2️⃣Narrowing down
How can we narrow down ideas and start taking action?
Once your Citizen Observatory (CO) has gathered a range of ideas, it’s time to shift gears – from generating possibilities to taking steps toward real action. This stage is all about collectively choosing the most relevant paths forward and keeping up the energy by moving toward practical outcomes. Using tools from this section, especially when paired with Resources Mapping, your community can assess feasibility, make decisions together, and start shaping clear next steps.
This is also the moment by bringing in creative collaborators – local artists, designers, or makers – who can introduce fresh thinking and facilitate new ways of selecting and refining ideas. These tools are designed to spark creativity, support collaboration, and make sure that the final direction reflects the community’s values and capacity for change.
Why is it relevant?
Narrowing down ideas helps turn early enthusiasm into tangible progress. It keeps momentum alive and builds clarity around what to work on next. This process invites diverse voices to find common ground and ensures the final idea is both representative and action-oriented. Involving external stakeholders or creatives at this stage can strengthen ideas with fresh insights and broaden support.
How can this be done?
Now that your Citizen Observatory (CO) is moving into a “decision-making mode”, it’s time to explore six practical tools that help refine ideas, prioritise efforts, and imagine real-world impact. These methods are designed to spark discussion, weigh options, and guide your group toward action that feels both meaningful and feasible.
Creative Strategy Canvas
Inspired by Walt Disney’s creative process (via NLP expert Robert Dilts), this tool helps teams look at an idea from three angles: the Dreamer (imagination), the Realist (practicality), and the Critic (evaluation). It’s a powerful way to filter ideas and guide the group toward one that’s ready for action.
SCAMPER method
SCAMPER stands for: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put (to another use), Eliminate, and Reverse. Each prompt pushes teams to reimagine an idea from a different perspective, unlocking creative solutions and refining potential actions.
Each letter represents a specific question or prompt that encourages individuals or teams to think critically and creatively about how they can manipulate or transform an idea to generate new possibilities and solutions.
Fast Idea Generator
Need a burst of new ideas, or want to stress-test existing ones? The Fast Idea Generator helps your group look at a problem from multiple angles, just like SCAMPER, but with a sharper focus on applying those ideas in varied scenarios. It’s a quick, structured way to push thinking further and consolidate concepts.
Opportunity Matrix
This tool helps communities make smart, strategic choices. By plotting each idea on a matrix that measures attractiveness (including environmental or cultural value) and feasibility, your group can quickly see which ideas are:
Ideal (high impact, easy to implement)
Challenging (great ideas that need support)
Safe (easy wins, but less inspiring)
Best avoided (low value, hard to realise)
It’s a powerful way to prioritise efforts and stay aligned with what matters.
Future Newspaper
What would your community look like if your citizen action succeeded? The Future Newspaper tool invites participants to imagine headlines from a desirable future—then work backwards to figure out the steps that would get them there. This reflective, vision-driven method helps align aspirations with concrete actions, identify key players, and manage expectations along the way.
Co-creation Assemblies Guide
When you're ready to prototype real interventions, Co-creation Assemblies bring diverse stakeholders together—especially those with different or even opposing views—to propose, shape, and test actions collaboratively. These sessions reveal how people perceive the problem from their own context and how potential solutions tie into the community’s identity. It’s a dynamic way to move from ideas to prototypes with collective ownership.
Useful resources
How to inspire action and drive impact?
Whether you're designing your own Citizen Observatory (CO) or deepening an existing one, these tools and references can help you align vision with action, connect community efforts to policy, and shape meaningful interventions for the future.
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