Fire of the Field

Theme: Fire of the Field

Participants: Simone Staiger, Geoff Barnard, Maarten Boers, Barbara Collins

Question(s: How can we bring the fire of the field into the heart of the organisation? It's about passion, need to realize the value of that passion (but also dangerous-> passion = obsessions, emotions). How to light the fire? Decentralize the organization to come closer to the ground. Obligatory transfers kill the fire. Passion versus organizationnal strategies. When fundings are cut, and projects finish, HQ puts fire out through bureaucracy, not deliberately

Keywords: Headquarters vs. regional offices, project administrators vs. field-workers, theory vs. practice, internal communication. Immersions (see IDS policy brief: [1] Immerged into the field

KS Approaches: Story competition, narrative guides, ODI bridging policy and research/ fieldwork, blogs, f2f – use of open spaces, Interviews