On Fri, 14 Nov 1997, Debbie Broome wrote:
>In local government, we constantly face conflicts between neighbors,
>developers, businesses, etc. and NO ONE EVER SITS DOWN IN THE SAME ROOM
>AND TALKS. What I mean by this is that everyone "lobbies" who they know
>outside of the public forum.
...snip...
>There needs to be a circuit breaker. When we reach these conflicts we
>need a process to get the players sitting down together, systematically
>working through the issue, not playing to the cameras.
...snip...
>I used to think I wanted to be a city manager to try and bring this
>circuit break in the process to a community. Quite frankly, I'm not sure
>it can be done.
Debbie,
Don't give up yet! It not only can be done, it HAS been done! I know,
I've been there. It does take a change of approach by the organization's
leadership. This means a change by your city council, mayor or whatever
form of city government elected and appointed leadership you have. There
are skills and approaches that any of these folks can learn and apply.
They just have to know about them, be dissatisfied enough with the status
quo and want to do things differently. Much of the secret lies in the
last lines from a chapter in John Neisbit's "Megatrends" (1983?) where he
says to the effect that future leaders must be facilitators and not order
givers.
Without question, some elected and appointed leaders like the notion that
they are the "leader", that people seek them out and they get to make
decisions. For some it's an ego trip they would not change if they could.
For others, it's simply "monkey see-monkey do." They are doing what they
have always seen done by those before them, don't know any other ways and
have never been shown any.
Even in the face of adversity and hostility, dialogue, participation and
reason can emerge if the process is designed right and if the boundaries
of the playing field and the rules of the game are made clear to the
interested parties.
The ultimate test of this in my experience was a nite on the Oregon coast
in a room of 250 angry commercial fishermen and local residents. Plenty
of alcohol had been consumed, the room was only designed for only180
people, the state natural resources agency director had been hung in
effigy, a drunk was yelling obscenities in the back of the room, there
were plainclothes state police in the audience for our protection and
uniform backup just off site in case things got really ugly. I was the
meeting manager of that precarious beginning.
Three hours later, this same mob was quiet, orderly, asking a few final
wrap-up questions in a civilized manner to the agency director who was
standing along in front of them. When the director noted it was 10 pm and
time to adjourn the meeting, the "mob" gave us a round of applause. What
happened in the 3 hours between the beginning and the end of this session
is what design, process and approach is all about. That was 15 years ago.
A lot has been learned since then in public participaton and public
involvement involving all types of public issues. Most situations, issues
and settings are much more civilized and easily managed than the hostile
nite remembered above.
I doubt you will have to deal with the challenge of creating dialogue and
honest involvement in a public decision-making process like we faced that
nite in 1982. But it works, even in the most difficult of situations.
I'd like to direct you to a "cookbook" or two where you could just read
the formula and follow it, but I don't know any that provide any type of
good one-stop shopping. Experience has been the best workbook.
So, if you find yourself saying, "There's got to be a better way," when it
comes to decision-making, information-gathering or problem-solving
processes, let me know and I'll share some more detail than is appropriate
to clutter this list with. (You can learn to apply them in private
organizations as well as public ones too.)
Best wishes,
Cliff Hamilton
Progressive Visions
cliffrh@aol.com
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