Communities are complex organisms because individual human beings are complex creatures. Each one of us brings our own values and beliefs structures and our own interests and dreams to community life. That complexity is steadily increasing because of the impact of technology and globalization. Yet we continue to use decades-old tools and techniques for community engagement and planning and we continue to be surprised when development projects that seem to make perfect sense for communities flounder on the rocks of community opposition?

Why does that happen? Perhaps it’s because we have not really understood the dynamic of community values and interests.

There is another aspect to the evolution of communities that we tend to ignore, and that is the actual readiness and flexibility of communities for change. Many communities say that they want to grow and change, but the reality is that they will only support change as long as nothing substantive really changes. We call that phenomenon “changeless change” and it is about as easy to accomplish as making an omelet without breaking an egg.

These two huge gaps -- in knowledge of community values and in understanding real community change readiness -- have serious implications for community evolution. How can these knowledge gaps be filled? My colleagues and I did a lot of research and we couldn’t find anything that really met those needs -- so we did what any three red-blooded Albertans would do. We filled that gap. We developed a Community Values/Change Readiness Assessment Tool. It is a unique product that fills a demonstrable need in today’s changing communities. We are convinced that it has global applications. We shall pilot it here in Alberta early in 2008.