Last week 33 change makers in the Common Good Fellowship pilot program convened in Cincinnati for three days to explore the journey from scarcity to abundance and start narrowing a framework for their own personal Experiment of Imagination project.

Walter Brueggemann, John McKnight, and Peter Block are the curators and conversation partners for this first cohort of the fellowship. The program is designed to provide radical thinking and imagination which can produce a particular way of working in communities.

Common Good is a project of Common Change, an organization that seeks to eliminate personal economic isolation. Founder Darin Petersen said Common Change was looking to create an incubator and when he started talking with Walter, John and Peter it became a natural point of connection.

Often when executives engage in an ongoing education program a common theme that surfaces is the invaluable connections and relationships forged with other leaders. People looking to make a change and lead for the common good seem to have a void when it comes to accessing and working collaboratively with one another, Darin said.

“We are creating that space that goes beyond a conference to be able to dive deep with others that are leading toward that common good,” he added.

The fellows in this pilot were nominated by Walter, John or Peter and the organizing group of people caring about community. The diverse group includes change agents, social innovators, business leaders, faith leaders and community activists. They will be opened to a broader circle of people who they will dive deep with. This intersection of relationships and potential collaborations to strengthen one another’s work is what Darin finds most energizing.

The fellows are engaging in a 12-week curriculum. In addition to last week, they will meet in-person again in May, and through the other weeks participate in small group online meetings. The program wraps up by the end of June.

The curriculum may be familiar for some participants and will help add language to something they’ve been already feeling, doing or thinking. “I think that we’ve curated the right set of people for this initial pilot,” Darin said.

There are a lot of ideas in the mix about what could come next, with this pilot program being a chance to test an idea and see how useful it is for participants. Once it is complete the organizers will collect data points to see what the path forward might look like.

The fellowship program is one of three components Common Good is working on right now. The other two are a daily reader that sends a food-for-thought email and a podcast featuring conversations with Walter, John and Peter.

You can learn more about the fellowship, sign up for the daily reader and listen to the podcasts at commongood.cc.

Feature photo credit: Rich Jones
Article written by: Jennifer Neutel