“If you are interested in learning how public agencies can get things done
(from siting a new dump to closing a library, to instituting a traffic calming policy) you might consider the Bleikers’ courses . . .
Theirs is the only course notebook I’ve received in 25 years that I still pull out and use on a regular basis.”
-Jim Schroll, Transportation Engineer, Anne Arundel County, MD
- How this Handbook Fits into the Big Picture
- Making Government Effective
- Appetizers
- Entrees
- Desserts
- How this Handbook Fits into the Bigger Picture
- IPMP: the Institute for Participatory Management & Planning
- Credits
- The Way We—as a Society—do Our Public-Sector Problem-Solving—and Decision-Making is Embarrassingly Ineffective
- The Following Scenario, Unfortunately, is Far Too Typical
- Grid-Lock
- Mutual Frustration and Ineffectiveness
- You and You Career
- Your Effectiveness
- Implementation Geniuses
- The SDIC course: Systematic Development of Informed Consent
- The CPO course: Citizen Participation-by-Objectives
- Your Options
A. Why Projects and Programs Get Stopped (Principles 1 - 4)
B. Why your Public Wants You to be Reasonable and Responsible, Even When They are Not (Principles 5 & 6)
C. What Really Counts Is “Informed Consent” (Principles 7 - 11)
D. Some of the Basics of “How CP Works” (Principles 12 & 13)
E. How the Various PAIs’ Motives, Perceptions, Values and Abilities affect CP (Principles 14 - 24)
F. How Your Motives, Perceptions, Values, and Abilities affect Your CP (Principles 25 - 28)
G. Some of the Things CP Can Accomplish for You (Principles 29 - 34)
H. DOs and DON’Ts of CP (Principles 35 - 50)
I. CP Dilemmas (Principles 51 - 60)
- Why Should You Do Citizen Participation
- What is “Informed Consent”?
The Role of Informed Consent
How does One Develop Informed Consent?
- The 15 CP Objectives
A: The Five Responsibility Objectives
#1: Establish the Legitimacy of your Agency and your Project
#2: Maintain the Legitimacy of your Agency and your Project
#3: Establish the Legitimacy of your Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Process
#4: Maintain the Legitimacy of your Processes
#5: Establish and Maintain the Legitimacy of Major Assumptions and Earlier Decisions
B: The Five Responsiveness Objectives
#6: Get to Know all the Potentially Affected Interests
#7: Get to See the Project through Their Eyes
#8: Identify and Understand Problems
#9: Generate Alternative Solutions
#10: Articulate and Clarify the Key Issues
C: The Effectiveness Objectives
#11: Protect and Enhance your Credibility
#12: Have all of the Information that you need to Communicate to the Various Interests Received and Understood by Them
#13: Receive and Understand all the Information that the Various Interests Need to Communicate to You
- The De-Polarizing Objectives
- #14: Finding Common Ground among Polarized Interests
Some Game-Theory Basics
There is a bit of a Chicken-and-Egg Problem
Back to CP Objective #14
- #15: Depolarizing Interests Who are Polarized for Some Other Reason
- Shape Your CP Program around Your CP Needs
- The Table of CP Techniques and CP Objectives shows each Technique’s Strengths and Weaknesses
- Additional PROs and CONs that each Technique has
- Here’s how the table displays these PROs and CONs
#1: Holding or Attending Meetings and Hearings (CP Technique #1)
- Some Basic Principles that Apply to all the different Types of Meetings
#1A: Working Meetings
#1B: “Open” Meetings
#1C: Forums
#1D: Public Mass Meetings
#1E: Public Hearings
#1F: Open Houses
#1G: Town Meetings
#1H: Samoan Circles
#2: Advisory Committees (CP Technique #2)
#2A: Committees that give Popularity-Type Advice
#2B: Committees that give Content-Type Advice
#2C: Blue-Ribbon Panels
#2D: Watch-Dog Advisory Committees
#2E: Constituency-Building Advisory Committees
#2F: Depolarizing Advisory Committees
#2G: Mediating Advisory Committees
#2H: Gophers
#2I: Foxes
#2J: Beavers
#3: Nominal Group Workshops
#4: Using the Mass Media to Communicate
#5: Project Newsletters
#6: Napoleon’s Idiot
#7: Informing the Public about Your Decision-Making Process
#8: Mapping Socio-Political and Environmental Data
#9: Presenting the Public the Full Range of Feasible Alternatives
#9A: Presenting the Public the Full Range of Options
#9B: Fish-Bowl Planning
#10: Illustrating the Final Form of a Proposed Alternative in Laymen’s Terms
#11: Dealing with the Public in the Agency Offices
#12: Installing an Ombudsman
#13: Encouraging Internal Communication
#14: Gaming and Role-Playing
#15: Operating a Field Office
#16: Making the Most of Existing Mechanisms
#16A: Clubs, Civic Groups, and Other Existing Organizations
#16B: Newsletters, other Publications and the Media
#16C: Existing Institutions, School Systems, etc. . .
#16D: Making the Most of the Other Problem-Solving Efforts
#17: Open a Channel of Communication with Each PAI
#18: Monitoring the Mass Media and Other Non-Reactive Learning
#19: Collecting Data; Carrying out Surveys
#20: Examining Past Actions of a PAI
#21: Experiencing Empathy
#22A: Being a Participant Observer
#22B: Focus Groups
#23: Employing Local Citizens on the Project
#24: Monitoring New Developments in Systems that may Affect Your Project
#25: Conducting a Background Study
#26: Hiring an Advocate for One or Several Affected Interests
#27: Looking for Analogies
#28: Cataloguing of Solutions Concepts
#29: Conducting Charrette or Other Creativity Enhancing Techniques
#29A: Charrette
#29B: Brainstorming Sessions
#30: Mediating a Conflict Between Different Interests
#31: Being a “Good Samaritan” by Helping Solve Problems Outside Your Scope of Responsibility
#32: Monitoring the Actual Impacts of a Project
#33: “Delphi” Techniques
#33A: Creating a “Delphi” Crystal Ball
#33B: Doing a “Delphi” Public Survey
#33C: “Delphi” Intelligence Gathering
#34: Lost Letter
#35: Telephone Hot-Line 800-Number
#36: Poster Campaign
#37: Keeping a Record of Input Receiving (and What You are Doing with It)
#37A: Responsiveness Summary / Listening Log
#37B: Blogging
#37C: Audience Response Systems
#38: Using the Computer, . . . the Internet, . . . Television and Radio . . . as Technology-Enabled Responsiveness Tools
#38A: Telephones, FAX Machines, and E-Mail as a CP Technique
#38B: Bulletin Boards
#38C: Using your own Web Site
#38D: Using the PAIs’ Web Sites
Step 1: Assess Your CP Needs
1. Who Should Do the CP Needs Assessments and Why?
2. Some Notes About the “CP Needs Assessment Worksheets”
3. Using CP Worksheets A1- A15
Step 2: Examine Your CP Resources
Using CP Worksheet B
Step 3: Review Your CP Resources in Light of Your CP Needs
Step 4: Create Your CP Program
Step 5: Identify and Program Your CP Tasks
Step 6: Interface Your CP Tasks with Your Technical Tasks
Personal Assignments
Step 7: CP Training
Technical-Level CP Training
Step 8: On-Going Supervision and Coaching
Step 9: De-Briefing Your CP Staff
Step 10: Evaluating and Adjusting Your CP Program
A: A Revitalization Plan for Downtown Area
Background
Assistant Community Director
Former Mayor and Council Woman
Merchants’ Point of View
The View of a Retired Person
B: South of St. James Town
C: Don Vale
Tenants and Property Owners
Leadership: Indigenous or Professional
D: How a Bid for the Winter Olympic Games Failed
Background
View from one of the Anti-Olympic Organizers
Perception of the Olympics General Secretary
E: Improvements to a Highway Intersection
F: The Fate of a Regional Shopping Center Proposal
Subjects
- Citizen Participation
- Communication
- Internal Communication
- Public-Sector Decision-Making in a Democracy
- Game Theory
- Language
- Leadership for Public-Sector Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
- Negotiations
- CP Techniques
- Values
- Newsletter
Systematic Development of Informed Consent (SDIC)
Kansas City, MO: April 17 - 19, 2012
Lakewood, CO: May 22 - 24, 2012
Seattle, WA: October 2 - 4, 2012
Citizen Participation-by-Objectives (CPO)
Lakewood, CO: June 12 - 14, 2012
Leadership Bootcamp
Eventually to be Taught in Sequence of Online Modules
Monthly Brownbag Sessions
What to do When Feedback is Lop-Sided and Not Representative
Why don’t people believe that We AreListening?
How to Reverse the Phenomenon that “the Media Tends to Make Things Worse, not Better”
Why the Silence of Your Supporters is often Deafening
How can we get the Public’s “Consent” when Key-Players are Always Changing?
Why and How You Must Explain Why Some People have to Sacrifice for the Benefit of Others?
Focusing on Your Opponents: How Implementation Geniuses Overcome the Reflex to Avoid Them
How You can have a Rational Dialogue with Overly Emotional People