In September, TPC presented a session at the IAP2 Annual conference in Montreal to explore key issues facing the future of public participation. When everyone is connected to everyone else and opinions can be posted to the world from your phone, does anyone really care about coming together to talk ...
read more →
I’m thinking about the deplorable dissolution of respect and empathy for other people in our country these days. Who isn’t, right? Here’s a brave conflict resolution strategy from our northern friends that we could do well to take seriously.
I’m exceedingly fond of Canada, having grown up a slingshot distance ...
read more →
For the past thirty years, I have specialized in angry people. As a public participation specialist, I am often called in to communities that are hurting. People are facing real problems—living next to hazardous and radioactive waste sites and other environmental issues, seeing property diminishment from development, loss of jobs ...
read more →
The mainstream news media, and politics in general, has had a love affair with the word mandate for the past several presidential news cycles and that should make all of us a little crazy.
Elections are decided by vote, still probably the cleanest and most efficient system that we’ve come ...
read more →
How are consensus decisions developed?
Consensus becomes possible within groups that are committed to honoring each person’s contribution. The collaborative problem solving process involves a shared commitment to listen 
respectfully to each other and the choice to allow each unique perspective to inform the whole view. A consensus-building group will ...
read more →
Consensus is one way that groups can make decisions. There are other ways, of course. A conceptual range of options is depicted graphically below. It spans from one person making a decision on behalf of the entire group to consensus with no constraints, meaning that ...
read more →
“Never apologize, mister, it’s a sign of weakness.” ― John Wayne
One of the hardest things for people – individuals or organizations – to do is say “I’m sorry!” Think about your closest personal relationships. Something you have done or said – intended or not – has hurt a person ...
read more →
Some quick thoughts about what we saw and heard at the September IAP2 North American conference in Montreal about capturing and responding to public opinion – specifically related to online engagement. As you may know if you attended or signed up to get our updates, we released the results ...
read more →
What is active listening? Many years ago when I was a callow public involvement apprentice, I took a course from one of our icons, Jim Creighton, the founding president of The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), on Active Listening. It was so intimidating on a personal level, ...
read more →
This summer, we surveyed IAP2 leaders and practitioners about the condition of our field in 2016, and the public participation survey results are in.
In fact, we presented those today during our 2016 IAP2 North American Conference session, titled “Over Our Dead Body.”
If you were in attendance, ...
read more →
