Bleiker Brownbag Followup Blog

Why Calling a Time-Out is Common Sense

A call from some clients highlights that using the tactic of calling for a "Time-Out" is just plain common sense! . . . Provided you HAVE common sense.

When a Feel-Good Project Turns Ugly

A couple of friends – one working for a federal agency, the other serving on a politically appointed local planning board – had been doing what they could to encourage a group of volunteers (members of a Rotary club) to tackle a problem that the town government had been neglecting for too long.

The problem/opportunity: a neglected, even abused, riverfront area.


You’d think that trying to figure out how to stop the erosion, protect other important riparian qualities, and exploring how to make the most of the potential the riverfront offers to enhance the town . . . and its residents’ quality of life . . . would be such a feel-good planning effort that it wouldn't create much controversy. (Yes, we know, we DO teach that “every solution to a problem will HURT some interests.” But, get real, who is going to oppose THIS kind of planning effort?)

Well – you guessed it – a handful of people became fairly unglued, . . . felt threatened, . . . got quite polarized, . . . dug in their heels, and set off a raucous of protests!

What to Do When Things Turns to Chaos

Our friends, (one of whom happens to be a former student of Hans' Graduate Community and Regional Planning program at the University of Wyoming), felt that the thing to do was to:

Step back,

  • Help the community explore:

  • Is there really a problem/opportunity that needs to be addressed? . . . Or, is it OK to continue to ignore/abuse the riverfront?

  • If the situation DOES constitute a problem/opportunity, whose responsibility is it to tackle it? . . . (Another way to put this: "Have we – the town – behaved responsibly? . . . Or, have we been dropping the ball?")
An important caution (from the Bleikers): Don’t rush into solutions . . . Don’t do ANYTHING else. Until the community has come to terms with these questions.

In short, what our friends proposed is EXACTLY what we would have proposed: A "Time-Out." Even though the protests didn't seem entirely rational considering the work (i.e. improvements) being proposed,,to ignore them would be a serious mistake.

Although they didn’t call it a "Time-Out," that’s what stepping back and focusing on the questions “IS there a problem?” . . . And, “IF there IS a problem, WHOSE responsibility is it to do something about it?” amounts to.

When some potentially affected interests go ballistic for no obvious reason . . . When their hard-to-understand behavior derails – or threatens to derail – the planning process, you’ve got to get people back to basics:

  • IS there a problem/opportunity? . . . One that really HAS to be addressed?

  • IF there IS a problem, who is the appropriate entity to address it? . . .(i.e. Whose mission is it to tackle it?)

    • Strong, clear answers to these questions form the basis of legitimate planning and give a great example for why calling a "Time Out" is nothing but common sense!

    Bleiker Life Preserver Brownbag Topics May 2011 • (0) Comments


    A Bounty of Tactics but No Gimmicks

    Following the March 2011 Brownbag, we received a comment from a listener who was frustrated that we didn't give, what she felt, was the means to moving a person from the Over-My-Dead-Body position to being at least willing to give his or her Informed Consent.

    As a result, we felt it might be necessary to post a reminder that moving such fierce opponents from a staunch position to willingly giving their Informed Consent is the purpose and point of ALL of these Brownbag sessions, as well as our Consent-Building training.

    (It is also worth noting that those folks who have been through our SDIC (Systematic Development of Informed Consent) course will get far more out of these Brownbag sessions than those who have yet to go through that most basic training.)

    Don't Bother Learning Gimmicks... They Only Backfire!

    There is no quick-fix to getting members of your public (your PAIs) to make this transition. . .

    What we teach is first a means to understanding WHY your PAIs are opposed to even your best work, and then WHAT you can do about it. . . Again, to move them up from being Over-My-Dead-Body opponents, to PAIs who give their grudging Informed Consent.

    However, none of what you will learn from us is a gimmick. Most gimmicks are slick, spin-based, and illegitimate. You don't need gimmicks if you are serious about being a public-sector problem-solver, who realizes that the project you and your colleagues are working on is just one of many to come; your credibility and mission cannot afford that! Don't fall into the temptation to use gimmicks.

    Informed Consent Can Create Instant & Incredibly Positive Results

    So, we apologize that you won't get a quick-fix from us. We have a lot of tools that you can apply immediately; many of which will have instant healing effects on your relationship with Over-My-Dead-Body opponents.

    But, if you are going to become an Implementation Genius, it's YOU that needs to change. How your approach your PAIs, your projects, and your overall mission. And as most of us already know, changing old habits generally takes a lot of time and effort, but it IS doable.

    If you are ready to undergo a paradigm shift and really communicate with your PAIs and constantly work at developing Informed Consent from your work's opponents, you will likely notice positive changes overnight.

    That in itself is pretty darn amazing, and the closest we can offer to a quick-fix, but with a lot more depth!

    Brownbag Topics March 2011 Implementation Geniuses Informed Consent Mistrust NIMBY Us vs. Them • (0) Comments


    Giving Consent and Non-Adversarial Participation

    Question #4 from March 2011 Brownbag
    What about when YOU Are the Citizen Whose Consent is Needed?

    One listener asked what help, or resources for help, we could suggest for the role we all play when we are in the citizen – or stakeholder – role.

    Here’s how she put it:

    I just participated in my first Brownbag on the topic of "Consent vs. Consensus" (March 2011). I appreciate that your target audience comprises public agencies, which is where I wear my professional hat. However, I wonder if you have any resources for how public participants (my citizen persona) can "be reasonable" and work on GIVING informed consent and encouraging others to participate in a way that allows for consent?

    • In particular, I am thinking of our local school district (which by the way, could probably use some help in this area) and how, as a parent, I can be involved without coming across as too adversarial (which I'm not, but some of my fellow parents are).


    OK . . . Good question! . . . Interesting angle! . . . After all, public officials are ALSO citizens in another context!

    There really are two situations in which this question arises. Let’s call them Situations “A” and “B.”


    Situation A

    This is the situation where you’re concerned about coming across as being "too adversarial" because you don’t entirely agree with what the school board – or its superintendent – is proposing.

    In this situation you ARE criticizing their proposal. But, you don’t just want to find fault, you really want to be helpful.

    In that case you’re probably asking:

    • "How can I make sure the school district listens to my ideas, and uses them in the constructive spirit in which they offered? . . . What can I do keep them from becoming defensive when I’m really trying to help them come up with an improved proposal?"


    Situation B

    Although we suspect that the question really was in reference to Situation A, the question also applies to this quite different Situation B.

    This is where you are fully supportive of what the school board is proposing. You find nothing wrong with it, but there are plenty of other parents and other stakeholders who DO object to the board’s proposal.

    In that situation, you might be asking:

    • "Although it is the school boards job to develop the public’s Informed Consent, is there a role for me in that Consent-Building effort? . . . What, if anything, can I do to keep those of my fellow parents who tend to be adversarial, rather than constructive, from making the relationship unnecessarily polarized?"


    Answers to Both Situations A & B

    Although situations A and B are quite different, the answers as to what you – as a parent – can do are pretty much the same.

    First of all, as you hinted in the original email, it truly IS the school board’s job to develop Informed Consent for whatever they are proposing. . . No one else can really do it FOR them.

    What’s helpful in both scenarios is if you make sure that the criticism (in “A” your criticism, in “B” the other parents’ criticism) is explained in terms of the four Life-Preserver points (revisit your notes, or purchase a copy of the recording from the October 2010 Brownbag on: “Using the Bleiker Life-Preserver as a Quick-and-Dirty Consent-Building Tactic”):

    1. Does the board’s proposal, maybe, NOT address a serious problem or opportunity?
      • If it DOES, give them CREDIT for that.

      • If it does NOT, help them re-focus on that question. (In both cases make sure you’re being CONSTRUCTIVE.)

    2. Is the school board, maybe, the WRONG entity to address the problem-at-hand?
      • If they ARE, give them CREDIT for it . . . PUBLICLY.

      • If they’re NOT, help them – and the public – realize that they aren’t the right entity.

    3. Has the school board been REASONABLE, SENSIBLE, RESPONSIBLE in how they have gone about analyzing the problem and generating solutions?
      • If they HAVE, give them CREDIT for that, . . . PUBLICLY.

      • If they have NOT, don’t just criticize them for that. Help identify which specific step in the Problem-Solving/Decision-Making process (refer to the diagram of the 16 Minimum Ingredients of Rigorous Problem-Solving) need to be re-visited and improved on.

    4. Has the school board LISTENED . . . and convinced all the Potentially Affected Interests that it has listened to their concerns?
      • If the board HAS, give them CREDIT for doing so . . . PUBLICLY.

      • If the board has NOT, you can play a constructive role by helping those interests, who are convinced that their concerns have not been heard ,formulate those concerns into CONSTRUCTIVE input . . . rather than just negative criticism.


    To the degree you can make some, or all, of these things happen, you will play a constructive role as a citizen in HELPING the school board develop the public’s Informed Consent . . . But, it won’t – and can’t – be a substitute for THEM doing THEIR job.

    Bleiker Life Preserver Brownbag Topics March 2011 Informed Consent • (0) Comments


    How does one identify people who CANNOT be moved up from the “Over-my-Dead-Body” position?

    Question #3 from March 2011 Brownbag

    A fellow planner from Alaska asked the following: "How does one identify people who CANNOT be moved up from the 'Over-My-Dead-Body' position?"

    Because this is a question we often hear from public officials, we think it deserves an answer on the Blog.

    If our friend in Alaska had gone through our SDIC course, he probably would not have asked that question, and here’s why. . .

    He would understand that:

    1. If you are addressing a serious problem – or opportunity – one that just has to be addressed (i.e. it meets the 1st and 2nd Laws of Public Administration), and

    2. If you are the appropriate entity to address the problem (i.e. Your mission, which was established by the public through its political process, requires you to address the problem), and

    3. If the Problem-Solving/Decision-Making process (that you are using to analyze the problem and generate the full range of alternative solutions) is reasonable, sensible, responsible, and

    4. If you not only listen to your various Potentially Affected Interests (PAIs), but also make your public realize that you are listening to them . . . especially to those PAIs whom you are impacting negatively, then, . . . it IS possible to move the “Over-my-Dead-Body” opponents up to where they become at least “Grudging Consenter.”


    Whether you move them up or not is up to you; it’s not up to them. More specifically, it depends on how good a Consent-Builder you are!

    Implementation Geniuses are like Professional Athletes

    • Asking us, your Consent-Building coaches: “What about those PAIs who will never go along?”

    • Is a lot like asking a golf coach: “What about those golf-balls that just WON’T go into the cup?” . . .

    • That coach would probably tell you what we’re telling you: "Don’t blame the ball, or the wind, or the course . . . If you do YOUR part right, the ball WILL go in.

    • And so similarly, we will tell you: "Don't blame the PAI who doesn't change their tune from being an 'Over-My-Dead-Body' Opponent, or "politics," or our system of government. Instead, figure out how you failed to get their Informed Consent, and then keep working to get it!"


    This analogy is no exaggeration. After all, if you see phenomenally good golfers, it is UNBELIEVABLE the control they have over that ball! (Friends who had tickets to the US Open at Pebble Beach – which is just a couple of miles from our house – gave us tickets for the day they could not attend. And, that’s what we did: we followed a couple of these phenomenally good players around the course. The skill these people have is stunning!)

    Well, that’s what it’s like to watch Implementation Geniuses communicate with their publics . . . which, of course, always means . . . how they communicate with their OPPONENTS -- their fiercest opponents. Like professional golfers who flock to the hardest courses, Implementation Geniuses put most of their effort into the most challenging PAIs.

    Because it IS stunning to see what Implementation Geniuses do, that’s why we have been studying them and their methods for the last 40+ years. There’s NO COMPARISON between their approach to public outreach and what most agencies do . . . !!!

    Brownbag Topics March 2011 Implementation Geniuses Informed Consent • (2) Comments


    How Meaningful are Liability Disclaimers?

    Question #2 from March 2011 Brownbag

    A listener asked “How meaningful are the many liability disclaimers we all wind up signing? Do they qualify as 'Consent'?”

    In other words, are we truly giving our "Informed Consent" when we’re handed a piece of paper with several paragraphs of fine print on them, and we’re told

      "Sign here, and so we can proceed with xyz...?”


    The fine print, if we DO read it, usually stipulates – in one way or another -- that we accept all responsibility if anything goes wrong.

    The same goes for all the “I Accept" buttons we push on our computers when we download new software . . . Software to which we DO entrust our work and the fruits of our creativity.

    Do ANY of you ever READ those long, paragraph-after-paragraph fine print of liability disclaimers? (We have a few times . . . but, have concluded, what are we going to do? . . . NOT use the software we just paid several hundred dollars for...?)


    Does it Qualify as "Informed Consent?"

    This IS a great question, and relates back to what the nurse’s article that Hans talked about in the (March 2011) Brownbag. It may, for the moment, prevent frivolous lawsuits.

    But, if something REALLY serious goes wrong . . . It probably will turn out NOT to have been complete "Informed Consent."

    It’s NOT Informed Consent unless the person signing the document – or pushing the button – says to him/herself AFTER things have gone wrong:

    • I UNDERSTOOD the risk I was taking
    • I UNDERSTOOD that this could happen
    • I went into this with OPEN eyes
    • I was fully informed, ahead of time, that THIS could happen
    • I have no one to blame . . .


    The point for you, me, and anyone working in the public arena is that this kind of disclaimer may make sense in many business situations; but, they are NOT appropriate for the work we are engaged in.

    Like the nurse in the referenced article, for us there are no shortcuts.

    We have to develop honest-to-goodness Informed Consent!

    We don’t really blame people who, in a great many business situations – such as selling software – use these kinds of “sign here” or “push this button if you accept our conditions” liability disclaimers.

    There are so many people who sue for the most trivial reasons . . . Just to have the business in question settle out of court to get rid of the harassing suit.

    For some people it IS a way of earning a living; call it "modern highway robbery." Though these liability disclaimers ARE rather superficial "Consent" statements, they probably eliminate 99% of the potential frivolous lawsuits.

    Brownbag Topics March 2011 Informed Consent • (0) Comments


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We offer this blog as a follow-up for those who participate in our monthly brownbag conference calls.

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