SDIC

“Is this just another way to manipulate the public?  Or to be a spin-doctor?”

We guarantee, you will be impressed when you discover that Implementation Geniuses:

They develop an unusual, and often complicated relationship with their opponents… especially with their project’s fiercest opponents that is neither an agreement nor a conventional disagreement.

They, unlike most other public officials, never do Citizen Participation as “an End in Itself,” but only as “a Means to an End.  That “end,” or objective, being the Informed Consent of their fiercest opponents.

8 Critical SDIC Points

Working with Implementation Geniuses - primarily officials who have become Implementation Geniuses as a result of our SDIC/CPO training - demonstrates several amazing things: 

1. The relationship between the professionals in your agency, the elected and/or appointed political decision-makers who make policy for your agency, and your various potentially affected interests ...is rarely what people think it is and always has the potential for being very different from what it appears to be!
2. No matter how much of an “Over-My-Dead-Body” attitude your opponents have, and no matter what those opponents’ motive is, and no matter how impossible it looks ...you probably can develop their Informed Consent.  The possibility is there, provided you work for a legitimate organization, and your proposal is legitimate.

3. Democratic decision-making… the idea of participatory “self-governance” is much more difficult than people realize

   The people who invented Democracy - the Greeks of 2,500 years ago - failed utterly at making Democracy work, and gave up on it.  They concluded that it couldn’t work!

                                                                                                           
What few attempts have been made at Democracy since have not worked particularly well.             
                                                                                                 
To top it off, the kind of Democracy we are trying in the United States is the most daring—and probably the most brilliantly conceived.  However, in many ways, our Democracy is also the most unworkable ever invented. 

Thomas Jefferson and his cohorts who came up with the ground rules for this Democracy built it around the rights of the individual... not around the rights of society, or the group, or the majority, as every other society has always done.
                                                         
The resulting “Jeffersonian” Democracy is designed to give individuals, and other special interests, tremendous clout… including the clout to monkey-wrench, stop, derail, stall, stymie, torpedo, and veto governmental proposals.

No other governmental system ever designed anywhere in the whole history of mankind gives “Over-My-Dead-Body” opponents the kind of negative clout that Jeffersonian Democracy gives them!
                                                                                           
That is why public agencies in the US have a much greater need for Consent-Building skills than their counterparts in other countries.  In virtually every other country, “the group” prevails over the individual.

But you don’t know my project, the issues, and my public!

SDIC will change your effectiveness, AND your life!

4. Informed Consent is not natural… not with interests who will be hurt by your proposal.  And, you will, with virtually every proposal you make, be forced to hurt someone because it’s a fact of life that virtually every solution to a complex problem will hurt some interests.                               
                                                                                  
   Opposition, even “Over-My-Dead-Body” opposition, is a far more natural response when your proposal threatens to offend someone’s values than agreement, consensus, or even “grudging” consent… Unless you design Informed Consent… build Informed Consent… engineer Informed Consent… it won’t be there when you come out with your proposal.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

5. When the professionals in an agency develop a technical proposal for their political decision-makers without also developing and delivering Informed Consent, they virtually guarantee political grid-lock and indecision.
6. On the other hand, Implementation Geniuses get the same political decision-makers to make decisions… even difficult, painful, unpopular decisions.

7. One reason their political decision-makers are able and willing to bite the bullet is because of the effect Implementation Geniuses have on the “political climate” surrounding their proposal:

        
   • Implementation Geniuses create an informed public
        
   • That informed public engages in an informed public debate
        
   • That, in turn, creates an informed political debate
        
   • And, that - in turn - leads to informed political decisions
8. Ordinary, humble technical or professional public-sector professionals—who are dedicated to their mission, and who have the courage to do things differently from the way they’re done by most of their colleagues can be phenomenally effective, amazingly influential, and stunningly successful!

The SDIC course helps you discover the larger decision-making framework that you fit into as a professional working in a Jeffersonian Democracy.

It gives you a big enough perspective where “politics” no longer is a four-letter word, and no longer is synonymous with “irrational” and “frustration.”

From that bigger and better perspective, you discover that your role as a technical expert doesn’t have to be one of near-irrelevance in the political decision-making process.

You will discover that the potential exists for you to have much greater influence over political decision-making than you ever thought… without becoming a political player yourself… and, without manipulating the public or the political decision-makers… but rather by being brutally honest, and nothing less than professionally responsible.

What all is covered in the 3-day course?

SDIC Learning Objectives

Why it is more difficult, and more important for public officials in the U.S. to develop Informed Consent than it is in any other country

How and why Thomas Jefferson’s idea of trying to create a society where individual values are relatively sovereign has resulted in a government that is:                                                       
                                             
     

- fundamentally different from all other governments ever created anywhere       - primarily responsible for protecting the rights of the individual                                                                                           - burdened with lots of responsibilities, but relatively little clout                                                                   - mandated to have the public’s consent over, and over, and over… if it is to get anything accomplished

The role values play in (people’s likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations, etc.):

- building Informed Consent       - creating “Over-My-Dead-Body” attitudes, including potentially violent “Extremists”

Who should take SDIC?

Both technical experts and elected/appointed officials can become Implementation Geniuses

Public officials with responsibility for important, but difficult-to-implement projects, programs, regulations, and missions are the most obvious beneficiaries of this training.

Engineers, scientists, systems analysts, managers, administrators, and other hired professionals in public agencies benefit most because it’s their professional work—and their careers—that are wasted when their recommendations are torpedoed.

However, elected and politically appointed decision-makers can also use SDIC. They suffer many of the same frustrations as do the professionals.                                                                                                           

Although the R&D that went into the development of SDIC was carried out primarily in the public-sector, private-sector managers whose proposals are vulnerable to vetoes and political gridlock can also use SDIC to raise their batting average for project implementation.

So, what aren’t you telling us about SDIC?

There is GOOD News and BAD News about our Consent-Building Methodology:

- the BAD News: The SDIC management strategy is neither easy to learn nor is it easy to use

          - the GOOD News: It IS learnable!

In fact, even though it has taken us 35+ years to perfect it, you can learn the basics of it in just a few days!  It is very do-able.

Once you start using our Consent-Building Methodology, you become more and more effective. You too will become an “Implementation Genius.”

What else can I expect to learn?

Experienced administrators who attend this course often tell us that it has been one of the most empowering, enlightening, valuable, useful learning experiences they’ve ever been exposed to.       

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