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Political vs. Technical Issues
Getting Political Decisions to be Scientifically Sound
One of the more interesting places where science and politics interact is in the decision-making of public agencies staffed primarily by engineers, scientists, and analysts in other fields of technical expertise. It’s the nature of these agencies missions that requires them to do their problem-solving in a rigorously objective, even scientific way.
A frustration we often hear – from technical analysts, as well as from their community outreach experts – is the following:
“Our agency’s mission is of a technical/scientific nature. We’re responsible for addressing problems that require objective, dispassionate, factual—even scientific—analysis and decisions. That’s why we, the professionals working in this organization, have to base our recommendations on data, . . . valid, factual, objective data. To do anything less would be irresponsible and unprofessional.
“The trouble is, we – i.e. the technically qualified experts – don’t get to make the policy decisions . . . We only get to make recommendations to the politically appointed and/or elected decision-makers; they get to make policy.
“The advice we give our decision-makers is expert-advice; it is based on our technical/scientific expertise. They, however, don’t have professional expertise in our field, the field about which they get to make policy decisions. And, thus, their decisions ultimately are based more on subjective and/or political considerations than on the objective, factual, technical data that are the basis of our recommendations. …That’s why they often ignore our technical recommendations. When that happens, we and our agency fail in our mission.
“We could get our mission accomplished a heck of a lot better, if someone could get “politics” out of our hair! . . . out of our problem-solving / decision-making process.”
In this brownbag session we’ll show you that you need not throw up your hands in the face of politics. . . . You can be effective in spite of the fact that your technical public agency operates – and will always operate—in a political decision-making environment.
Dirty Tactic 22-23-6
What It Is, and How to Protect Your Work From It
Questions that are symptomatic of this dishonest stakeholder tactic often come up in our courses on the Systematic Development of Informed Consent.
That’s why we decided it was worth dedicating an entire brownbag session to tools for identifying Dirty Tactic 22-23-6, understanding what it is and why it is used, and most importantly, how to protect yourself and your work from it.
How Many Times Have You Asked Yourself. . .
“How should we deal with people (sometimes not just individuals, but representatives of public agencies . . . even sister agencies!) who refuse to participate in our planning process, even though our plans clearly are going to affect them, and we – therefore—try to involve them?
“Is it safe to assume that these people truly are not interested and won’t all of a sudden – late in the process – show up and insist on being involved?
“If that happens, and they want to get involved when – frankly – it’s too late, can we legitimately say: ‘Hey, you had your chance; . . . it was your choice not to get involved when we invited everyone; now it’s too late.’?”
“What’s the best way for us to deal with stakeholders who use this sort-of as a dirty trick or a dirty tactic, . . . i.e. the dirty trick of:
- First refusing to get involved,
- Then, accusing us of ‘excluding’ them when they – too late in the process – insist on getting involved after all?”
Expect this Tactic to be Used Against You
You shouldn’t be surprised when – sooner or later—some of your stakeholders won’t give input early during the problem-solving / decision-making process. Yet, near the end of that process—they then complain that what you’re proposing fails to take their concerns into account.
This can happen a couple of different ways…
Sometimes stakeholders purposely stay out of the process so that:
1. You can’t “co-opt” them . . . into going along with your proposal.
2. And so that they can accuse you of not having involved them.
In these cases they are truly using it as a dirty trick. We call this particular dirty trick CP Principle #22. (There are lots of other dirty tricks creative stakeholders have invented, and you’ve got to be ready for them.)
When It’s Not Intended as a Dirty Trick
But, it’s not always intended as a dirty trick; even though – to you – it still may feel like a dirty trick.
That’s the case when stakeholders just didn’t catch on that your work really will affect them. But when they eventually do catch on – late in the process – and they are upset that they were inadvertently left out of participating.
Either way – whether it is a dirty trick or whether it isn’t intended as a dirty trick – you and your colleagues usually are blamed.
Not only are you blamed, it also makes the public-at-large – i.e. the people who are just bystanders to this drama – suspicious of your motives. At best, it puts you on the defensive. At worst, it looks like your public involvement program was a plot to exclude one or more of the impacted stakeholders.
This Can Damage Your Work, Your Agency, and Your Mission
Whether this is an intended dirty tactic by a stakeholder, or a genuine accident that someone was overlooked or disinterested, it’s damaging to your agency. You’ve got enough problems, you don’t need this.
Regardless of the reason, this sequence of events allows that stakeholder to make utterly unfair accusations against you and your public involvement program. Although used as a dirty tactic, it has become well known, the accusations that its users make have a surprising amount of traction with the public-at-large and with political decision-makers.
It’s a torpedo that keeps sinking a lot of proposals. That’s why you must not let any of your stakeholders get away with using this tactic on you, whether it occurs intentionally or by accident.
What the Brownbag Session Will Cover
We will discuss the three Citizen Participation Principles (CP Principals #22, #23, and #6) that shed light on:
Why, when used as a dirty trick, this approach works so well,
How to minimize it from happening as an accident (i.e. where a stakeholder is inadvertently left out of the process),
What you can do to minimize the chances that a stakeholder of yours will use it intentionally,
And, what you can do if one of them does manage to use it against you . . . in spite of your efforts to minimize the chances of that happening.
Learn How to Protect Yourself from this Tactic
It turns out that this is one dirty trick you can totally immunize your work against. Once you understand the finer points of CP Principles #22, #23, and #6, you can render this dirty trick harmless. Stakeholders will find it useless to use it against you.
We only wish all public involvement challenges were as solvable as this one!
Monthly Brownbag Sessions
Discussion and Answers to Real-World Issues
Many of you have been telling us (for years) that we needed to provide you the opportunity – via some sort of low key networking – to further develop and sharpen the consent-building skills that you first learned in one of our Consent-Building courses.
Although we always agreed that this was a very real need, only recently have we taken steps to do something about it.
We are teaming up with the Caruso Group in Colorado to offer a once-a-month workshop via a 90-minute conference call for a nominal fee ($179 regardless of the number of people listening in).
They are handling the phone logistics and registrations, while we worry about content.
If you have questions about how to register, call-in, or any other Brownbag logistics feel free to contact us or the Caruso Group (by phone: 303-694-4728, or Email).
Join Us Monthly on the Second Tuesday at 10am PST
At 10:00am PST, on the second Tuesday of every month, we offer a 90 minute Brownbag workshop to people who have had some, or all, of our SDIC Consent-Building training.
The Caruso Group has extensive experience conducting conference-call-based training for various professional groups and trade associations; they will handle the registration and all the logistics
Each month we will tackle a new, timely, and practical topic.
* Please note, the new monthly date and time *
Barring any national or major holidays, we will hold each Brownbag session the second Tuesday of the month, kicking the learning module off at 10:00am Pacific Time (1:00pm Eastern), going for 90 minutes, and ending as promptly as possible at or close to 11:30am (Pacific Time).
For about 60 minutes, we’ll give a presentation on the topic of the month, including advice on how you can deal with those challenges.
During the last 30 minutes of the session you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and/or bring up issues (relative to the topic at hand) that may be unique to you, but that everyone else who is in on the conference call will benefit to hear us do our best to answer.
For the first twelve sessions, we have selected topics that regularly come up during the course or in one-on-one coaching sessions.
Relevant and Timely Topics
As many of you know, we often coach agencies who are using the Consent-Building approach their staff learned in one of our SDIC courses, but who face a particular challenge of one sort or another. These coaching arrangements usually consist of us helping the client agency’s team deal with those challenges via a series of periodic (weekly-or-so) conference calls.
Although the public involvement challenges that agencies face are never exactly the same, there are certain patterns that show up again and again.
Whenever we coach an agency on a topic that we just know other teams in other agencies are also facing, we wish all of you could listen in on the coaching conference calls . . . because then all of you would benefit from it, and all of you would, thereafter, know how to deal with that particular challenge.
These monthly 90-minute brownbag sessions are an effort to share with the rest of you the advice we have given to clients on some of the public involvement challenges that – we feel – most of you will encounter earlier or later.
Upcoming Brownbag Dates & Topics . . .
June 12, 2012
A Public in Flux:
How Can We get the Public’s Consent when it is Always Changing?
If your planning process is a slow one, stretching over years—or even decades—your “public” is constantly in flux; stakeholders change, and key-players come and go.
In this session, we’ll explain how your Citizen Participation Program can best cope with this and still achieve “Informed Consent,” even with future residents and PAIs.
July 10, 2012
How to Explain Why Some People Must Sacrifice for the Benefit of Others
Tune in to this Brownbag session if you have a hard time explaining why—as a result of your plans and proposals—some people must sacrifice for the benefit of others.
We will give you the road-map to navigating through this challenge. Our approach never involves spin and always pushes you to achieve Informed Consent as a bare minimum. You can achieve this, even in spite of this challenge.
August 14, 2012
Focusing on Your Fiercest Opponents:
How do Implementation Geniuses Overcome the Reflex to Avoid their Fiercest Opponents?
It’s normal to instinctively try and avoid our most dug-in and fiercest opponents. It’s not uncommon for these opponents to come across as irrational and emotional, making even less appealing to approach them directly and frequently. And yet, in our SDIC training you learned that the key to Implementation Geniuses’ success is their interaction with exactly such opponents.
Tune into this session to learn how they—Implementation Geniuses—overcome the avoidance instinct and turn their focus primarily to their fiercest opponents.
September 11, 2012
How to have a Rational Dialogue with
Overly Emotional People
You aren’t alone if you find yourself coming in contact at meetings, reading blogs, and other media, with very emotional and seemingly irrational people; most of whom are opponents.
Our approach, which focuses on developing the Informed Consent of your PAIs (and in particular, your fiercest,most irrational, and emotional opponents) will help you actually—and immediately—have rational dialogues with overly emotional people. Don’t continue to be perplexed, learn how to diffuse such situations and make sense of these PAIs’ emotions (without becoming their personal therapist).
General Objective of the Brownbag Session
Our aim in choosing topics for these brownbag sessions is to respond to real world problems, challenges, difficulties, frustrations, questions, etc. that we hear from client agencies. For the most part they are issues that – we feel – we don’t give enough time to in our regular SDIC and CPO courses.
Most of them, in fact, are issues that one or more of our clients have asked us to help them deal with through a coaching arrangement. Because these issues are not unique to any one agency, or to any one discipline, most of you – if not all of you – can benefit from the lessons we’ve learned in dealing with them.
How Do I Sign Up?
You can sign up to take part in one, some, or all of the brownbag sessions. (There is a discount if you sign up for six or more topics.)
The cost for participating in a brownbag session is a flat registration fee of $179 regardless of how many of your colleagues listen in while sitting around your conference phone.
In fact, it’s great if you gather a group around the table for the session. That way, the 90 minute session may spark an internal discussion that continues among you and your colleagues for a while.
Again, for the first hour of each session, we will expound upon the topic, offer our thoughts and experiences, as well as our recommendations about how to handle the pitfalls and challenges related to the topic.
Then, either intermittently or during the last 20-30 minutes of the session, conference-call participants – including you – will be encouraged to pose questions that we, then, will do our best to answer.
Overview of Printed Handbook
Preview of the Text
Our 340 page Citizen Participation Handbook is the main text for our CPO Consent-Building courses. In it, you’ll find:
• the 60 CP Principles that govern how things work in the strange, sometimes counter-intuitive, world of Citizen Participation.
• the 15 CP Objectives that can make or break any proposal or recommendation
• the 70+ CP Techniques that you can have in your tool box. Tools you can use to fulfill your project’s CP Objectives.
Most important, the handbook also gives you a set of worksheets—with over 300 probing questions—for assessing your project’s CP needs. And the handbook instructs you in the step-by-step process for going from CP Needs-Assessment to CP Program Design.
Overview of E-Book
How the E-Book Differs from the Printed Text
We teach management leadership courses primarily to public-sector professionals, such as engineers, scientists, planners, analysts, communications experts and managers. In our most popular and fundamental course, SDIC, we hand out a copy of our Citizen Participation Handbook.
This is an e-Book version of that CP Handbook, and as such, is slightly different from the original. The handbook, in its e-Book format, is for viewing strictly on a computer or some other e-Book reading device (PDA, etc.). It cannot be printed, copied, or transferred to other computers.
We have started to offer this e-Book version primarily for clients outside the United States. For years we have had occasional orders for our regular CP Handbook from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, India, Thailand, and other far away places. Postage for sending hard-copy books (the hard-copy three-ring binder version weighs several pounds) tends to be exorbitant. It is primarily to serve these far-away Consent-Building students better that we have developed the e-Book version.
This e-Book is priced to make it affordable for people in under-developed and developing countries. For those of you Consent-Building students in the USA and other developed countries, it makes sense to simply purchase and download another copy (a more current copy) when you have team members who need a copy, or when you upgrade your computer and, thus, lose your installed copy.
None of the handouts are included in the e-Book version because they can be downloaded directly from either of our websites.
In it you’ll find:
The main text for our CPO Consent-Building courses.
- the 60 CP Principles that govern how things work in the strange, sometimes counter-intuitive, world of Citizen Participation.
- the 15 CP Objectives that can make or break any proposal or recommendation
- the 70+ CP Techniques that you can have in your tool box. Tools you can use to fulfill your project’s CP Objectives.
What’s Different in the E-Book Version?
As an e-Book, this handbook is very inexpensive; but, it also has severe limitations:
- This e-Book is for one-time downloading on your computer or other e-Book device.
- It cannot be printed, copied, or transferred to other computers.
- None of the handouts are included in the e-Book version because nearly all of them can be downloaded directly from either of our websites.
Overview of the E-Book
How the E-Book Differs
We teach management leadership courses primarily to public-sector professionals, such as engineers, scientists, planners, analysts, communications experts and managers. In our most popular and fundamental course, SDIC, we hand out a copy of our Citizen Participation Handbook.
This is an e-Book version of that CP Handbook, and as such, is slightly different from the original. The handbook, in its e-Book format, is for viewing strictly on a computer or some other e-Book reading device (PDA, etc.); it cannot be printed, copied, or transferred to other computers.
We have started to offer this e-Book version primarily for clients outside the United States. For years we have had occasional orders for our regular CP Handbook from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, India, Thailand, and other far away places. Postage for sending hard-copy books (the hard-copy three-ring binder version weighs several pounds) tends to be exorbitant. It is primarily to serve these far-away Consent-Building students better that we have developed the e-Book version.
This e-Book is priced to make it affordable for people in under-developed and developing countries. For those of you Consent-Building students in the USA and other developed countries, it makes sense to simply purchase and download another copy (a more current copy) when you have team members who need a copy, or when you upgrade your computer and, thus, lose your installed copy.
None of the handouts are included in the e-Book version because they can be downloaded directly from either of our websites.
In it you’ll find:
The main text for our CPO Consent-Building courses.
- the 60 CP Principles that govern how things work in the strange, sometimes counter-intuitive, world of Citizen Participation.
- the 15 CP Objectives that can make or break any proposal or recommendation
- the 70+ CP Techniques that you can have in your tool box. Tools you can use to fulfill your project’s CP Objectives.
What’s Different in the E-Book Version?
As an e-Book, this handbook is very inexpensive; but, it also has severe limitations:
- This e-Book is for one-time downloading on your computer or other e-Book device.
- It cannot be printed, copied, or transferred to other computers.
- None of the handouts are included in the e-Book version because nearly all of them can be downloaded directly from either of our websites.
Citizen Participation E-Book
E-Book Table of Contents
Foreword
- 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
Chapter I: Introduction
- 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
Chapter II: An Overview
- 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
Chapter III: Principles of Citizen Participation
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)
Chapter IV: Citizen Participation Objectives
- 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
Chapter V: Citizen Participation Techniques
- 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
Chapter VI: The Management of Your CP Program
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
Appendix
Chapter VII: Some Decision-Making Cases
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
Chapter VIII: Suggested Readings
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
Citizen Participation Handbook
Printed 3-Ring Binder Table of Contents
Foreword
- 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
Chapter I: Introduction
- 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
Chapter II: An Overview
- 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
Chapter III: Principles of Citizen Participation
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)
Chapter IV: Citizen Participation Objectives
- 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
Chapter V: Citizen Participation Techniques
- 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
Chapter VI: The Management of Your CP Program
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
Appendix
Chapter VII: Some Decision-Making Cases
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
Chapter VIII: Suggested Readings
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
Upcoming Open Courses
Upcoming Open Courses
Systematic Development of Informed Consent (SDIC)
Lakewood, CO: May 22 - 24, 2012
Seattle, WA: October 16 - 18, 2012 *Please Note Date Change*
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
June 12, 2012
How can we get the Public’s “Consent” when Key-Players are Always Changing?
July 10, 2012
Why and How You Must Explain Why Some People have to Sacrifice for the Benefit of Others?
August 14, 2012
Focusing on Your Opponents: How Implementation Geniuses Overcome the Reflex to Avoid Them
September 11, 2012
How You can have a Rational Dialogue with Overly Emotional People
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Citizen Participation Handbook
For Public Officials & Professionals Serving the Public
Special Money-Saving Offer…
Two for One Low Price! $95
Get BOTH the Printed and E-Book Versions of the Bleikers’ Citizen Participation Handbook for one low price of $95.00! Instead of $49.00, you can add the E-Book for a mere $5.00 more!
Order Two for One Low Price Online
Print Order Form
Printed 3-Ring Binder Version $90
By Hans & Annemarie Bleiker, 14th Edition, © 2011, IPMP
Price: $90.00 (US dollars only. Includes ground shipping)
Table of Contents
Overview of Printed Version
Order Online
Print Order Form
Downloadable E-Book Version $49
By Hans & Annemarie Bleiker, 14th Edition, © 2011, IPMP
Price: $49.00 (US dollars only)
Table of Contents
E-Book Overview
Order Online
Print Order Form
Videos for Just-in-Time Training
See What It's All About!
We are constantly updating the number and quality of video lectures available to add to your library. Below is a list of those currently in stock; previews of each will be available soon.
Just-in-Time Training Package
We currently are offering a complete suite of all currently available videos, in addition to online training, and several hours of free coaching.
This is an integrated package of skill-building aids that help make our consent-building approach part of your daily practices, and fundamental to all of your public involvement and communications plans.
Once you have designed an objectives-driven citizen participation program, using the approach we teach in the SDIC course, it would be helpful for the people who have to carry out the selected techniques to have a module in hand to remind them of how to do it right. That is the idea behind these videos, and the Just-in-Time Package: it is an opportunity to have some last-minute, “just-in-time” training on those specific public involvement techniques.
It would remind you and your team of:
- all the DOs and DON’Ts of that technique,
- creative, even brilliant things that some people have done carrying out that technique,
- dumb things that can happen with that technique, and how to avoid them
Complete Just-in-Time Package Includes
- An online version of how to do a Needs Assessment on a project (which otherwise is only available in the CPO course),
- Video instructions on the DOs and DON’Ts of all of the video lectures available at the time of purchase. This includes some of the most important—and most frequently used—citizen participation techniques (including meetings, advisory committees, an open house, and much more).
- Access to affordable personal coaching / mentoring. We will provide you with five hours of free coaching (by email or phone) if and when the project team wants to run an idea by us before it puts it into practice. If you need additional coaching, we will bill at an affordable rate.
For $2,190 you get far more in value with the Just-in-Time Training Package. Not only is the entire set of videos cheaper as a package than bought individually, you get five free hours of coaching, which otherwise would cost $95 and hour; as well as an online tutorial of how to go through the Needs Assessment ($500 savings).
Purchase the Just-in-Time Training Package
List of Individual Video-Lectures Currently Available
This is an ever-growing list of video-lectures we offer. Check back frequently to get an updated list. Previews of each soon to come…
Meetings
#1: Meetings in General as a Public Involvement Tool
—$49.50
#1A: Using a Working Meeting to Inform the Public
— $110
#1C: Preparing and Staging a Forum
— $242
#1D: Winding up in, and Surviving a Public Mass Meeting
—$71.50
#1E: Conducting a Statutorily Required Public Hearing
—$242
#1F: Creating a “Show-and-Tell” Kind of Open House
—$82.50
Committees
#2: Creating—and Using—Various Kinds of Advisory Committees
—$330 (three DVDs)
Communicating Out to Your Publics
#4A: How to Use the Mass Media as a Hard-to-Beat Tool for Creating an Informed Public
—$143
#6: Using Napoleon’s Idiot as a Tool to Idiot-Proof Your Communication Efforts
—$71.50
#9B: Doing Fish-Bowl Planning
#16: Getting Maximum Mileage Out of Existing Involvement Mechanisms, Instead of Creating Your Own (Covers #16A, 16B,16C)
— $200
- #16A: Existing Clubs, Civic Organizations, etc. —$85
- #16B: Using Existing Newsletters and Other Publications —$75
- #16C: Using Existing Institutions, Such as Schools —$55
Getting Input from Your Various Publics
#22A: Using, or Being, a Participant-Observer
—$121
#37A: Creating a Responsiveness-Summary / Listening Log
—$132
Tactics or Meta-Techniques
Dirty Tactic #22-23-6
- What game is being played by a stakeholder who prefers not to be involved?
- And, what could and should you do about it? —$65
The Six Most Common Serious Errors in Public Involvement
(available on CD-ROM only)—$154
- Doing Citizen Participation for the Wrong Reasons
- Picking Your Citizen Participation Tools before you have figured out what your project’s CP Needs, or CP Objectives are
- Confusing Advice-Giving and Decision-Making. . . You may unwittingly be adding to this confusion
- You are probably Overusing a few Citizen Participation Techniques, especially Meetings and Advisory Committees. (Just because they are required is no excuse to overuse these two time-heavy techniques.)
- Trying to use Citizen Participation as a Substitute for Responsible Project Management
- Losing sight of the Big Picture
Course Previews
Preview to our SDIC Course: Being Objectives-Driven
Research that Lead to Discovery of Implementation Geniuses
>
Training
Online Modules for Returning Students
The Needs Assessment Tutorial
In this tutorial, you and your team will go through the 300+ questions of the Bleiker Needs Assessment Worksheets using this module as your guide.
Included in this exercise are short video and/or audio lectures, and explanations given by Hans that will help your own questions that may arise.
Additionally, as the online module evolves, any questions not immediately answered within the online training itself will be covered in personalized and direct email exchanges between you and the Bleikers.
Email Jennifer if you would like to go through the Needs Assessment Worksheet Tutorial (a nice refresher for those who have not been to a CPO course in some time).
Stay tuned, more online training to come…
Downloads
Tools to Make You More Effective
These FREE downloads are meant to be used in conjunction with training provided by the Bleikers (IPMP).
We have just added TWO MORE techniques to add to our CP Handbook for Professionals, as well as an updated Suggest Readings Chapter, all of which you can download here for FREE.
Add Two More Citizen Participation Techniques to Your Toolbox!
Get the Bleikers’ insight into when and how to use these techniques to make you and your agency more effective and to develop your opponents’ informed consent!
For a LIMITED Time…
Free Update to Your Suggested Readings Chapter!
Get a revised copy of the Suggested Readings Chapter from our renowned Citizen Participation Handbook for Public-Sector Professionals. (Updated August 2010.)
We also have links to download:
And the PAIs/Issues Matrix
(a job-aid to identify all the Potentially Affected Interests are on a specific project)
NOTE: Both of these are to be used by returning students of ours, so they won’t make as much sense if you have not yet gone through our basic SDIC training.
CP Needs Assessments (CP Objectives) Worksheets
These 17 pages are sized to be printed on 11” x 17” paper, and are in .PDF and Excel or Word formats. If you don’t already have Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, download it for free.
Entire Set of Citizen Participation Needs Assessment Worksheets
PAIs/Issues Matrix
The PAIs/Issues Matrix is a tool that helps you make a list of every PAI (Potentially Affected Interest), and every Issue (both real and imagined by insiders and outsiders) on a particular project.
It is sized to be printed on 11” x 17” paper, and is available in both .PDF and Word formats
As individual Word (.doc) documents
- PAI/Issues Matrix Sheet 1
- PAI/Issues Matrix Sheet 2
- PAI/Issues Matrix Sheet 3
- PAI/Issues Matrix Sheet 4
If you don’t already have Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, download it for free.
Imitation is not a form of flattery, it’s theft
We offer these downloads with the understanding that you will not violate copyrights, and that the material will not be used for any use other than on your own projects (i.e. it is not to be used as teaching material by anyone other than the Bleikers).
Contact Us
We'll Train You In-Person, By Phone, or Online
Get trained in any combination of methods so that you can become an Implementation Genius at every thing you do. Our methodology is unique and yet proven in every discipline to be effective.
I Wish I’d Taken this Training Years Ago!
Don’t wait—become an Implementation Genius Today!
We often hear from students that they heard about us years ago and they questioned if it was all “snake oil.”
Once they took the training though, they wished they had signed up years ago—because they learned more than they had anticipated—and were able to apply what they learned to current projects and problems immediately.
Just call, email, fax, or come visit us!
Hans, Annemarie & Jennifer Bleiker
PO Box 1937
Monterey, CA 93942-1937
Tel: (831) 373-4292
Fax: (831) 373-0760
Email: ipmp@aol.com
We’ll Coach You
On what it takes to be an Implementation Genius
For people who have had our Consent-Building training, and who are trying to put the SDIC/CPO strategy to work, we offer coaching to make sure they don’t get stumped by a question or a problem that crops up and that we can help them overcome.
For clients who want to make use of this service, we execute a Coaching Agreement. Then, when the clients team is stumped by something, we not only try to get the team unstuck, but we do it in a coaching / mentoring way . . . i.e. so that the team learns to handle not just the problem at hand but problems like it.
A coaching relationship differs from a consulting relationship
When you hire consultants . . . (e.g. engineering consultants , medical consultants, accounting consultants, etc.), they perform the analysis, . . . the engineering, medical, accounting analysis . . . and then, based on that analysis, they advise you . . . (e.g. “Brace that tower with a 3-inch channel iron.” “Change your diet to avoid a second heart attack.” “Change to a last-in-first-out inventory accounting system,” etc.) . . .
Consultants, thus, use their expertise on your behalf, but they have no obligation to increase your skills and expertise. Consultants are problem-solvers, not teachers.
Coaches and mentors, on the other hand, are teachers...
Coaches look over your shoulder as you analyze your problems. Their advice is aimed to serve not just your immediate needs, it is aimed at developing your team‘s skills, your team‘s problem-solving expertise.
Can Coaching Help Our Team?
Get Mentored to Become an Implementation Genius
With our Coaching Agreement, you become an Implementation Genius yourself! Ideally, we coach and mentor you so that you are no longer dependent on us to understand how differently Implementation Geniuses accomplish their work. Instead, that understanding becomes second nature to you and your team.
Our Coaching / Mentoring works like this:
- Your team uses the SDIC/CPO methods for assessing the Citizen Participation (CP) Needs of the project the team is working on . . . i.e. the team uses the CP Needs-Assessment Worksheets (either the full 15-page set, or in an emergency the Life Preserver based quick-and-dirty short set).
- Your team uses its Consent-Building skills in designing and executing its CP Program.
- Your team shares enough background information with us so we, as coaches, get a pretty good idea of the project, who the Potentially Affected Interests are, and what the Issues are that have to be managed.
We look over the teams shoulders via:
- - relevant newspaper clippings
- - your completed copies of our 15 CP Worksheets
- - faxes, e-mail updates, etc.
- - periodic conference calls with the team
- - usually once per month… as well as in an emergency
Then, we coach the team on how it can improve on its Consent-Building efforts
- - by phone
- - and/or a followup e-mail that outlines our advice
Is Your Mentoring Expensive?
Coaching Fees
We charge a rate that won‘t bust your budget!
For 2010, it is $95/hour.
Just call (831-373-4292) or email Annemarie, and she will customize a coaching agreement to suit your needs.
Our Clients
Some of the organizations who've hired us...
We have trained thousands of professionals who deal with the public in a multitude of ways (at federal, state, local levels, as well as for those in the private-sector who have an interface with the public such as utility companies, hospitals, insurance agencies, lobbyists, and pharmaceutical companies, etc).
If you would like to contact professionals (within or outside of your area of expertise), who are familiar with our training as references just let us know!
Federal and Multi-State Organizations
US Fish & Wildlife Service in:
- - Anchorage & Fairbanks, AK*
- How to identify all the relevant Potentially Affected Interests on a project, an all the Issues that are of relevance to these Interests,
- How to do a Citizen Participation (CP) Needs Assessment, and then how to prioritize the CP needs on a given project,
- How to design a CP Program that is tailored to the needs of the project at hand, how to select CP Techniques that utilize the team’s strengths in accomplishing the CP Needs for that project,
- And, how to execute the selected CP Techniques in a manner that Informed Consent will be a by-product of the team’s work.
- Become a victim of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard!)
- Torpedoed
- Fall casualty to “politics”
- Put on the back burner
- Stopped
- Hung up in decision-making gridlock
- Vetoed…?
- - Portland, OR*
- - Hadley, MA*
- - Helena, MT*
- - Washington, D.C.
US Environmental Protection Agency in several of its regions:
- - Atlanta
- - Chicago
- - Dallas
- - Denver
- - Kansas City
- - San Francisco
- - Seattle
- - Washington D.C. Headquarters
NOAA / Olympic Coast Sanctuary
US Department of Energy* including:
- - the Oakridge National Laboratory*
- - the Los Alamos National Laboratory*
- - the Idaho National Laboratory*
- - the Brookhaven National Laboratory*
- - Fernald Environmental Management, Fernald, OH*
- - EG&G Mound Applied Technologies Inc., Cincinnati, OH*
- -the Pantex Facility, Amarillo, TX*
Federal Highway Administration*
Office of Surface Mining, Washington, D.C.
Federal Aviation Administration, in Anchorage, AK*
US Bureau of Reclamation*
US Bureau of Land Management*
Northern Forest Lands Council* constituted by the states of:
- - Maine
- - Vermont
- - New York
- - New Hampshire
Defense Health Resources Study Center, Monterey, CA*
US Forest Service in:
- - Atlanta, GA for all Southeastern US Forests
- - Milwaukee, WI and all Northeastern US Forests
- - Albuquerque, NM for the Southwest Region
- - San Francisco, CA for the National Forests in California
- - Denver, CO for the Rocky Mountain Region
- - Juneau, AK for National Forests in Alaska
- - Missoula, MT for that region of the US Forest Service
- - the Bridger-Teton National Forest
- - the Utah-Idaho Regional Office
US Army Corps of Engineers
State Agencies
Alaska Dept of Fish & Game*
Alaska Dept of Transportation & Public Facilities*
Alaska Dept of Environmental Conservation
Alaska Dept of Natural Resources*
California Air Resources Board*
California Dept of Transportation*
Colorado Dept of Natural Resources*
Colorado Division of Wildlife*
Colorado Land Board*
Delaware State Fish & Game*
Hawaii Dept of Health (Planning)*
Kansas Dept of Wildlife & Recreation*
Montana Dept of Fish, Wildlife & Parks*
Office of the Governor, Helena, MT*
New York Dept of Environmental Conservation*
Pennsylvania Dept of Community Affairs*
Ohio Dept of Natural Resources*
Oregon Dept of Forestry*
California Dept of Health, Toxics Division*
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency*
North Dakota Game and Fish Dept*
South Dakota Dept of Fish & Game*
Iowa Management Training System*
Michigan Dept of Natural Resources*
Minnesota Dept of Natural Resources*
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency*
Minnesota Dept of Transportation*
Missouri Dept of Transportation*
Missouri Dept of Natural Resources
Pennsylvania Game Commission*
Iowa Dept of Transportation*
Vermont Dept of Wildlife*
Washington Dept of Natural Resources, Olympia, WA*
Washington Dept of Community Development, Olympia, WA*
Washington Dept of Transportation*
Wisconsin Dept of Transportation*
Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources*
Wyoming Dept of Game & Fish*
Wyoming Dept of Environmental Quality; Solid Waste Division*
Local Governments, Special Districts, and Utilities
Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, Duluth, MN*
Central Contra Costa Country Sanitation District*
La Plata County, CO*
Larimer County, CO*
Jefferson County, WA*
Maryland National Capitol Park & Planning Commission*
Monterey County, CA
Montgomery County, MD, Environmental Division
Fairfax County, MD, Planning & Zoning*
Charles County, MD, Planning & Zoning
City of Rockville, MD*
South Florida Water Management District
Seattle Water Department
Tacoma Public Utilities, Water Division*
City of Los Angeles, CA Planning Dept*
City of Glendale, AZ*
City of New York, NY including:
- - Office of the Mayor/Operations Research
- - Office of the Mayor/Director of Productivity
- - Dept of Sanitation/Resource Recovery*
City of Phoenix, AZ*
City of Albuquerque, NM*
City of Janesville,WI*
City of Palo Alto, CA*
City of Fort Collins, CO*
Town of Gunnison, CO*
City of Grand Junction, CO*
City of Colorado Springs, CO*
City of Aurora, CA*
City of Portland, OR*
City of Olympia, WA*
City of Westminster, CO*
City of Boulder, CO*
Town of Lexington, MA*
Pennsylvania Power & Light*
The Salt River Project, Phoenix, AZ*
Municipal League of California, Sacramento, CA*
Ann Arundel County, Annapolis, MD*
Des Moines Water Dept, Des Moines, IA
Denver Water Department, Denver, CO*
Community Hospital, Fort Collins, CO*
DuPage County Waste Management, IL*
City of Missoula, MT*
City of Lynnwood, WA
Consultants
ARIX; Greeley, CO*
BDM Federal
BNFL; Idaho Falls, ID*
Brown & Caldwell; Denver, CO* and Sacramento, CA*
Mary Ann Chambers; Fort Collins, CO*
Consulting Engineers of Wisconsin*
Dames & Moore
Deloitte, Haskins & Sells; Toronto, Canada*
EG&H Idaho; Idaho Falls, ID*
Emmons Resources; Lake Elmo, MN*
Enviro Issues; Seattle, WA*
- Paul Epstein; New York, NY*
Fluor Engineers; Irvine, CA*
Ghostwriters Communications; Poultney, VT*
Andrew Keir Consultants; Entobicoke, Ontario, Canada*
Kezziah/Watkins; Colorado Springs, CO*
Martin Marietta; Oak Ridge, TN*
Montgomery Watson; CO and AK*
RUST/Geotech; Grand Junction, CO*
SEH; Madison, WI* and Minneapolis, MN*
Sensible Environmental Solutions; Grand Junction, CO*
Urban Alternatives; Novato, CA*
Viatek Oy Engineers; Helsinki, Finland*
Willard Gould & Associates; Cleveland, OH*
Winston Associates; Boulder, CO*
Wizard Communications; Syracuse, NY*
Writing Company; St. Louis, MI*
Universities and Specialty Schools
Albany, NY area School Districts*
California Special Training Institute; San Luis Obispo, CA*
Capital Region BOCES, Communications Service.
BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services)*
University of Alaska; Fairbanks, AK*
University of California; Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM
University of Colorado; Denver, CO*
University of Minnesota; St. Paul, MN*
Washington State University; Pullman, WA*
Wildlife Management Institute; Washington, D.C.*
About IPMP
Hans, Annemarie & Jennifer Bleiker
This husband-and-wife, and now daughter too, team have dedicated their professional lives to making organizations with important missions—especially public agencies—better at accomplishing their missions.
They are devoted to helping make public-sector agencies more effective, thereby improving the lives of both the citizens of their students and the bureaucrats/technocrats they train. Their Consent-Building methodology is both cutting-edge and entirely unique to their research.
Dr. Hans Bleiker, Lead Instructor
@CoachHans
Hans has a Ph.D. in Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a B.A. in Architecture degree from the University of Cincinnati.
Once he had his doctorate, Hans worked as the Planning Director for the City of Lynn, Massachusetts (population 100,000), as Project Manager for MIT’s Transportation Systems Division, and as Director of the Planning Department for a large Environmental Engineering Consulting firm, ARIX, that works in the entire Rocky Mountain region.
Hans began his last “real job” as a tenured professor at the University of Wyoming in 1975, where he was recruited to create - and then administer - its Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning. For twelve years he served as Director of that program.
It was at the University that Hans first began teaching his unique approach to Citizen Participation, in a series of courses: Leadership, Professional Ethics, Citizen Participation by Objectives, and Dealing with Domestic Terrorists and Extremists, etc. In 1987, he devoted his full-time attention to developing and teaching these leadership and consent-building skills to public-sector professionals nation-wide.
The Bleikers’ Consent-Building methodology to Public Involvement actually began in the mid-1960s while Hans was doing Public-Sector Decision-Making research as part of his Doctoral Thesis.
His thesis focused on a practical management strategy that would allow public agencies to be both responsible to their mission and responsive to their diverse publics. i.e. How to be responsive to the conflicting demands of the various publics without compromising the agency’s mission. As part of his thesis, Hans did case studies on four of the most complex transportation problems in the United States.
Since retiring from the University, Hans and Annemarie have worked solely on teaching their methodology to tens of thousands of students around the country, and at times internationally.
Annemarie Bleiker, President
Annemarie has a B.A. in Anthropology from Boston University, and a M.A. in Urban Anthropology from Brandeis University.
Within Urban Anthropology, Annemarie honed her focus on what happens to community conflict when people who are at each other’s throats—because they have very different values, even diametrically opposed and offensive values. She discovered that in every case, common ground could be found, even when everyone was convinced none existed.
In 1977 Annemarie created the Institute for Participatory Management & Planning (IPMP). The mission of IPMP is to make government agencies more effective by making them better at accomplishing their (legitimate) missions. IPMP was based on, and over the years has built upon, what she discovered in her Masters Thesis at Brandeis, and what Hans discovered in his Doctoral Thesis at MIT.
What Annemarie uncovered in her work is that even when there appears to be no common ground, one simply has to work harder to find it because it does indeed exist. In his research, Hans had discovered that if a legitimate public agency proposes a reasonably well-thought out solution to a legitimate problem, the typical scenario of “all hell breaking loose” (i.e. political decision-making gridlock) actually is avoidable—provided the professionals work diligently and systematically to develop consent on their technical work.
The combined research and professional experiences of Annemarie and Hans has led to the development of their powerful approach for public-sector professionals to systematically develop the informed consent of their various publics. This has enabled professionals within communities, agencies, organizations, and consulting firms, who have important and legitimate missions to get their work accomplished, rather than become victims of controversy (such as NIMBY), “politics,” and even some budget cuts.
Over the course of nearly four decades, Hans and Annemarie have worked, and continue to work, at helping people with public-sector missions (hired professionals, as well as elected and appointed officials) be consistently effective at accomplishing their mission. By using the Bleikers’ consent-building methods and process, these professionals improve their effectiveness by developing viable solutions to problems it is their responsibility to address, and then get those solutions implemented in spite of fierce opposition and/or controversy.
Jennifer Bleiker, Assistant Instructor
@jenniferbleiker
A graduate of Smith College in Northampton, MA, Jennifer originally intended on pursuing a career in internal medicine. While studying for MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) Jennifer began work for her parents. To her surprise, she found working for her parents enormously fulfilling as it proved to have immediate positive effects on a community. As a result, Jennifer decided to depart from her original career plans and continue working for IPMP; she has been doing so full-time since 1999.
Today she occasionally travels with Hans and Annemarie to assist in training, but the primary scope of her work is in developing an online version of training modules. In addition to the developing online courseware, Jennifer continues to produce training materials (CDs and DVDs) on Citizen Participation Techniques and Meta-Techniques as taught by Hans and Annemarie.
Jennifer also works as a hands-on coach to students of IPMP, giving advice on
In pursuit of her need to have a foot in public health, until recently Jennifer also worked as a full-time professional firefighter/EMT, and the Public Information Officer for a fire department in a town near Boston. Although the two job paths are quite different on the surface, she learned a great deal from her hands-on experience as a public servant who was directly affected by the same issues that affect any public-sector professional. Today, Jennifer is wrapping up her Master’s degree in Public Policy while continuing to work for Hans & Annemarie from Southern California.
How the Bleikers Can Help You
We can help you and your team get your mission accomplished when others can’t. We offer management training in each of these several skills areas. These skills-areas will rather quickly set you apart from the average manager.
Most often clients have us conduct these management seminars as In-House training sessions strictly for their staff. Once or twice a year we offer these same courses as Open-House training sessions. . . mostly in Monterey, CA, Denver, CO; Des Moines, IA; and Olympia, WA. Dates of the open-enrollment courses are shown only for the next year or so . . . See the listing of Courses Open to the Public we currently offer.
Don’t Be the Average Frustrated Professional, Become a Public-Sector Implementation Genius!
Start by Giving Us a Call…
Together we will discuss a more detailed description of the training session(s) that you are interested in, for additional dates, for a fee schedule, for references of public officials who are using our methods, etc . . . We will help you become more effective, . . . better at accomplishing your mission, . . . We have done the research, and we have developed several tools that can help you do just that!
Become an Implementation Genius
Did you know there is a legitimate cure for political gridlock?
Have you ever worked hard on a really important problem, come up with a valid, workable solution – a proposal that really, really is the right thing to do – only to see that proposal:
It’s one thing when a proposal that’s poorly thought-out gets hung up because of political gridlock, such as NIMBY… In our opinion that’s just fine. But it’s an entirely different thing when a proposal that’s legitimate and important gets hung up because of “politics” or NIMBY – that’s serious!
Political gridlock is a reality in our system
That’s why effective government is not a given!
If you work in the public-sector, this is not really news to you. You know how difficult it is to get anything done because of “politics.”
But did you know that becoming effective (i.e. proposing and implementing the right thing) is systematically attainable? In spite of “politics!”
For the past 40+ years, we have been teaching everyday public-sector professionals how to transform themselves into Implementation Geniuses. Using our systematized process, neither your discipline nor level matters.
What matters is that as part of your professional mission, you are working on legitimate problems or opportunities, and the solution you are proposing is reasonable and responsible.
Give us a few days and we will teach you how to get that legitimate and important work implemented, regardless of how controversial the issues related to your project may be.
You won’t learn how to do more public-involvement… but how to do it differently and effectively
We will teach you how to be objectives-driven rather than techniques-driven. . .
And, therefore, how to be effective at getting your varied publics (and specifically a project’s opponents) to understand why you are making the proposal you are; as well as why it is the right thing to do in spite of its costs, drawbacks, etc.
We call this the “Systematic Development of (your publics’) Informed Consent” (SDIC).
With our training, you can master the difference between being an average ineffective bureaucrat, and being an Implementation Genius.
(Watch video explanation of what constitutes an Implementation Genius.)
Systematic Development of Informed Consent (SDIC)
Lakewood, CO: May 22 - 24, 2012
Seattle, WA: October 16 - 18, 2012 *Please Note Date Change*
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
June 12, 2012
How can we get the Public’s “Consent” when Key-Players are Always Changing?
July 10, 2012
Why and How You Must Explain Why Some People have to Sacrifice for the Benefit of Others?
August 14, 2012
Focusing on Your Opponents: How Implementation Geniuses Overcome the Reflex to Avoid Them
September 11, 2012
How You can have a Rational Dialogue with Overly Emotional People