Public Participation is Necessary for Democracy When determining how to ensure effective public participation, it should be noted that public participation is no less than the bedrock of a functioning democracy. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the U.S. Constitution, said, “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people… read more →
I struggled with how to start this newsletter but I’ve been thinking about Allen Saunders’ quote (often attributed to John Lennon): “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Prescient, considering Lennon’s murder and appropriate now with COVID-19, our new Pearl Harbor or 911. I guess it’s as good a place… read more →
We’re living in a remarkable new age of professional propaganda where lies have become as common as truth. We’re in the truth telling business, however, and the challenge that we face is that it’s usually easier for charlatans to make fake information more melodramatic, attention-getting and interesting than it is for us to make the… read more →
Similar to the benefit of expressing some humility is the benefit of not sounding like you know it all. When experts are dealing with concerned, anxious people, it often feels like the more answers the experts can produce, the more confident and convinced those nervous people will be. But the fact is it just doesn’t… read more →
We work with clients who are expert in their respective fields, and they’re understandably confident in what they know. But in this new age of anti-science and the demonization of expertise, that confidence is often mistaken for arrogance by an angry, skeptical public. When experts need to establish themselves as trustworthy and credible, a certain… read more →
One of the best and most useful skills to develop in public engagement, facilitation, and conflict management is the ability to ask dialed in, compelling, clear, to-the-point, interesting questions. Great questions result in great answers, and questions that sound more like some kind of ham-fisted, bureaucratic interrogation usually get lousy or useless responses. For some… read more →
In the work that we do and in the classes that we teach, we increasingly run across people just starting out in this biz. Newer facilitators tend to be nervous about the idea of dealing with volatile situations and people with strong feelings on competing sides of issues. They’re usually looking for clear assurances, magic… read more →
This story was penned by an experienced academic and practicing mediator, but everything in it really resonated for me and I thought you might like these six basic lessons.
You may have noticed that the public sector workforce is changing – a lot. Of course, there’s always an ongoing turnover in people, but federal agencies in particular are seeing a major loss of institutional knowledge and new people are filling management positions with little experience in actually dealing with and managing people. People skills… read more →