Creative Techniques for Involving Citizens in Planning Your Communitys Future

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• Creative Techniques for Involving Citizens in
  Planning Your Communitys Future
• March 4, 2007
• Washington Hilton
• Washington D.C.

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• Presented by
• Brenda Hayes
• 706 542-6582

bhayes_at_fanning.uga.edu
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In this seminar you will

• Learn about communications styles
• Discuss dialogue and the process of deliberation
  using the model of a National Issues Forum
• Participate in an exercise using Visual Explorer,
  a channel for mediated dialogue
• Get at least one break

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Ice Breaker

• Tell us the best thing that has happened to
  you todayor in the last month!

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Laying the Groundwork
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Include Everyone

• Its not just the right thing to do, its also
  the smart thing to do
• Get all the stakeholders to the table, you need
  their perspectives
• People will work for a plan they have created and
  bought into
• People will be apathetic or actively work against
  plans in which they are not invested

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Building Trust

• Trust is essential when you are asking people to
  share their private and personal dreams -- a
  vision for the future is a dream!
• It takes time, energy and effort
• It helps to have a process

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Ever heard this one? We are now going to spend
the next one half day with this newly formed
group of total strangers to decide on the future
of our community for the next twenty years! We
will be able to do this because we have hired a
professional facilitator who has a ready supply
of sticky dots.
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Planning and visioning your countys future is a
key leadership responsibility but reaching
consensus and finding common ground with citizens
can be challenging.
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Communication StylesKnow thyself and thy
citizens Youll learn

• Your preferred communication style
• Your communication style under stress
• How to recognize the style of others
• Working with the style of others
• Getting all the styles to the table

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Please take the survey20 Minutes

• The numbers are tricky
• The boxes are small
• There will be two sets of scores
• Each set will add up to 126

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Your Style Group Work

• As a group, develop a profile of your
• dominant communication style
• Include
• A general description of your style
• Optimal behaviors
• Maybe not quite so optimal behaviors
• What your communication style brings to the table
  when developing a vision for your community

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Regroup

• Find the style the test indicated you are
  most likely to use when under stress and regroup.
  
• Imagine your county is in the process of
  visioning for the next twenty years. Create a
  character with the communication style you
  exhibit under stress and role play a 3 minute
  presentation he or she is likely to make before
  the governing body about his or her wishes for
  the future. How do we respond?

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CommunicationStyles of the Famous
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Feeler
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Intuitor
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Thinker
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Sensor (Doer)
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Dialogue
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Dialogue What It Isnt

• Lecture
• Talking at each other the Western way
• Surface conversation
• Hows yo moma ennim?
• Debate
• Everything will be ok when I figure out how to
  convince you that I know the one and only way

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• The word discussion is derived from the same root
  word as percussion and concussion -- a root that
  connotes striking, shaking and hitting

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Dialogue What It Is

• A Few Definitions

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• The word dialogue derives from the Greek word,
  dialogos. Logos can be explained as meaning of
  the word and dia means through. Dialogue can be
  among any number of people, not just two. It is a
  stream of meaning flowing among and through us
  and between us, in the whole group, out of which
  may emerge some new form of understanding or
  shared meaning.
• David Bohm
• Theoretical Physicist

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• Public deliberation is simply people coming
  together to talk about a community problem that
  is important to them. Participants deliberate
  with one another - eye-to-eye, face-to-face,
  exploring options, weighing others views,
  considering the costs and consequences of public
  policy decisions.
• National Issues Forums

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• From the Public Conversations Project
• Dialogue is a conversation animated by a
  search for understanding rather than for
  agreements or solutions. It is not a debate and
  it is not a mediation. A good dialogue offers
  those who participate a chance to listen and be
  listened to so that all speakers can be heard,
  speak and be spoken to in a respectful manner,
  develop or deepen mutual understanding and
  discover common concerns, learning about
  perspectives that others hold while reflecting on
  ones own views.
• The Public Conversations Project

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• Dialogue is a process of genuine interaction
  through which human beings listen to each other
  deeply enough to be changed by what they learn.
  Each makes a serious effort to take others
  concerns into her or his own picture, even when
  disagreement persists. No participant gives up
  her or his identity, but each recognizes enough
  of the others valid human claims that he or she
  will act differently toward the other.
• Harold Saunders, A Public Peace Process

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• The goal of dialogue is to deepen understanding
  and judgment, and to think about ways to make a
  difference on a community issue you care about.
  This can occur in a safe, focused discussion when
  people exchange views freely and consider a
  variety of views. The process - democratic
  discussion among equals - is as important as the
  content.
• Study Circles

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• Dialogue is about bringing together many
  voices, many stories, many perspectives, many
  experiences with a goal to increase understanding
  about others and ourselves. It is a safe and
  honest facilitated discussion aimed at providing
  an opportunity to tell your story, listen to
  others and build understanding.
• Jen Murphy,
• George Mason Universitys UDRP Dialogue Project

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• Dialogue is a process which enables people
  from all walks of life to talk deeply and
  personally about some of the major issues and
  realities that divide them. Dialogues are
  powerful, transformational experiences that often
  lead to both personal and collaborative action.
  Dialogue is often deliberative, involving the
  weighing of various options and the consideration
  of different viewpoints for the purpose of
  reaching agreement on action steps or policy
  decisions.
• Sandy Heierbacher,
• The National Coalition for Dialogue
  Deliberation

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• Deliberation is the kind of reasoning and
  talking we do when a difficult decision has to be
  made, a great deal is at stake, and there are
  competing options or approaches we might take. It
  means to weigh possible actions carefully by
  examining what is most valuable to us.
• Kettering Foundation

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• Public deliberation is a means by which
  citizens make tough choices about basic purposes
  and directions for their communities and their
  country.
• David Matthews, Kettering Foundation

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So Whats In It For You?

• Would you like citizens to better understand
  complex and thorny issues?
• Would you like citizens to understand there are
  very few easy answers in those types of
  situations?
• Would you like citizens help make tough
  decisions?

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Examples of NIF Topics

• Immigration
• Racial and Ethnic Tension
• Making Ends Meet Helping Working Americans
• Social Security
• Health Care
• Money and Politics
• Terrorism
• Environmental Protection

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How Does It Work?Two Examples

• National Issues Forums
• One 2 - 2 1/2 hour session
• 10 - 20 people in a circle
• Moderator and Recorder
• Using a Forum Booklet, participants will be given
  background information on a complex topic and
  three to four approaches which all entail pros,
  cons and trade-offs
• Study Circles
• Four to Six Sessions around an issue

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Ground Rules for Discussion

• Everyone gets a fair hearing
• Share air time
• One person speaks at a time. Dont interrupt
• If you are offended, say so.
• You can disagree, but dont personalize it.
  Stick to the issue. No name-calling or
  stereotyping
• Everyone helps the facilitator keep the
  discussion moving on track Study Circles

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Example Immigration

• Approach 1 Americas Changing Face Is There Too
  Much Difference?
• This approach sees immigration as a looming
  identity crisis. At the present rate of
  immigration,increasing diversity threatens to
  break the bonds of unitythe common ideals of
  language and democracy that define our
  political institutions.Immigration should be
  slowed to allow time for immigrants to assimilate
  into American culture.

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• Approach 2 A Nation of Immigrants Remembering
  Americas Heritage
• In this view,open immigration has been the
  backbone of Americas strength. Combining diverse
  cultures yields a uniquely strong and rich
  society and,overall,immigrants offer far more to
  American society than they take from it. America
  must continue to welcome newcomers despite the
  costs.

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• Approach 3 A Matter of Priorities Putting
  Economics First
• Approach Three argues that immigrants strain the
  public purse,compete for jobs,and exceed our
  carrying capacity.In this view,the nation would
  benefit economically by restricting the number of
  newcomers,and by looking more closely at how
  their arrival affects the well-being of those who
  are already here.

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Study Circles

• Discuss topics over five or six sessions
• Example
• Smart Talk For Growing Communities Meeting
  the Challenges of Growth and Development

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Visual ExplorerPicturing Approaches to
Complex ChallengesCenter for Creative
Leadership
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Visual Explorer

• 224 high-quality color images chosen to meet
  key criteria for supporting constructive dialogue
• Diverse subjects
• farming to space travel, birth to death
• Diverse kinds of people
• Images invite examination
• Provide a channel through which mediated dialogue
  can occur

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Visual Explorer Objective

• Group members collectively explore a complex
  topic from a variety of perspectives in order to
  strengthen a shared understanding and prepare for
  taking more effective action.
• VE does not create decisions or suggest actions,
  but rather helps groups understand contexts and
  perspectives.

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The Situation

• Your community is in the process of visioning its
  future for the next twenty years
• Before you can figure out where you are going,
  you need to know not only where you have been but
  also where you are now
• Different people may have very different
  perspectives

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Your Task

• Walk around the room carefully looking at the
  pictures
• Choose three (3) pictures
• One that represents your communitys past
• One that represents your community now
• One that represents your hopes for your
  communitys future

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Group Work

• Go around the table and have each person talk
  about how these images represent their
  communitys past, present and future
• Appoint a group spokesman to report your tables
  discussion back to the larger group

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A MIRACLE

• What you do everyday
• is a
• Miracle!