A common pushback we hear against doing effective public participation is that it just takes too long. Organizations hate the idea of letting the public, especially their critics, slow their plans and the process down. If people would just leave us alone, things would go so much better and when ...
read more →
The events of January 6th scared a lot of us – it should have scared every one of us. In this unbalanced time, we need to remember that democracy is based on balance and equilibrium and the secret sauce is the involvement of its citizens. You’ll find this, along ...
read more →
I’ve said before that the COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest and most consequential risk communication failure of our time. Assessing relative risk is something that most of us do almost every day – can I make this left turn in time, do I buy the cheaper or the organic ...
read more →
2020 was a year for the books, and given the events of the past few weeks in the U.S., it feels like 2021 is already nine months old. But the tone from the top is changing and that’s not a small thing. We’re seeing a remarkable contrast in the temperature ...
read more →
Trust is no longer a foregone conclusion; in fact, organizations are safe to assume to be starting from a position of mistrust. So if you know you’re trusted by someone, guard it and nurture it faithfully. Missteps require making amends, but sometimes that won’t be enough or won’t result in ...
read more →
It’s easy to think that the political and public polarization of this country is a fairly recent phenomenon, but it isn’t; we’ve seen it steadily growing for a long time. It just took a few people with talent for propaganda and promotion to more clearly define the tribes, identify the ...
read more →
Have too many of us lost the ability to think critically? Maybe. One of the toughest challenges that we face is finding and agreeing on common, evidence-based facts. We’ll never agree on the truth until we can do that. Public engagement requires a collective, common understanding of information – thus ...
read more →
Understanding why people believe the things they believe is core to understanding the phenomenon of fake news and disinformation. And helping people become more information and media literate (think the Inform level of the IAP2 Spectrum) is core to public engagement and, frankly, the future of democracy. Knowing that it’s ...
read more →
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 ...
read more →
Most rational people hate conflict; it’s uncomfortable, we can’t really control it, so we do everything we can to avoid it. Problem is, the U.S. is a nation in greater conflict now than ever before – at least in modern history. 81 million people on one side, 74 million on ...
read more →
