# Strategic Ideation - 2

**Pod 1:** bl, gi
**Focus area:** BE NEIGHBOURLY!

## Brief
With your pod, generate a list of possible **goals and strategic initiatives** within your assigned focus area - incorporating the trends and surfaced themes

Come up with 5+ ideas in 20 minutes

## Ideation Area...

- bl: how do we be neighbourly while getting paid?
- gi: what does it mean to be neighbourly?
- gi: what have we done that is neighbourly?
- covid solidarity
- covid connect
- working for c4c for $32.50 an hour
- aether hourly rate
- handbook, publicly facing artifacts, sharing our work openly
- sharing with those who asks about them
- signalling with the co-op movement, in turn many of those groups engage (e.g. SEIZE, Foodster)
- we end up spending time engaging and doing free consultation if needed (coordinate learning group with Foodster, digital coaching for CWCF)
- "sales & marketing" and neighbourly work gets blurred
- GOAL: Establish what neighbourly means, and the boundaries of what this means in the co-op. Prioritize neighbours
- GOAL: Understand what is a "neighbourly approach" vs. "sales approach", what are the process and outcomes differences
- GOAL: Establish practices that empower co-op members to engage in neighbourly activity
- Types of neighbours:
- DWeb
- CivicTech
- CWCF
- Meet.coop
- What are the boundaries of neighbourhood
- bl: who's a neighbour to you?
- gi: the geographic communities, Great Lakes Region (CTTO, Foodters)
- harder to classify DWeb and CWCF (bl: we term those virtual neighbours)
- bl: is Enspiral and Diglife neighbours? (harder to classify!)
- there's less in common
- degrees of neighbours?
- lack of access to enspiral (transient, we agree in their leadership)
- gi: educational institutions, esp. locally
- including george brown blockchain (know folks there)
- bl: is Qm or Aether a "closer" neighbour? Internet Archive?

## APPDENDIX: Ideation Toolkit

Example goal: Collaborate with Great Lakes Region Coops.
Example strategic initiative: Host a meet and greet with other cooperatives in the Great Lakes region to discuss possibilities of collaboration and ways we can support each other.

### Trends
**Trend 1**: Growing adoption of digital technology; cost and tech literacy are barriers
**Trend 2**: Canadians are concerned about their security and privacy
**Trend 3**: Declining trust in most tech companies
**Trend 4**: Feelings of vulnerability and social inequity driving Canadians toward coop models
**Trend 5**: Desire to secure worker's rights and livelihoods as we transition to post-carbon/sustainable economies
**COVID-19 + Protests agains Police Brutality**: What will be the long term effects? How can we help?

### Hypha AGM Themes
* Secure more projects
* Do more infra client work
* Showcase and publish our work
* More financial control and better tracking
* Find budget to invest in meaningful ways
* Be neighbourly on the DWeb
* Build with other coops
* Collaborate more as a team
* Respond to the needs of our community during crisis
* Demonstrate our committment to our values

#### Goals and Initiatives
* Hiring and HR - individuals and skills we want to grow with
* Workflow and processes - streamlining our work
* Infrastructure - tools, automations, our virtual office
* Partnerships and collaborators
* Service and product offerings
* Budgeting and tracking
* Investments
* Personal development and learning