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 →
It is with the utmost sadness that we must tell you Debra Duerr, our managing partner, our colleague, and our close friend, passed away in April after a sudden and brief illness. Debra was an urban planner by education and an environmental planner throughout most of her 40-plus year career. Debra was passionate about providing… read more →
We know a lot of introverts. You might be one. Many of the gifted people that we work with tend to be … a bit on the less-than-social side. Interestingly, many of the people who work with the public, like my partners and I, are often actually pretty introverted. I learned only recently that there… read more →
I think we’ve reached the point where it’s pointless to waste time debating whether or not most people have lost faith in institutions and experts. They have. We have. Public engagement will be key for those institutions and experts to re-earn some semblance of credibility, which we all need if we hope to hand off… read more →
One of the behavioral strategies that we talk about to help angry people become less angry and to rebuild trust is hard and counterintuitive for most experts but truly effective. It’s called dilemma sharing. Bring people in to see the challenges that you’re facing before you try to solve them. Read More
I talked to a colleague recently who told me that the public agency she’s working with has now decided that from now on, all public meetings and interactions shall indeed only be done virtually, by Zoom. It’s worked well enough for them over the past several months, it’s easier and cheap for them to do,… read more →