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Public Involvement Network News
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Community Involvement Conference
By Leanne Nurse, NCEI
Collaborative Governance: Can You Hear Me Now?
Feedback from the Closing Plenary of the 2005 Community Involvement Training and Conference
What happens when almost 300 enthusiastic public and community involvement leaders have time to really get down to business and learn from each other? They affirm both their own community involvement experiences and the principles of effective involvement. They also give EPA a chance to consider suggestions about how to do things better.
Attendees at the June 15 closing plenary of EPA’s 2005 Community Involvement Training and Conference in Buffalo, NY found common ground, frequently citing similar elements of best practice. They took part in three guided conversations about what makes community involvement work best.
Their responses followed a slide show on collaborative governance by Langdon Marsh (Portland State University), an update on EPA’s collaborative problem-solving initiative by Betsy Shaw (EPA National Center for Environmental Innovation) and a videotaped greeting from EPA Administrator, Steve Johnson.
After closely reviewing the detailed replies, EPA is posting them on the conference web site. Senior managers who make up EPA’s Human Resources Council and the Collaborative Problem Solving steering committee will also review the feedback from these unique conversations.
Conversation #1
- Is this new to you?
- Is this relevant/helpful to you?
- Is this realistic for you?
Volunteer respondents agreed that much of the collaborative governance material was not new, but may have been presented with different framing or syntax. Others said that considering broader elements of collaborative governance was helpful. Several questioned how realistic it would be to use some of this material in their real life projects.
Conversations #2 and #3 took place in small groups at ballroom tables, usually 4-6 people per table. Groups self-selected their recorders and reporters.
Conversation #2
Please list up to ten factors which, in your collective experience, most contribute to successful collaboration. Responses to this question converged in several areas:
- Clear communication, especially intent and expectations
- Finding common ground and providing clear processes for this to emerge
- Engaging the “right” people; community, staff, consultants
- Respecting differences, being transparent, building trust
- Adaptive management; use methods that work, even if they’re different
- Use existing community resources, increase community capacity
- Walk the talk; use what you know in and outside your organization
- Get tangible results; evaluate your work, use the lessons learned
Conversation #3
Please briefly describe up to six of the most interesting/useful ideas you discussed for promoting collaboration and practicing it in innovative ways. These answers were similarly related:
- Increase team capacity, train teams together; use interns academics
- Make a clear commitment to action
- Combine government resources/services to save time, money
- Use third-party (faith-based, civic) groups to support decision processes
- Increase the budgets of popular grant programs (Technical Assistance Grant [TAG], Technical Outreach Service to Communities [TOSC]) for sustained success
- Fit the forum to the fuss; bring meetings, staff to the local community
- Celebrate success; find incentives to encourage participation; pay people