-housing project
Liege, Belgium Stroud, UK Ungersheim, France.

Start a community energy Run 'Transition Streets' Invite community investment

company Fujino, Japan Newcastle, Australia in renewables Lewes, UK

Plant some fruit/nut Start a Seed Library Make apple juice

trees Healdsburgh, USA Loughborough, UK
 Learn natural building Community beekeeping Start a community cinema
Transition Heathrow, UK Zarzalejo, Spain Totnes, UK

Dress up as a carrot. A bit random. Make space for reflection Run 'Draughtbusting' sessions
Crystal Palace, London, UK University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Brixton, London, UK

Learn to forage Harvest fallen fruit Start a 'Free Market'

Transition Heathrow, UK Kensal to Kilburn, London, UK Bucharest, Romania

Offer free bike repairs Do some Transition Training Find more in our '21 Stories
Usk, Wales. Anywhere! of Transition'.
Part of a movement
Linking up with other Transitioners

Transition is happening in over 50 countries around the world. So once you

start an initiative, you become part of that huge learning network of people
sharing their insights, learnings and wisdom. Make the most of it! Becoming
more connected to what's happening around the world helps you to do
several things:
Share what you have learnt
Find out if your country has a national 'Hub' organisation and
make contact with them
Save time by learning from what others are doing
Support each other
Make new friends
Deepen your understanding of what Transition is about
You will feel you are not alone. Many small actions add up
to something bigger
Whether it's webinars, TransitionNetwork.org, our conferences, networks of regional Transition
groups or connecting through social media, becoming more connected to the wider movement,
according to our experience, really helps Transition groups to do better. You may also find that
there are regional networks of Transition groups where you live who can give you support
and advice.

And don't feel you can only share your successes. Sharing your challenges and hurdles, and your
reflections on why things didn't work, is just as useful. There's a movement out there, make the
most of it!

When we get together, its like everyone is feeding everyone else.

Theres this atmosphere of I tell you you tell me. Everyone listens,
then someone comes up with another idea. Its like collective
excitement, collective inspiration, collective knowledge, coming
together for the profit of the group. You can feel the thrill.
- Emiliano Muoz, Portillo en Transicin, Spain.

Transition provides me with the knowledge and contacts I need for

the uncertain future ahead.
- Russ Carrington.

Photos: Mike Grenville

Transition Network Resources

Read our guide to Making the most of being part of the
Transition movement.

37
Why does it matter to be part of an
international network of Transition initiatives?
We asked people
attending the
Transition Hubs
Gathering in
Copenhagen (2014):

"Things can seem so fuzzy "Its been great because of all

when youve been working the diversity of the gathering,
all day long with Transition sharing stories and the
in a group process, it can get friendship, the interconnection,
a bit complicated, you dont the heart and soul and the
always see exactly a clear brain also for dealing with
focus. To talk with all the our own realities back home
people here and get and it's been a very friendly
"Its so remarkable to speak feedback from people who environment so thanks for
with people from 20 are doing such similar jobs, the invitation".
countries, the perspectives, that really helps to see more - Ral, Mexico
the genuineness, its been clarity and also to feel
really moving". confidence that you are
- Carolyn, US going in the right direction".
- Lynn, Netherlands

"We feel like we are not

alone here. We feel that this
change is possible and its
"I made a lot of new friends already happening, so I am
internationally and I had a "It really has become a very happy".
chance to really explore how family including all the - Juan, Spain
I can connect more to the people who have not been
international part of here before, so even the
Transition. Also it's been people who are within the
really enriching to national network for the first
experience how things get time feel very included right
cooked and prepared on this from the beginning, if we
scale. And also it's been can keep this spirit and this
really funny, this is inside kind of meetings then
information, it's been really globally Transition is going
fun and I loved it". "The last few days have had
to be wonderful".
- Andre, Romania lots of creativity and
- Gerd, Germany
inspiration and I think Ive got
lots of energy for the coming
things we have to do"
38 - Ana, Spain
Every revolution needs its banners: the role
of creativity in Transition
An extract from a blog post by Rob Hopkins

Every movement, every coming together of Did he want to have his photo taken with the
people to bring about positive change, needs group of people there? With me? Not really.
its flags, its icons. Transition is no exception. The key thing he wanted was a photo of
When you are doing Transition in your himself with the Brixton Pound 10 note, "the
community, always invite in creativity, design one with David Bowie on" (see photo below).
and the arts. One manifestation of Transitions
let it go where it wants to go spirit is in the It starts conversations. It embodies the sense
huge diversity of logos groups create that a Transition future could be more fun
for themselves. than the alternative futures currently on offer.
It embodies possibility. It is delightful.
One of the greatest icons of the Transition Why would anyone want to settle for the dull
movement is the Brixton Pound 10 note. The money currently on offer, when we could have
one featuring David Bowie. Notice how you bright funky money with David Bowie on?
had already heard of it and, most likely, could No, seriously... why would you?
already visualise it. In the event that you
didn't, here it is, among its fellow notes. And if you won't settle for that, why settle for
It's bright, it's simple, it's colourful. I have anything else? It opens the possibility of
taken it to many places. What has often actually refusing to accept the planet-trashing,
amazed me is how its reputation has gone attention span wrecking, community
ahead of it so that, on at least 4 occasions, just atomising, wealth-concentrating nonsense that
my holding it up during a talk has generated a makes up so much of what we accept in
round of applause. When I went to Paris modern society.
recently and visited a project run by Le Pre
Saint Gervais en Transition, we were visited by
the local Mayor Grard Cosme.

39
My point is that we need more things in our "Art does not lie down on the bed
life that we care about. Personally speaking, I that is made for it; it runs away as
care more about a Totnes 21 note than I care
about a 20 note. The things Transition does, soon as one says its name; it loves
whether urban gardening, new food markets, to go incognito. Its best moments
Transition Streets groups, are all about are when it forgets what it
creating things that people care about. is called".
The remarkable 'Transition Town Anywhere' For me, the moments when Transition most
activity Lucy and others facilitated at the touches and inspires me are the moments
Transition Network conference in 2009, where when it "forgets what it is called", when it
350 people built a living, working High Street comes up with unexpected and delightful
economy from string and cardboard left me approaches. A 10 note with David Bowie on is
caring far more deeply about my own High a perfect example of that. So is "a shop with
Street than I had before. And art and design nothing for sale but lots on offer".
have a vital role to play in that.

Every revolution needs its icons, its tokens, So is a project to plant fruit trees that is also an
which embody much more than appears at art project with oral histories, tours, poetry,
first glance. But it's about more than art and maps and storytelling. So weave creativity
design. It's about what those things can act as through your Transition project, allow it to be
a gateway to. I always loved Jean DuBuffet's beautiful, challenging, inclusive. And share the
quote: stories of what you do with the wider
movement.

Transition Kensal to Kilburn in London harvest local fruits and then run workshops
on preserve-making, adorning the final product with these beautiful labels.
Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.

Transition Network Resources

Download our guide to 'Putting on an Annual Celebration' here.
It is also very useful to have an understanding of the Action Learning Cycle.
You'll find our Guide to that here.

40
Reflect & celebrate
Acknowledging the difference you're making

Reflecting on how your group is doing and celebrating what youve achieved
is an essential part of Transition. Its important to create space to assess what
you have done and explore how well you work together as a group.
Discussing and addressing issues early, can help you avoid burnout and
respond in a healthy way to conflict. And, if you take time to understand the
impact your activities are having in the world then you know if you are
moving towards the vision you have developed for your community.
Remember appreciation is usually a good place to start!

Make sure you stop and celebrate what you have achieved. Otherwise, you
can forget all the great stuff you have done and its also a good excuse to get
together and have a party.

Food is really, really important. In a slightly personal way, I bake biscuits

for the council meetings that I chair. And its really interesting how that
broke down a whole formality, just by starting a meeting with tea and
coffee and biscuits that come from a recipe that my mum made. It makes
the whole thing more human and acceptable, and thats exactly the kind
of thing that Transition groups are doing all the time.

Transition Brixton's amazing 'Unleashing Cake'. Photo: Amelia Gregory.

1. The invitation: Make sure your
invitation is clear, that people know it
will be fun, what's happening, what's 2. Food and Drink: It's a celebration, and celebrations need
being celebrated. Invite people refreshment. Feast well. Celebrate your local food culture.
personally. This is celebration after all!

3. A capturing of what's being celebrated:

Give form to what you've done and achieved, and
what's being celebrated. Create a timeline, a display 4. Look Forward: This celebration is not the
of photos, a film of your story so far. Celebrate the end of the whole thing, merely a pausing point.
small things as much as the bigger things. Where might the group go next? Find fun and
engaging ways to capture people's ideas for
where to go next.

8. Document It!: Have someone there to take photos, or video, or to document the 9. No graphs
event in some way or other. You'll be glad subsequently that you did. Getting all those to give a talk, b
people together in one place won't happen again in the same way. stories, make it
celebration, rem
 How to do good celebration
Lessons from Transition Town Lewes' 'Seven Year Itch' Transition Party

5. Keep it changing: At the Transition Lewes event there was a choir, a couple of talks, some
poetry, a raffle, more singing, bagpipes, dancing, the opportunity to interact with Transition Town
Lewes projects, mention of the campaign for a community take-over of the site we were on, food,
drink.
Keep it changing.

6. Dancing. A good celebration really benefits 7. A sense of context: Invite other local
from the opportunity to have a good dance. The organisations you've interacted with to have stalls,
perfect way to wrap up a good celebration. whatever they like. Celebrate the web of connections
and relationships you've created and the sum total of
what you have produced between yourselves.

s!: By all means have someone along 10. Critical Mass: A really good celebration needs a good
but keep it upbeat and positive. Tell turnout. Try to make sure you have a good crowd in.
t funny. Keep the energy up. It's a
member!
 3
In Depth:
How to start
Transition
The aim of this Beginners Guide
is to get you up and running doing
Transition, and to point you to the
online resources youll need in
order to do that most
successfully. We'll tell you more
below, but for now, we just need
to make an important point.

One of the things that we have

learned from doing Transition is
to distinguish between the kind of
group you will now be forming, An Initiating Group
either an Initiating Group or a Getting Transition started in a community
Core Group and the kind of who can commit time and energy and ha
group that your Transition and experience. It doesn't happen by ma
initiative will end up being. carry out the first stage of the Transition
them the Initiating Group. It would be id
involved in this process read this guide a
Our Transition Launch training is one of
the best foundations for starting come up with a plan on how to start Tran
Transition. Find out more here.
44
 A Core Group
y needs a group The Core Group comes a bit later, built on the foundations
ave a range of skills laid by the Initiating Group. It may contain none, some or all
agic! This group will of the same people. The Core Group is the group that does
process and we call all those great projects you associate with Transition, local
deal if everyone currencies, food projects and so on. But it stands on the
and then meet to shoulders of what the Initiating Group did. Well tell you
nsition. more about that in the next section.
Above: Core group meeting. Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.
Initiating Groups A month later she rang us back, her
despondency replaced with elation. She had
Some key things to put an ad in her local paper, and had received
think about over 120 replies, and thus her Transition group
was born.

People.
The Magic Number? 1? 12?
We can't do this on our own. There certainly Or somewhere in the middle?
are lots of things we can do on our own,
cutting energy use, eating more seasonal food As we said before, if your group consists only
and so on, and all that stuff really matters. But of you, it is definitely too small. So how big is
doing Transition needs more people than just too big, and how small is too small? From our
us. You might already know some others who experience, the ideal group size is between 5
might get involved. They might be friends, and 8. 12 is probably too many. Although it
colleagues at work or University. They might may sound obvious, it is important that those
be members of a different group you are people are interested in Transition, interested
already part of. If you don't already know enough to, perhaps, read this Essential Guide,
them, here are a few suggestions for how you or some of the other literature about Transition.
might find people: Even better, they might have done a Transition
Training, or perhaps visited an existing
Contact friends, like-minded people Transition initiative.
or groups that are already doing
similar things Who?
Publicise it through your networks and
social media channels Starting Transition successfully needs many
Put on a film, talk or other event and invite different kinds of people. Heres a list of skills
people to join (for a list of ideas for events, or qualities that we have found to be really
see our Factsheet here, and for our helpful. If youre a small group looking for
tips on how to run successful events, see some more members it is useful to go through
our Planning and putting on events guide this list, find out what skills you already have.
Talk about Transition on your local Then see if you can bring in whats missing -
radio station either by inviting other people, or getting
Go along to groups with similar aims and people trained up. Don't let this list put you off
start to make connections as people can develop skills needed and you
can always ask people for specific help.
We were once contacted by a woman in
Australia who bemoaned the fact that no-one Skills in organising: managing projects,
else in her town would be interested in getting a group to work well, coordinating
Transition, that she was the only person who different peoples activities, working
cared about that kind of thing. with volunteers

"Are you sure?" we asked her.

Questions we hear a lot:

How can we put on events that are appealing and relevant to our community?

Some people will be interested in broad global issues like climate change or energy supplies.
Many more are interested in local issues health and well being, feeling connected in their
neighbourhood, house prices, or unemployment. Making Transition issues relevant to local
concerns is a real skill. How can you celebrate local history through stories from older people?
Or create local food celebrations, healthy outdoor activities, projects which connect
neighbours and allow people to feel safe in the own homes and streets?
 On Earth day 2015, Transition Granja Viana in Brazil spent the day with the kids from the
local OCA Cultural School, learning about climate change, collecting waste around the
school, ending with a lantern walk. Photo: Isabela Maria Gomez de Menezes

People skills: being friendly and its OK to be specific about this (half a day
welcoming, working with different a week? a day per month?)
outlooks, culture and worldviews, Fun: they know how to make this kind of
knowing how to work well with work enjoyable
differences and conflict Reliable: they do what they say theyll do
Skills in running effective, enjoyable On the same page: they share some
meetings: setting up and running meetings, understanding of the reasons why
and developing how the group works Transition is needed, and what it is
Designing and running good events: public Caring: are realistic about what a group of
speaking, booking rooms, showing DVDs, volunteers can do, and pay attention to
running Open Space, facilitating well being
discussions Inclusive: they're good at including others,
Experience of networking: with existing so one or two dont dominate the group or
organisations and people its decisions - an awareness of issues
Publicity skills: contacting press, designing around power, privilege and rank and how
posters and flyers, writing blogs and using this impacts on both our groups and more
social media widely
Managing information: email lists,
bulletins, phone lists You may well not have all these skills from the
Designing and maintaining websites beginning, but you can actively seek out new
Connections with and knowledge of local people who might bring them. Remember too
community groups that support is available through Transition
Knowledge of local history and local issues Training, this Essential Guide and our 7
essential ingredients.

As well as gathering together the right skills,

its also helpful to find people who are:
Able to dedicate some of their time: and
Putting on Have clear pathways for people to get
involved, for example:
great events Always take emails or contact details at
events and ask if people are willing to
help out

Have someone designated to talk to

people who might be interested in getting
more involved, a welcome person or
volunteer coordinator

Look out for people who might be a little

shy or under-confident and ask them to
help with specific tasks or events

Find ways that people can contribute their

time without coming to all the meetings
Liege en Transition launched their Ceinture have a list of people willing to help with
Aliment-terre Ligeoise project with a big events or projects
public event . Photo: Liege en Transition.
Have an online list of help wanted, or
publish this in your bulletins or
Engaging widely with your community will newsletters
require putting on events that are inspiring,
thought-provoking and which provide as There are a few things you need to nail down
many opportunities for interaction as quite early on.
possible.

Transition groups learned pretty early on that Transition Where?

putting on a bleak film is not a very effective
way of inspiring and motivating people to get Getting the scale right is important for a
involved. We can do better than that. Transition initiative. Towns of a few thousand
Transition groups around the world have put to tens of thousands seem to work well.
on countless events, so here are a few of their Within a city its usually good to work within a
tips for how to put on great ones. neighbourhood, though some have worked
with a whole city of several hundred thousand.
Maximising the opportunities for people to In rural areas you might have an Initiative that
meet each other is really important. Start covers one or several villages.
every event by inviting people to turn to their
neighbour and say their name, where theyve Your decision will be based on what feels
come from and why theyre here. Listen to the manageable, and where you feel you can have
energy in the room buzz! We have also heard an impact. It's good to consider what is the
of several relationships that formed as a recognisable identity of the place you live, is it
result of two people meeting in this way, and a neighbourhood, a city, a district? On the
even of one baby! whole we recommend starting smaller and
letting things grow and inspire your
If youre showing a film or giving a talk give neighbours!
people a chance to talk in a small group 3 or
4 maximum afterwards, maybe before you
invite questions. See our tips for hosting good
events for more details.
 A community art project in Brasilandia, a favela in So Paulo, Brazil, co-ordinated by
Transition Brasilandia. Photo: Boa Mistura.

Questions we hear a lot: Start networking

I live in a village in a rural This is a good point to register as an initiative
with Transition Network, a very simple process.
area. Surely I cant do You should also sign up for the Transition
Transition here? Network newsletter so you can keep up with
news and developments. You could also find
Where people are spread out often many out which other initiatives exist near you, and
villages combine to create a Transition make contact with them, or with your regional
Initiative. If theres a town with an network if one exists.
initiative near you they may also provide
some groups and meetings that you can
work alongside.

Working with others

In the same way that we can't do Transition

on our own, your Transition initiative will
struggle to do what it wants to without
networking with other groups.

For example, in the early days of Transition

Town Totnes, a lot of energy was put into
Audience members introducing themselves
networking with other groups, co-presenting
to each other at a Transition event in
events and so on. Have a look at our 'How to
Luxembourg. Photo: Carole Reckinger.
create partnerships' guide here.
Up and running!

Transition Kensal to Kilburns Unthinkable Drinkable urban winemaking project celebrates

its first taste of the final product. Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.
In the Healthy groups ingredient you will find
information on how to run effective meetings,
Congratulations! Your Transition group is now how a group develops, how to get and keep
up and running. That feels good doesn't it? By people involved in your Transition initiative
now you probably find yourselves making and decision making. Our How to Run Effective
connections with organisations, groups and Meetings Guide covers a lot about how to run
individuals who are largely supportive, finding meetings but there are some other things to
ways to put on events together and promote think about as the Initiating Group:
each others work, and building the Transition
Initiating Group to become effective at Initiating Group meetings may be more
working together. relaxed than big public meetings, but
you should still take them seriously and
You might also take time to do some training make sure that you decide on actions
or a workshop together learning about and agree who will carry them out
effective meetings, exploring The Work that
Reconnects (the work of Joanna Macy), It is very important to decide as a group
attending a Transition:Launch training (this is how you are going to make decisions, as
also available on-line). As you engage more you will need to make lots of them
people youll be building a contact list, maybe
setting up a website or social media site such Make sure to have fun as the Initiating
as a Facebook page, keeping people informed Group, celebrate successes, value each
about whats happening and much more. persons contribution, and have a social
side to your group as well as doing stuff
There are some questions that often come up together! This might be the most
in this phase: see the FAQs on how to start important thing of all to do
Transition for some answers to things like:
Should the group be open or closed?
When should we seek funding?
How should we structure ourselves?

50
Sustaining the and its fine to help them find a place in
another part of the whole Initiative.

group & involving When new people come to your group its
good to think about what they need to know so
new people they can join in fully and what you need to
know about them! Will you accept anyone into
your group? Are there criteria for joining
(Being able to give a certain amount of time?
Agreeing with the groups mission statement?
Signing up to a Code of Conduct?).

You might have a person in your group whose

role it is to speak to new people before they
come to a meeting to give them an idea of
what is expected and where the group is at.

They could:

Get everyone to introduce themselves

and their roles when new people come to
meetings
Ask new people to give a brief overview of
why they want to get involved in
Transition and what they can bring to the
A Transition Town Brixton making day. group
Photo: Jonathan Goldberg. Explain at the start of the meeting how
decisions are made and what you are
When you have a good group of people you discussing
may want to close the group, so you can get on
with working together. This is fine and you We have a more in depth guide on involving
need to think about how people leave the new people here.
group, and how new people join.

There may be many people coming to your

events who want to be involved see if you
can find ways to do this without letting the
Initiating Group get too large, or having new
people constantly coming in. Some initiatives
have created working groups to help with
things like an events programme, building
partnerships, getting projects started, or to
look at a particular theme such as food. Events
like Open Space can help people to get things
started for themselves (see our complete
guide to running Open Space events here).

Because inclusion is important in Transition

some groups feel they have to accept
Forming working groups on different
anyone but some people dont have the
interest areas is a very useful strategy.
skills or personal qualities that enable them to
Photo:Mike Grenville.
contribute positively to a coordinating group,

51
 Transition Stroud's 'Potato Day' in a local shopping centre: Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.

Developing Transition can be chaotic, but dont worry!

Dont worry if it feels chaotic developing Transition in your community as any new project when
being set up has to find its own way. The core elements are there to help you do this, but dont
let them constrict you or stop you doing stuff. Most of all have fun, enjoy the challenges and
build the future you want for your community.

Here is a checklist to see if you have got everything in place in your

Initiating Group.
We understand the role of an Initiating Group
We know all the skills that we have in our group and the gaps
We understand what Transition is
We have decided on what geographical area we want to cover
We have thought about how Transition will fit into our environment
We have registered on the Transition Network website or with our National Hub
We have contacted nearby Transition Groups
We understand how to run effective meetings
We have decided how to make decisions as a group
We have thought about how to involve new people
We have looked at the Support resources available on the Transition Network website
We understand the need to actively seek and create balance between Task, Process and
Relationships?

Related activities:

Transition Network Resources

You can read our Guides to how to put on an Unleashing and How to Make
Good Decisions here and here.

52
 4
In Depth:
Consolidate
Moving beyond the Initiating
group to an established
Transition initiative

Once you have worked through

all the basic elements, the
Initiating phase is complete.
Well done! Youve got an
Initiating Group! Sounds like a
cue for celebration. There may
be specific working groups
and projects now, or just the
Initiating Group. Either is fine.

There is now a shift to the next phase

of the Transition process, in which your
aim is to:

Establish the Core group of

the Initiative
Set up groups to look at Transition
themes such as food, energy etc.
Develop the organisation's structure
to enable more ambitious, more
impactful projects

Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.

Consolidating Theme Groups
In the move to a Core Group, your focus shifts: By now you will probably have some theme
groups forming (for example: food, energy,
From laying the foundations for your Inner Transition, education and so on).
group to embarking on ambitious and
impactful projects Having healthy functioning theme groups is
vital to your being able to build a Core Group,
From a group of people who are as the Initiating Group steps back to provide
foundation layers to a group of people the active support that those doing the
who will build a great and beautiful projects need.
building upon those foundations
If you dont yet have Theme Groups, here are
From decisions being made by a group of some ideas for how you might bring them into
people who have come together because being:
they want the Transition group to exist
and to thrive, to a group that wants a You could put on events with films or
number of specific projects to exist speakers which look at a particular aspect
and thrive. of Transition, like food or energy
Follow those events up a few days later
All those really great projects you associate with some public Open Space sessions
with Transition: the local currency schemes, (youll find our Open Space guide here
the intentional relocalisation schemes, At the end of both, announce that you are
the community energy projects, the urban hoping these will lead to the creation of a
agriculture initiatives: they all need the Theme Group on that subject, and invite
foundations, structures and processes in place people to come forward
that the Initiating Group creates, but they also You could also explicitly invite people you
need a Core Group where the decisions are think might be good, and ask them if theyd
made by those who are running the projects like to take on setting up one of the groups
on the ground. Sometimes people will come to the group
and ask if they can set one up!
You will know that your Core Group is working You could seek out existing projects
well when it: already working in the field youd like to
create a Theme Group on, and ask them
Gives those affected by decisions a say
in making them Once they are up and running, invite them to
Creates ways to be accountable and send one member to each meeting of the Core
transparent about its activities to those Group, so that the group becomes shaped by
within it, and those it serves outside and focused on the needs of the people who
Balances transparency with enough are doing the projects on the ground.
privacy to create internal safety for
discussions and process
Maintains some continuity while allowing
in new ideas, people, and ways of
doing things
When it is creating new ideas and helping
to seed (but not necessarily doing on its
own) new projects and new enterprises

So, what are some of the things you need to

ensure you get in place in your Core Group?
Project Support next generation
Rather than every theme group needing What would happen if your founder members
its own: were to all be run over by a bus, and their
collective knowledge of the project were to be
Website lost? Carrying all that organisational know-
Bank account how in just a few people is a big risk for the
Office project. While the energy of founders is vital
Newsletter at the outset of Transition, over time it can
Twitter/Facebook accounts prevent new people getting involved, and can
Events diary and so on come to dominate the group. New members
can find themselves feeling frustrated by
The Initiating Group can evolve into a Project trying to make new things happen in the
Support group that provides that project shadows of more established members.
support to the wider project. That group, lets
call them Project Support, can hold a number For the founders, it is important to recognise
of roles. They can: that for the project to become self-sustaining
in such a way that it no longer needs them is
Hold and manage relationships with key actually a huge sign of success. Although it
local organisations can be the toughest move to make in a project,
Pull together funding applications the move to step out of it, it can also be the
Support the wellbeing and good running most important in terms of the group being
of the wider organisation. able to develop and evolve.

To be able to support larger and more One thing that can really help here is for the
impactful projects, they will also need to take group to make the space to tell and honour its
care of legal requirements, including: history, to dedicate some time to capturing the
story of how the group came to be, who came
Financial responsibilities in when, and how it unfolded (like Transition
Insurance Town Totnes did here). If people feel they are
Health and safety recognised in the groups story, it can really
Child protection help them to start thinking about how they
Personal liability might step out.
Other legal responsibilities
When this happens, sometimes it can be a
While this work might not be quite as sexy smooth transition, or it can lead to a bit of a
as making the on-the-ground projects happen, power struggle as the group reimagines its
it is just as vitally important, and some people vision and its purpose. It needs to be done
love doing that kind of thing! though, when the time is right, and youll most
likely find that the project really thrives as a
result. Inviting an external facilitator in to
support this process can be very helpful.

Shifting to the
55
Skillfully What role is needed or being handed over
The skills and time commitment
How the handover will happen
managing new
members and
volunteers

One of the concerns we often hear from

Transition groups is how hard it is to keep new
members and volunteers, that perhaps they
come for a few meetings and then drift away
again. Weve given some thought to why that
might be, and so here wed like to offer a few
suggestions for how you might best keep
them engaged:

You could give them an induction pack that Transition Kensal to Kilburn (London, UK)
explains the basic structure and procedures of harvesting fruit from their local fruit trees.
the organisation, and includes: If possible, produce a volunteer description
Photo: Jonathan Goldberg.
document for the role. You can do this for
The basic structures of the organisation trustees, core group members, volunteers,
Who is in what role and what they do helpers as well as paid roles.
How finances are dealt with
What form of structure the organisation is, So here is a sense of the kind of sequence that
i.e. charity, social enterprise etc. might happen when someone stands down:
How decision are made and recorded and
followed up The person holding the role gives notice
How meetings are run, including agenda they will stand down
setting, ground rules, roles, location etc., Define as much about the role as possible
and who to approach and talk to if you have when this happens
concerns about group or relationship It may take more than one person to
dynamics replace them, sharing out the tasks
Then invite others to step into some or all
This can really help people to orient of the role
themselves and to feel clear about how they
can best contribute. It is important to remember that bringing new
people in takes time and that in the long run
Some other things that might help are: new members is the only thing that makes a
group sustainable. Also, dont let the pressure
Having a someone whose role is to greet of doing stuff get in the way of supporting
and meet new volunteers initially and act new people to be effective and happy.
as a contact for them
This person can answer any questions they We have a guide for helping with this, find it
may have and explain how things work here.
outside of a general meeting and support
them into the group

When new people take on roles, it can really

help
56 to be clear about:
Beware the
doughnut
Some Transition groups report what they
call The Doughnut Effect. This is when the
energy of the group, the focus of the most
energetic people, ends up being given to
the active projects, rather than to the initial
group, to the co-ordinating and joining up of
whats happening.

So, it could be that in Year One of your

group, you have a very active Core Group
which is putting on a lot of events and
starting lots of projects. By Year Five, you
might have a community garden, a
community energy company, a regular
Repair Cafe and a variety of workshops
happening, and everyone is so busy with
those that they dont have enough time to
enable the Core Group to continue Or...
functioning. So perhaps, by Year Ten, you
have loads of great projects established and If the whole doughnut analogy doesn't work
thriving, but the fact that they emerged for you, you might think of it like eating your
from Transition is but a distant memory. dinner in space. Unless you're very attentive,
your starter might float over there, your
In some ways thats not a problem. Youve pudding over there, and your knife and fork
got some great projects, so why does it somewhere else entirely. Keeping them all
matter? Well it matters because it can mean on the tray takes some conscious effort.
that limited new energy is coming into the Likewise with Transition, keeping eveything
whole Transition initiative, which makes it feeling like part of the same process needs
hard to sustain its energy and possible some focused attention.
growth. Some groups get round this by
finding funding either from within or from
outside their community to enable a Project
Manager who plays the role of drawing all
the threads together and allowing all the
different elements to feel part of
something.

Find our full guide to moving from Initiating

Group to Core Group here.

57
 5
The Transition
Healthcheck
It is useful as your group
progresses and does more and
more, that you pause regularly to
both celebrate what youve
achieved (see p41) and also to
check-in with each other about
how its going. We have created
what we call the Transition
Healthcheck to help with that.

We recommend you do the

healthcheck at least once a year to
get an idea of how your group is
doing. The healthchceck can also
point to ways forward for your
group, and can help to head off
problems before they occur. It has
been tested by many Transition
groups (across many cultures) and
is a distillation of wisdom of what
makes a Transition group work
well and what doesnt.

58
Workshop on how to use the Transition Healthcheck.
Transition Penwith's Penwith REconomy Day, February 2015.
Photo: Mike Thomas.
The Transition Healthcheck
is designed to help you:
We like to think of the
Reflect on where your initiative Healthcheck in terms of an
has got to animal. Its not a particular
Spark conversations about whats
animal: for different cultures,
working well and what could be
strengthened animals have different
Celebrate your strengths and successes connotations. So its an animal,
Identify areas which might need more with 4 legs, a tail, head, the usual.
work, skills, or resources
Ours looks oddly like Pikachu
Clarify appropriate next steps which
might include doing less. (from Pokemon), but you can
imagine it as you wish.
Many groups have found that using the
Healthcheck raises lots of questions, and Its four legs represent the foundations,
sometimes the discussion it starts supplies the four elements without which your
the answers. The focus is on how your Transition group isnt going anywhere.
initiative is working. They are:

Every Transition group is different in the mix 1. Get your community involved in
of people involved, the opportunities and Transition
challenges of your context, and the external 2. Healthy Groups
events that influence people to join, or not. 3. Networks and Partnerships
We hope the result of doing the Healthcheck 4. Practical projects
is that you celebrate what you have
achieved rather than feeling overwhelmed Have an honest and open discussion in
with what hasnt happened. No initiative that your group about how well you are doing
we know of could get it all right! each of these? You could give each a
mark between 1 and 5.

Next, our animals eyes represent Vision.

How clear would you say your groups
vision was, for itself and for what it wants
to create?

The heart represents Reflect and

Celebrate. Does your group have a
healthy heartbeat? Are you taking time
regularly to reflect and celebrate
together?

Lastly, the world around our animal is Part

of a Movement. To what extent does your
group feel connected to Transition groups
in your area, to the Transition movement
nationally as well as internationally?
Participants at the 2015 Transition
Roadshow in Lancaster undertaking the
Transition Healthcheck for their initiative.
 Photo: Rob Hopkins

Make it an annual thing...

You could make an evening of doing the longer Healthcheck. Perhaps have a shared meal, draw
out your own version of the Animal, and use it as the opportunity for a really good, appreciative
discussion of where the group has got to. It's a great thing to do annually, as part of a wider
review of how it's all going.
Where next?
Well thats very much up to you. We really hope that this colourful and, hopefully, inspiring
guide has given you everything you need to kick this process off where you live. With the right
structures and processes in place, you will be able to do some amazing things. What do you long
to do? What do you long to create and see emerging into the world around you, into the place
you call home? Transition starts with smaller projects, which are vital in giving people
confidence, a sense that change is possible, and what might be their first ever experience of
working collaboratively with other people.

Transition is deeply ambitious. It wants to change the way the places we live feed themselves,
house themselves, employ themselves, power themselves. Thats a big ask. And it will take time,
determination and togetherness. But whats vital to remember is that how you do your projects
matters as much, if not more, than what the projects are. What we are doing here isnt just
creating projects that reimagine and rebuild the world. What is just as important is that the way
we work, the organisational cultures we create, should also model the kind of world we want to
create. Theres no use trying to create a new, healthier and more resilient culture if we end up
replicating the unhealthy ways of relating and working that underpin our current culture.

So what you do, what you create, is limited only by your creativity and by the degree to which
you allow yourselves to believe that anything is possible. Keep your inspiration up by keeping
an eye on what other Transition groups are doing around the world. And then go change the
world, starting with your own little corner of it.

Ungersheim in France is an amazing example of what Transition can achieve with the full
backing of the local government. It's a story that is now the star of it's own film, Qu'est ce
qu'on attend? (What are we waiting for?) created by film maker Marie-Monique Robin.
RESOURCES
You will find the resources covered in this
guide and lots more in the Doing Transition
section of www.transitionnetwork.org. Look
out in particular for the pages on the Seven
Essential Ingredients, Inner Transition and
REconomy.

Books
In Transition 2.0 is the best overall
Local Sustainable Homes: how to make them introduction to Transition and how to do it.
happen in your community. Bird, C. (2010).
Transition Books/Green Books.
Transition in Action: Totnes and District
2030: an Energy Descent Plan. Hodgson, J,
Hopkins, R. (2010). Transition Town Totnes/
Green Books.
The Transition Companion: making your
community more resilient in uncertain times.
Hopkins, Rob. (2011). Green Books.
The Power of Just Doing Stuff: how local
The story of Transition Bro Gwaun's 'Surplus
action can change the world. Hopkins, R.
Food Cafe' from our '21 Stories of Transition'.
(2013). Green Books.
21 Stories of Transition: how a movement
of communities is coming together to
reimagine and rebuild our world. Hopkins,
Rob. (2015). Transition Network.
You can also find all the 21 Stories, and
films about them, on our special 21 Stories
microsite.
Local Money: how to make it happen in your
community. North, P. (2010). Transition
Books/Green Books.
Local Food: how to make it happen in your Greyton Transition Town in South Africa are
community. Pinkerton, T, Hopkins, R. (2009). the stars of this short video.
Transition Books/Green Books.
Communities, Councils and a Low Carbon
Future: what we can do if governments wont.
Rowell, A. (2010). Transition Books/ Green
Books

Films

In Transition 1.0 (2009): can be viewed

here.
In Transition 2.0 (2013): can be viewed
here. The story of Greenslate Community Farm
Demain (Tomorrow) (2015): see the films (from our '21 Stories of Transition'.