Whoever Will Be Affected

For years, my practice has been and continues to be focused on helping people have meaningful conversations about things that matter so they can do good things for the world, together. This intention inspires me every day in my work with organizations and communities. Underneath this focus is one core value and one belief. The core value is that those who will be affected by decisions have the right to be involved in influencing those … Read more…

Deciding How to Engage Citizens in Making Decisions

Engaging citizens in making decisions about their communities, cities and towns is the heart of democracy. “Citizens…are members of the broad public within a jurisdiction or affected by a particular decision.” (Kahane, et al) Although voting for candidates or referendums is an important part of democracy, it is or should be only a small part of it. Here are three of the multiple challenges to effectively engaging citizens in making decisions. First, there is the … Read more…

Deciding How to Decide

Making decisions is at the heart of most meetings. Some decisions are small and innocuous. Others are important and impactful. Deciding how to make decisions is an important step because how decisions get made significantly influences the quality of the decision and the commitment to implement it. Be strategic in deciding whether and how to engage others in making decisions and to make how you want to engage them explicit at the start of a … Read more…