Architecture of Engagement shows you how to evaluate the environment for public engagement in your community, design your process to mesh with that environment, and connect your process to what’s going on in the community to promote transparency, focus, and pragmatic problem solving.

Integrating public engagement into the processes that drive decision-making is the key to producing sustainable results and creating needed change.

You’ll learn how to do an “environmental scan”, choose the necessary process components, and use and customize those for your environment. The book closes with a case study illustrating how this approach can help your engagement processes stay on track and produce positive results even on contentious issues.

The book is based on Sarah J. Read’s 30 years of experience resolving complex issues as a facilitator, mediator, attorney, consultant, and educator.

Order Architecture of Engagement in Kindle format from Amazon now.

Excerpt from Chapter 4: A Checklist of Questions to Ask

4.2. What environmental factors must be taken into account?

4.2.1 Boundaries.

  • Are there laws or regulations that bind your public engagement process?
  • Are there prior decisions or actions that constrain the options you might consider?
  • Are there key expectations that must be met?

4.2.2 Intersections.

4.2.2.1 Looking forward.
  • Which decision-making processes (direct and “down the road”) is your public engagement process intended to inform?
  • How well is the intersection with that process defined?
  • Are there obvious gaps that need to be addressed?
    • Is the timing of input clear?
    • Does the “surrounding traffic” flow smoothly?
    • How will the output from your process “flow through” to the connected processes?
  • Are there time or other constraints with those processes that will limit or affect the schedule for public engagement?
4.2.2.2 Looking backward.
  • Are there past processes that could help inform your public engagement process?
  • Are there past processes that could help support your public engagement process?
  • Were there past processes that eroded public trust?
    • Were they on similar or related issues?
    • Was the public engaged?
      • If not, why not?
      • If so, to what extent did they engage?
      • How was the public input ultimately used?
      • Does the public believe its input was used?
      • If so, did the public understand how its input was used?
  • How might we remediate that erosion?
  • Were there past processes that worked well, strengthening public trust in engagement?
  • How might we build on those?
4.2.2.3 Looking around.
  • Are there other public engagement processes or community discussions that are currently occurring on the same or similar issues?
  • Are there other public engagement processes or community discussions that are currently occurring on inter-related issues and that could affect option development or implementation of recommendations from your process down the road?
  • Are there opportunities to share resources or information with these other processes or discussions?
  • Do those other processes or discussions present a risk of disruption or otherwise affect stakeholder expectations related to my process? How?
  • Are there any foreseeable events that might affect scheduling or engagement in your process (elections, community events, storms, etc.)?

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