Open Courses

Leadership

Bootcamp for Guiding Complex Problem-Solving & Decision-Making Processes

Over 3.5 days, we will familiarize you with the several fundamental concepts that are at the root of problem-solving and decision-making, which will save you the pains of developing good judgment from experience alone. Some of the issues covered in this course include:

- The Augmentation/Meta Process
- Using and Defending Against Strategies of Conflict
- Negotiations, Mediation, and Conflict Resolution
- Excellence and Productivity
- Assessing Risk and Dealing with Uncertainty
- Elementary Concepts in Applied Maximizing
- The Role of Values

CPO

Citizen Participation by Objectives

CPO is a 3-day hands-on management course, that picks up where SDIC leaves off, so SDIC is a prerequisite. 
In this is a hands-on management workshop, you will roll up your sleeves and apply the Bleiker Methodology that you learned in SDIC to an actual project.  You will learn how to assess the project’s Citizen Participation Needs, and how to address those needs so that the project is successfully and efficiently implemented. 

What kind of project?

• An actual project, plan, or proposal that you, or another student are or will be working on,
• One that is likely to be very controversial (such as locating a new hazardous waste site, implementing a new regulation, changing the health benefits within an organization, etc...)

Once you’ve had this training, you will never look at your work, or the public the same!

This course walks you through the steps of what it takes to be an Implementation Genius. 

SDIC

Systematic Development of Informed Consent

SDIC is not citizen participation as usual!

It is fundamentally different from what most public agencies do, and so are the results. Most citizen participation efforts do not have real constructive results.
Too often, in spite of good intentions and lots of work:

• Public meetings turn into grand-standing sessions that leave citizens and public officials frustrated.
• Advisory Committee efforts, more often than not, eventually wind up with everybody being angry with everyone else. (Who needs that?!)

Based on 30+ years of research that had its origin at MIT in the late 1960s, SDIC is a practical strategy for you to communicate with your various potentially affected interests.

SDIC is based on 30+ years of research that had its origin at MIT in the late 1960s.

We have trained officials with difficult and inherently controversial missions at all levels of government in disciplines as diverse as environmental regulation, public works, law enforcement, emergency management, education, transportation, resource management, hazardous waste, wildlife management. . . and more.