Facilitating Public Deliberations

As we draw this podcast series to a close, it’s fitting to take a global perspective on public deliberation with Claudia Chwalisz who leads the OECD’s work on innovative citizen participation.  Claudia is co-authoring a number of influential reports, convening a global network and maintaining an online digest, Participo.

LINKS

Catching the Deliberate Wave report

Leading Deliberative Democracy short course

Doing Deliberative Democracy short course

Music acknowledgement

Bobbi Allan was randomly selected for a public deliberation in early 2018. Coincidentally, she has a background as a facilitator so can offer an unusual perspective as she describes the residual effect of a deliberative experience.

This conversation is with Rhiann McLean (in Scotland) and Max Hardy (in Australia).  Both are dedicated to amplifying the voices of people with disability—through research and public deliberations.”

LINKS

Research Voices Citizens’ Jury

Video of the Research Voices Citizens’ Jury

Report from Research Voices Citizens’ Jury

NDIS Citizens’ Jury

Video of NDIS Citizens’ Jury

Music acknowledgement

Kara Dillard is an Assistant Professor at James Madison University in the US. She is also the operations specialist for Common Ground for Action (CGA), an online variant of National Issues Forum (NIF).

In this episode, Kara explains this short-form process, as well as its strengths and challenges. As a moderator training specialist for NIF she offers insight into the difference between online and face-to-face facilitation.

LINKS

Kettering Foundation

Amy Lee, Department of Political Science, Ohio State University

Common Ground for Action: A 90-min Forum in a 5-min Video

Music acknowledgement

Dr Kath Fisher is an extremely experienced professional facilitator. She is also an academic at Southern Cross University (Lismore, Australia). In this episode, Kath shares some of her journey and offers a number of useful techniques that she uses routinely in public deliberations.

Documents Kath referred to in this episode

• A summary of the report produced from the CSIRO project
• A copy of an excellent consensus decision making resource she uses in her facilitation
• An example of a feedback/evaluation form she uses for evaluating citizens’ juries

You can find these documents on the newDemocracy Foundation website page for this podcast: https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/category/library/podcast/

Music acknowledgement

Abbie Jeffs has a background in urban planning and public policy but was an excellent facilitator in a successful consultancy, Straight-Talk, for many years. She’s now working for a public sector organisation—a loss for the field of public deliberation—although Abbie remains a strong advocate. She has much wisdom to impart in this episode and several terrific tools.

LINKS

Bliss Browne’s ‘Imagine Chicago’

Tuckman’s stages

Visit  to newDemocracy’s podcast page to access Kaner’s diverge/converge guide to participatory decision-making.

Music acknowledgement

Lucy Cole-Edelstein has over 30 years’ experience as an engagement practitioner, as a facilitator and process designer. She established and ran a successful consultancy, Straight-Talk, for some of those years and later sold her company to RPS with whom she now works. In this episode, Lucy shares several activities that build the group’s skill set and pave the way for the choice-work that is integral to public deliberation.

Visit newDemocracy’s podcast page to access the DOPE test handout.

Music acknowledgement

Jason Diceman is an experienced facilitator based in Toronto, Canada. He created a very useful tool, Feedback Frames (previously in the form of Idea Rating Sheets and, earlier, Dotmocracy templates).

His latest invention enables score-voting on participant-generated ideas, rather than a crude survey or voting tool.  It’s being used throughout the world and deserves attention from those who facilitate public deliberations.

Music acknowledgement

This is a conversation with Nicole Hunter, Keith Greaves and Kimbra White, the founders of MosaicLab.  It covers what happens in the room with a face-to-face long-form deliberation when MosaicLab facilitators are at work.

This episode contains an enormous amount of practical advice: the physical space, co-facilitation, templates, report writing, managing data and conflict, as well as many of the creative activities they use routinely.

LINKS

Evaluation of youth jury

Critical thinking video

Music acknowledgement

Rosa Zubizarreta is an American group facilitation practitioner and theorist and the founder of DiaPraxis. This episode is a companion piece with a previous episode that featured Jim Rough, the original designer of Dynamic Facilitation and Wisdom Councils. In the conversation with Rosa, the focus is on relational facilitation: attending to the emotional work of deliberation to order to enable a group to fully realise its goals.

LINKS

Rosa’s website DiaPraxis is where many of her writings can be found

Citizens Council: What are they, and why are they so popular in Austria?

Better Angels Project, now called Braver Angels

De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

Music acknowledgement