Building Dialogue

Last month Sarah and Chris Berendes of Netalyst, Inc. led an NCDD Confab call on how to deal with “newcomers”, “latecomers”, and “disruptors” in an ongoing public engagement process.  Often processes fail, and “disruptions” are more disruptive than they need to be, because we haven’t thought enough about how to link our dialogues to other processes, or into the overall system for developing a policy.  We discussed how “off-ramps”, “on-ramps,” and “connectors” can be used to integrate different processes and keep you moving through difficult issues. As we have said before, careful planning  enhances the ease with which you can effectively and productively incorporate new people into an ongoing process.  Thinking in terms of the overall “system” for moving through an issue, and mapping the links in processes up-front, does as well. You can download the complete notes here.