Good Public and Stakeholder Involvement

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Good Public and Stakeholder Involvement
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In the beginning was the group. This is a
fundamental truth about nature and politics, and
neither modern nor contemporary political theory
has yet to comes to terms with it. Alford, 1994
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Table of Contents
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Approaches to Public and Stakeholder Involvement
have Expanded

• Multi-stakeholder Collaboration
• Deliberative Democracy
• Real Citizen Involvement
• Community (Consensus) Organizing
• Intergovernmental Negotiation
• Linking Different Geographies (regional equity)
• Regional Intermediaries
• Phased and Tiered Processes

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In the making of ham and eggs, both the chicken
and the pig participate. But it can hardly be
said that both benefit from their participation.
(Latin American proverb) Xavier de Souza
Briggs Planning Together How (and How Not) to
Engage Stakeholders in Charting a Course
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Process is sometimes . . .

• Time consuming
• Overly conflictual
• Co-opting
• Expensive, labor intensive
• Dominated by trigger word debates
• Unable to get at real issues
• Just public relations
• Just the usual suspects
• Run by the powerful or not connected to the
  powerful
• Reflection of what does not work about politics
  in _________.

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Processes without Impact
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Diagnosing FailureUnderstanding Shortcoming

• We have maintained assumptions about the
  limitations of process
• We pursue process for processs sake or work from
  fear
• We use processes that are not sufficiently
  different enough from politics as usual to add
  value
• We neglect to address underlying issues and fail
  to go to the root
• Process is disconnected from formal decision
  making
• Over populate political environment with ad hoc,
  stovepiped process

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Strengthening Process Building Success

• Needed a better sense of the goals, vision . . .
  the bottom line
• No silver bullet . . . need an integrated
  strategy
• Greater attention to all facets of the change
  process . . . inward and outward
• Greater capacity to manage process

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The Triple Bottom Line
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Core Principles for Process Improvement
Good process . . .
Requires process advocacy
Creates fully-linked intentional strategies
Works from (enlightened) self interest
Creates empowered forums with meaningful
engagement
Works on race, class, culture and power
Develops and strengthens collaborative,
goal-focused, accountable working relationships
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Steps toward Better Process
Build organizational capacity to support good
process
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Bill PotapchukCommunity Building
Institute703.425.6296bill_at_communitytools.net Su
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