I’m starting to think that much of what we need to know about resolving conflict with people we could have learned from our kids if we’d paid closer attention. Kids rarely take no for an answer. The usual kid response to being told no is most often, ‘‘why?!’’ That usually leads to a longer explanation… read more →
Giving somebody the business is a term from the old Leave it to Beaver TV series. (Wally Cleaver) “Boy, Beaver, wait’ll the guys find out you were hanging around with a girl. They’ll really give you the business.” Arguing just for the sake of arguing and giving people a hard time is a sport for a… read more →
Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Actually, he wrote more than that, but this simpler version makes the point. It’s tough for people who know lots about something not to get lost in the minutia and nuance of what they know. But it’s not in your… read more →
We know that for years, trust in big institutions has been eroding with big government being the least trusted of those institutions. We’ve also seen that government closest to the people has been traditionally more trusted than the federal government. Close means the people who put out fires, fix potholes and pick up garbage weekly… read more →
Infrastructure in the U.S. is crumbling and needs help badly and soon. We – citizens, taxpayers and voters – need to agree to and be part of the solution to make this happen. But states spent nearly three times as much to build a mile of highway in the ‘80s as they did in the… read more →
Most public presentations delivered by professionals working in the public sector tend to sound and look more like the presentations they might deliver to their peers at professional conferences. Those data driven oratories and PowerPoint extravaganzas are swell for impressing colleagues and generating juicy happy hour discussions later at the bar. But that approach fails… read more →
Our Strategies for Dealing with Opposition and Outrage in Public Participation (we really need to shorten that name) class describes the indicators that cause people to become angry and fearful. Knowing the causes lets you deal with the effects. It also explains the behaviors that people who work with the public successfully use to make… read more →
People and conflict go together like peas and carrots (thanks, Forrest); it’s inevitable, but this current culture of incredibly high conflict is newer territory. If we ever hope to learn and grow beyond it, we need to understand the sources and create new ways to fix it. Humiliation, personal rejection and disrespect are all ways… read more →
The inside of the bureaucratic bubble can feel like a nice, safe place to work with people who think alike and sometimes feel themselves to be above the mass of the “great unwashed.’’ I know that sounds harsh and it’s certainly not common to most people working in the public sector, but we encounter it… read more →
We in this business often struggle with terminology. Various practitioners consider public or community participation, involvement, or engagement to mean different things, but the definitions are really in the minds of the beholders. Academia likes using ‘‘co-production’’ in reference to government’s public relationships and working with the people it serves and I think that’s… read more →