Beyond the Framework
Why Community Rising Works When Other Tools Don't
The difference between tools that sit on shelves and methodologies that transform communities
I have a confession: I'm a recovering framework collector. My office shelves are lined with beautifully designed toolkits, methodologies, and resources that promised to revolutionize how teams collaborate, how communities engage, and how organizations create change. Most of them gathered dust after the initial excitement wore off.
So when we were developing Community Rising, I was determined to understand why some tools stick and others don't. What makes the difference between a methodology that transforms how people work together and one that becomes another good idea filed away for "someday"?
The answer, it turns out, has less to do with the tool itself and more to do with how it honors the complexity of human connection.
The Problem with Most Engagement Tools
Traditional community engagement tools often make a fundamental assumption: that if we just follow the right process, we'll get the right outcome. They're built on a logic of control—input A plus process B equals result C. But human communities aren't machines, and authentic engagement can't be manufactured through a prescribed sequence of activities.
Most tools also treat engagement as something you do to people rather than something you create with them. They position the facilitator as the expert who guides the group through predetermined steps toward predetermined insights. This approach might generate participation, but it rarely generates the kind of ownership and investment that leads to lasting change.
What Makes Community Rising Different
Community Rising emerged from a different set of assumptions about how people connect and how communities form. Instead of trying to control the process, it creates conditions for authentic relationship-building and lets the community's own wisdom guide what emerges.
Stories as Starting Points: Rather than beginning with problem identification or goal setting, Community Rising starts with story. The cards invite people to share experiences, memories, and perspectives that reveal who they are beyond their roles or positions. This shifts the foundation from task-oriented to relationship-oriented work.
Multiple Entry Points: Unlike linear methodologies, Community Rising allows groups to enter the conversation wherever feels most natural. Some communities want to explore their history together, others are ready to envision their future, and still others need to understand their current strengths. The methodology adapts to what the community needs rather than forcing the community to adapt to the tool.
Facilitator as Guide, Not Director: The cards and framework provide structure, but the community provides the content. Facilitators become curious guides who help surface and weave together the insights that emerge, rather than experts who deliver predetermined messages.
Integration, Not Events: Community Rising is designed to weave into ongoing community life rather than existing as a separate "engagement activity." The conversations and connections it generates become part of how the community operates, not something they do occasionally when they need input.
The Ripple Effect in Action
Last year, a neighborhood organization in Detroit used Community Rising to address tensions around a proposed development project. Previous community meetings had devolved into debates between "pro-development" and "anti-development" factions, with little productive dialogue.
The Community Rising process didn't start with the development project at all. Instead, residents began sharing stories about what brought them to the neighborhood, what they loved about living there, and what they hoped their children would experience growing up in that community.
By the time they turned to the development question, something fundamental had shifted. Instead of defending positions, residents were exploring possibilities. Instead of talking past each other, they were building on each other's ideas. The methodology hadn't eliminated disagreement, but it had created the conditions for disagreement to be productive rather than destructive.
Six months later, the community had not only reached consensus on the development project but had also launched three new initiatives that emerged from their deeper understanding of shared values and complementary strengths.
Why This Matters
The difference between tools that work and tools that don't often comes down to whether they treat people as complex, creative, and capable beings or as problems to be solved and processes to be managed. Community Rising works because it assumes that communities already have the wisdom they need—they just need better ways to access and apply it together.
This isn't just true for community engagement. Any methodology, framework, or tool that wants to create lasting change has to honor the humanity of the people it's designed to serve. It has to create space for emergence, relationship, and the kind of messy, beautiful, unpredictable process through which real transformation happens.
What tools in your work honor complexity rather than trying to control it? What methodologies create conditions for emergence rather than predetermined outcomes?
