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Most of the work of good public consultation facilitators is (1) stopping those loud/frustrated/opinionated/entrenched people from distorting process, and (2) a

by patcon 6y ago

Most of the work of good public consultation facilitators is (1) stopping those loud/frustrated/opinionated/entrenched people from distorting process, and (2) allowing many people to feel heard. (This is in addition to, of course, the more obvious: actually integrating that feedback, repeating it back, and acting on it.) Perhaps surprisingly with (2), public consultations are sometimes almost like public therapy -- allowing people to feel heard so they can then take a step forward, even if it's not a step fully in the direction they prefer. People can make better compromises when they feel heard, they just need to be contained so they don't take speaking time/attention from everyone else. Disclosure: highly engaged in public consultation process, civic tech, and consensus-building technology through my interest in https://github.com/compdemocracy/polis https://github.com/compdemocracy/polis

cperciva 6y ago
In Canada, "public consultations" tend to be far from good. They're almost always held -- or rather, were pre-COVID -- during regular business hours, with very predictable effects on demographics. The last one I attended had over 100 people; about 60% were retirees, and around 15% were college students. I was the only male between the ages of 25 and 60 -- because working-age males overwhelmingly spend their weekday afternoons at work.
- patcon 6y ago
  To make a sweeping and definitely falsifiable statement: My understanding is that public consultations are almost always total garbage in individualist nations :) The bread and butter of those who run them are mostly done around civic land use, and property developers unintentionally capture most of the industry and distort it. Collectivist countries like Taiwan seem to have a much stronger consultation professional culture, probably because it's not just governments that hire them, but generally lots of businesses seem to find need for mediation/consultation The good consultations cover a lot of slots. The one you or I go to will always have a skew. It usually doesn't mean the consult is bad. Different "weirdos" show up for different times :) Public consultations always seem to have powerless people who gravitate toward them, and this is sometimes the only platform they're ever given. A good consultation professional knows how to manage them imho

by patcon 6y ago

cperciva 6y ago

In Canada, "public consultations" tend to be far from good. They're almost always held -- or rather, were pre-COVID -- during regular business hours, with very predictable effects on demographics. The last one I attended had over 100 people; about 60% were retirees, and around 15% were college students. I was the only male between the ages of 25 and 60 -- because working-age males overwhelmingly spend their weekday afternoons at work.

patcon 6y ago
To make a sweeping and definitely falsifiable statement: My understanding is that public consultations are almost always total garbage in individualist nations :) The bread and butter of those who run them are mostly done around civic land use, and property developers unintentionally capture most of the industry and distort it. Collectivist countries like Taiwan seem to have a much stronger consultation professional culture, probably because it's not just governments that hire them, but generally lots of businesses seem to find need for mediation/consultation The good consultations cover a lot of slots. The one you or I go to will always have a skew. It usually doesn't mean the consult is bad. Different "weirdos" show up for different times :) Public consultations always seem to have powerless people who gravitate toward them, and this is sometimes the only platform they're ever given. A good consultation professional knows how to manage them imho