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The AskingCities Handbook

Chapter 6The seven strategies of the AskingCities model

9 min read

AskingCities strategies function as major axes that support the system, more stable than actions and more structural than options. While actions represent the operational muscle that executes the model and options provide flexibility to adapt it to each territory, strategies are the pillars that define what is essential, what cannot be lost and what must remain recognizable in any AskingCity. Each of them is a conceptual container with three layers: a structural purpose that explains why that strategy matters, a logic of transformation that describes the mechanism by which reality changes, and a set of actions that make it operational. Therefore, strategies emerge from practice, not from theory.

What makes an AskingCities strategy unique is that it is organic and relational. It is activated in the interaction between different actors – university, third sector, administration, companies, community culture – and allows two cities to adopt the same strategic orientation through different actions, as long as the meaning is coherent. They are universal in their function, but not uniform in their expression. In addition, they form a cumulative system: advancing one strategy drives another. Strengthening narratives makes it easier to create simplicity; Understanding Givers makes it easier to generate quick wins; quick wins, in turn, strengthen the narrative. The strategies feed off each other, and that interdependence sustains the coherence of the movement.

Working with strategies implies interpreting them, not executing them mechanically. Each local team must understand their deep purpose, decide which strategies are prioritized according to the starting point of their territory, constantly dialogue with them to evaluate decisions, turn them into stories that express their value and update their interpretation as the city learns. The strategies are stable, but the way to understand and activate them deepens over time, making the AskingCity grow in maturity while keeping its essence intact.

Once you understand what a strategy means in AskingCities, the next step is to descend to the seven fundamental strategies that make up the skeleton of the model. These strategies are the functional DNA of AskingCities. They mark the main paths that any AskingCity must travel to activate, consolidate and expand the movement.

Each of these strategies captures a specific type of transformation that AskingCities needs to bring about in a city. They are not independent, but function as seven streams that, when they converge, generate a river of systemic change. In this chapter, we'll look at what each strategy expresses, what kind of logic it activates, and what role it plays in an AskingCity.

6.1Create Simplicity (SIM)#

In AskingCities, unnecessary complexity is the biggest enemy of progress because it introduces noise, slows down connections, and diverts attention from what really matters. The strategy of simplicity is manifested, among others, in the following factors:

All of this creates an environment in which every interaction can move forward without unnecessary obstacles. When an AskingCity adopts simplicity as a guiding principle, the project progresses naturally, as connections become more frequent, quick wins emerge more easily, and the team can focus on the essentials: listening, connecting, supporting and telling stories.

Simplicity is also the key to scaling. If a city is to be successful in this model it should attempt tens of thousands of matches a year. This scale requires simplicity and automation. Any artificial complexity will prevent scaling, thereby impacting the enthusiasm from all the players involved.

6.2Building interdisciplinary teams with key people (TMCs)#

AskingCities is a model where relationships matter as much as resources, and that is why this strategy focuses on bringing together the right people and cultivating teams capable of sustaining the movement over time. It is a question of finding teams that understand both social and technical languages, that can connect institutional and citizen worlds, and that are capable of sustaining the project beyond the initial start up.

An AskingCities interdisciplinary team must have people who know how to listen carefully, handle complexity without losing nuances, move skilfully within the domain, promote quick wins with energy and, above all, maintain a systemic vision that allows them to see how each small connection contributes to the progress of the whole. Among the possible roles involved, we pick out:

  1. Coordination and connection of the ecosystem: Role in charge of taking care of relationships, articulating the team and maintaining a systemic vision of the whole, aligning expectations and ensuring coherence and continuity over time.

  2. Institutional liaison: A person capable of moving freely between administrations, universities and other formal entities, understanding their languages and rhythms, and opening spaces for collaboration with legitimacy.

  3. Community dynamisation: A profile deeply connected to the region, which actively listens, generates trust and mobilises diverse people and groups based on local awareness and respect.

  4. Analysis and synthesis: A role that transforms conversations, needs and complex experiences into clear questions, shareable learning and useful frameworks of meaning for action.

  5. Technical-digital support: A person or group that supports tools, data and technological platforms, putting technology at the service of civic purpose without turning it into an end in itself.

  6. Communication and storytelling: A role that compellingly tells the stories of askers and givers having real impact on the individuals and communities of the city.

  7. Process Facilitation and Design: A profile specialized in identifying and improving the processes that underlie the need for scale and automation, at the same time ensuring a collective experience that encourages participation.

  8. Evaluation and sustainability: A role that observes and documents the progress of the project, preparing the materials that support the project’s long-term future and funding.

6.3Understanding the Givers Network and its Motivations (GVR)#

This strategy is the key to activating the latent capacity of a city. AskingCities cannot work if there is not a good understanding of who can give, why they would be willing to do so, what kind of capabilities each actor possesses and how they want to relate to their environment. For this reason, GVR forces us to look carefully at the structure of the Third Sector, to understand the motivations of companies, to explore the role that the universities play in the ecosystem and to investigate both the personal and organizational ambitions that drive participation. This requires identifying which forms of collaboration are sustainable, which require encouragement and which can scale without generating friction.

6.4Construct Persuasive Arguments for Givers (PCH)#

This strategy complements the previous one because, in addition to getting to know the Givers, it is necessary to convince them that AskingCities is a valuable space for them, a place where their contribution is not lost in diffuse efforts, but generates real impact in a fast, comprehensible and attributable fashion.

The persuasive arguments that AskingCities uses are based on the impacts that each organization can achieve in their city. They use stories that connect them with the real needs of the city in a way that amplifies their civic goals and their culture.

Any interactions must respect a Givers' time, energy, and operational constraints. A well-constructed AskingCities value proposition does not promote media visibility or traditional corporate benefits, but rather social relevance, meaning, connection to their region, cultural impact and opportunities for mutual improvement. When PCH is fully realized, alliances are strengthened, institutional doors open more easily and the need to "ask for favours" disappears.

In short, PCH is key to professionalizing the model and building lasting relationships that allow AskingCities to expand without losing its human character and structural lightness.

6.5Develop Good Impact Stories (STYs)#

AskingCities is sustained by stories, that is, by real stories in which someone asks, someone gives, and both generate value, rather than reports, graphs, or quantitative metrics. In this sense, the STY strategy fulfils a role that is often underestimated: to create a story is to celebrate a real and impactful success.

A well-told AskingCities story explains the project in the eyes of institutions, inspires new people and organizations to join, generates trust in citizens, demonstrates that collaboration is possible and strengthens the city's social fabric. In addition, the narrative not only documents what happened, but reinforces the quick wins, shows the diversity of Givers that participate, highlights the learnings that emerge in each connection and contributes to creating a shared identity of AskingCity. Each story opens a new door and turns the experience into a living movement that others want to share.

6.6Leverage the Institutional Supply Chain (SUP)#

This strategy addresses a little-explored territory in the third sector: institutional purchasing power. Universities, public administrations and large organisations operate on a network of suppliers, technical teams, outsourced services, infrastructures and long-term contracts that, often unintentionally, concentrate an enormous capacity to generate social impact.

SUP proposes a powerful and simple idea at the same time: to include AskingCities within this value chain as a framework for collaboration integrated into the ordinary functioning of the institution. This allows suppliers to offer hours of their technical team as part of their social responsibility, for companies to share experts to accompany community projects or for outsourced services to open up idle capacity that would otherwise be underused.

By activating SUP, the city's contracted structure – everything that already exists, is already paid for and already works – becomes an engine of civic impact. The institution does not create anything new, but simply opens what it already has so that it flows into real needs, generating links, stories and learning that strengthen both the organization and the territory. This strategy shows that an AskingCity does not need large investments to scale, but a different look at the hidden abundance that lives in its own supply chains.

6.7Develop a Replicable Roadmap (RMP)#

RMP addresses the need for AskingCities to be transferable. It
involves building a "how"—a set of orientations, processes, practices, and principles—that can be understood by external actors and faithfully replicated with local customizations. Its approach is simple and effective: document what AskingBristol has learned, standardize this without falling into rigidity, describe what is already known to work, and turn tacit learning into explicit knowledge that can be taught and replicated without relying on the experience of a particular team. This document is intended to play that role in AskingCities.

Without a replicable roadmap, AskingCities could only exist in the place where it was born, and every new city would have to "discover" the model from scratch. As a result, the movement would fragment, move more slowly, and be more vulnerable to partial interpretations or unintentional deviations. With this roadmap, on the other hand, training is streamlined, operational friction decreases and AskingCities acquires a global coherence that allows each city to learn from the others without losing its local identity. That is why RMP is more than a guide, it is the foundation on which the future AskingCities network will be built, a common base that guarantees that the model can travel, multiply and evolve without losing its essence.

6.8How the seven strategies work together#

AskingCities strategies are not silos. They work like seven interdependent gears. Thus, for example:

Thus, AskingCities advances by internal coherence. Each strategy is a critical piece within the system and, when one is missing, the movement loses balance: