Public and community engagement, involvement and participation is what we are doing as consultants. It is also what we help others do most effectively. We work with teams, companies and agencies on reaching consensus through public participation and collaboration. We usually find ourselves bridging divides by creating spaces where people are willing to participate to build solutions. Community engagement builds consensus. And below you have some of the best of the news and tips that we have found about how to engage communities. Or what happens when you do not. The latest news handpicked by our public sector consultants, all wrapped up with a sometimes snarky – yet always informed – perspective. Enjoy!
A recent Pew research study finds that Americans tend to have a positive image of the work of research scientists (which is great news), but don’t think much of the ability of those scientists to communicate (which is entirely fixable). Once again, it corroborates what we’ve seen for ...
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People who deal with tough public policy, stakeholder conflicts and upset people much of the time can become jaded, skeptical and even cynical about working with the public. You begin to wonder if people are truly as unreasonable and crazy as broadcast, cable and social media news coverage makes them ...
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I just spent several days professing with the next generation of public servants at a major university recently and a hot topic of classroom conversation had to do with big changes made by their administration without engaging the students who would be affected – they weren’t pleased. The conversation was ...
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Just so happens that I’m writing this from Chicago (Second City, that Toddlin’ Town, the City of Broad Shoulders, Hog butcher for the world, or as the Wall Street Journal called it, Beirut by the lake) this week. I’m teaching the weeklong IAP2 Foundations in Public Participation course ...
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Empathy is on the decline. This is pretty startling information because we talk about empathy a whole lot in this work. Research suggests that people are getting less empathic – or empathetic, if you prefer. And, in fact, people are getting more selectively empathic, meaning that we might care about, ...
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If you’re at all familiar with the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Spectrum, you know that the range of public influence level categories begins with ‘Inform’. And if you learned about the Spectrum from a licensed IAP2 instructor, you should also have heard that ‘informing’ people, in and of ...
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If you’re at all familiar with the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Public Participation Spectrum, you know that the listed range of public influence level categories begins with ‘Inform’. And if you learned about the Spectrum from a licensed IAP2 instructor, you should also have learned ...
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Communication and engagement is at the core of successfully driving change in any organization or business, and with any kind of issue or project that requires public support. Human nature means that people will almost always opt for the status quo rather than any kind of change because change is ...
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One of the factors that tell you whether or not the people that you’re dealing with will be angry or concerned, and to what extent, about your proposed issue or project, has to do with the memorability of the issue. Things that generate a lot of publicity, attention and street ...
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