16-11-2020 // FEEDBACK LYNN

We asked Lynn if she could have a look at our blogs, in particular the blog in which we reflect on the first month and the blog where we worked out the challenge the challenge. Lynn gave us valuable and useful feedback where we want to reflect on. We will reflect on the most important feedback points.

Feedback challenge the challenge

- I REALLY like how you elaborate on the state/market/community model by explaining your project as well. This makes it very accessible for me, someone who is not involved with the project, to understand both the model and your process.

- Good that you use subtitles (in bold), this makes it easier to read. Still, I do think it is a LOT of text, perhaps it is an idea to join the English lab once in a while, to see whether you can shorten the text, where possible. and in general, be more direct.

After the first time Lynn gave extensive feedback on our work, we made sure to use more subtitles in our blogs. We are therefore pleased to hear that there is an improvement.

There is a reason that the blogs are quite long: we talk to many people, collect a lot of information and write it down immediately so we do not forget valuable findings. As we shorten the blogs, we may miss information at later moments that we thought (at the time of writing) would be irrelevant. To prevent this and not accidentally leave out valuable information, we prefer to write down too much than too little. In addition, we try to represent every step in our process, so that we can always reflect back to it.

This does not mean we do not agree with Lynn, on the contrary. The blogs must be understandable for the reader. If our text is too long, the information will not come across properly. That is why we will try to be more direct in our blogs and we will (where possible) make the texts shorter than the texts in the previous blogs. We keep this feedback in mind and try to work on it.

- very clear explanation of the theories and models that you use!

- one last feedback, I do still miss your personal/professional opinion. In other words, your opinion regarding the process, or about specific findings, why you do or do not choose to use them. You did explain why you have chosen these specific models and theories, so you are heading in the right direction! I just think you could also add this more at other parts of your blogs.

Lynn wrote this feedback before reading our monthly reflection of October. There we reflect on how we personally experience this process and our striking findings. Still, we are happy that Lynn is actually making the effort to read our blogs and provide useful feedback. This means that we have to make sure when writing our blogs, we go deeper into our personal/professional opinion, go deeper into specific findings, and explain why we do or do not use certain data. It is valuable for us to hear this; now we know what we should pay attention to. In the blog ''12-11-2020 // HERE WE GO AGAIN'' we have already tried to reflect more on the findings, indicating how we experienced it and what struck us. We will pay more attention to this in the coming period.

Feedback reflection

Lynn has specifically provided feedback on Jesse's reflection and Amber's reflection. We individually decided on which points we wanted to reflect.

Feedback Jesse's reflection:

- You state, at the end of the first paragraph, you normally are not easily triggered by financial concerns, how come you are now? Might be interesting to add.

- In the third paragraph, you explain your attitude towards the project regarding several perspectives and beliefs. I think I understand what you are trying to say here, but am not sure. and because of that, I would say, try to be as direct as possible and avoid pleonasm/being too wordy. This can really help you deliver your message in a powerful way.

- Overall, you do a great job in explaining the process and your perspective upon that, therefore, great job!

Feedback Amber’s reflection:

I find it important to reflect on the feedback we get, so we know what we have to keep in mind in the further process. That is the reason I decided to reflect on some feedback points Lynn gave me.

- I really like that you are critical about the original challenge and explain why it didn't seem right to you and what it, therefore, should be.

- Within the third paragraph you notice you have had a prejudice about the municipality, perhaps you can explain where this comes from.

Last year I did my Process Design project for the municipality of Breda. I noticed that we as students had to be proactive; it was seldom suggested by the municipality to schedule a meeting to discuss certain matters with us. When we sent an email, it sometimes took a long time before we got a response. That was the ‘prejudice’ I mentioned; I sometimes have the idea that everyone within the municipality is busy with all kinds of things and therefore communication ‘past’ each other. Now that Jesse and I are a little further in the process, I notice that this is also the case within the municipality of Eindhoven. The meetings in which we introduced ourselves and explained what our project entailed, were quickly planned. Nevertheless, we notice that we are being passed sometimes. For example, the area coordinator proposed to schedule a meeting at the end of November with VANTOT and VitalZone, the two other active parties in the Emmasingelkwadrant who are working on improving the living environment. This meeting would be planned to see how we could help and strengthen each other. Last week we received an email out of the blue stating that VitalZone, VANTOT, and the person concerned had planned a meeting on the same day she sent the email. The email was not necessarily sent to invite us, but to 'keep us informed'. We don't know yet whether there will be another meeting planned together with these organizations; we have already spoken to VitalZone and will speak to someone from VANTOT next week, so that is not the point. The 'prejudice' I talked about in my reflection, is therefore mainly based on the poor communication skills from some people within the municipality and the passing or not passing of certain persons who should be involved (both within the municipality and outside the municipality). I have to say, our supervisor Monique is not one of them; her communication skills are on point and she tries to involve everyone that needs to be involved.

- I like that you formulate your questions and doubts in the sixth paragraph. You also do this in later paragraphs, very good. though, I do notice you ask these questions and say it is interesting to think about, but it would also be good if you elaborated on how you are planning to find the answers to these questions.

I think Lynn is talking about these questions: ‘’Why could it be a disadvantage to say that we are from the municipality (Although we will never say that, still)? Is it because of a (negative) image that has been created about the municipality?’’ I want to reflect upon these questions and elaborate on how to find an answer to these questions.

I ask questions like this because I think they may be related to the situation in the Emmasingelkwadrant. So these are not questions that I actually (immediately) want an answer to, but questions that I can keep in mind during the process. I will therefore not use any particular approach to answer these questions, but I will 'trust the process' and see what comes out of the conversations with the stakeholders in the neighborhood. I will never get an objective answer to these kinds of questions; these are questions I ask myself to find out why people say what they say. This allows me to ultimately create a critical image of the situation.

Now that Jesse and I are a little further in the process and have spoken with various stakeholders in the neighborhood, we notice that people are skeptical about the situation in the Emmasingelkwadrant, but also about the municipality. I get the idea that stakeholders in the neighborhood feel that nothing is being done with their input anyway, so they are increasingly passive and skeptical about the situation. Yet we have spoken to too few people to consider this as the truth. Nevertheless, on the basis of the initial conversations, we could formulate a first and temporary answer to my questions: The stakeholders have the idea that little is done by the municipality and that little is done with the input they provide. The moment we say we work for the municipality, the stakeholders in the neighborhood can think of different things. They may think: There are again people from the municipality who are probably not going to do anything with our input. Or they think: There are people from the municipality who come to arrange things for us. Neither case would be positive for us; After all, we want to be the facilitating, connecting factor that will map out the needs of the stakeholders. We really want to do something for the neighborhood, but we will not be the executive factor. Again: this answer has been formulated on the basis of the first conversations. These are therefore not facts, but thoughts that have arisen on the basis of the gained information.

- In general, very nice reflection. you are able to reflect upon the situation and your feelings/experience. I do still think it is a lot of text, you should always be critical about what you should and should not reflect upon. keep this in mind!