Policy Consensus E-News — March 2005
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In this issue:
- EPA’s First Administrator Discusses 7 Lessons for Successful Collaboration
- Southern Growth Think Tank Adopts Consensus Approach for Region’s Leaders
- Utah Sponsors State Agency Training, Hires Full-time Coordinator
Ruckelshaus Highlights Seven Lessons From
Successful Collaborative Environmental Efforts
 William Ruckelshaus |
EPA's first Administrator, William D. Ruckelshaus, gave this year’s John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture on Science and the Environment, titled “Choosing our Common Future: Democracy's True Test.”
The Chaffee Lecture, sponsored by the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), is given annually in honor of the late Rhode Island Senator John H. Chafee. The lectures explore how science can help society address environmental challenges.
In his February lecture, Ruckelshaus – who was awarded NCSE’s Lifetime Achievement Award – addresses how collaborative processes serve as important tools for democratic decision making. In the following excerpt, he describes a number of important lessons for leaders and other convenors of collaborative processes about strategies for success.
…There are many examples of the power of collaboration with which I am familiar. At last count, there were over 60 of these processes under way in the Colorado River Basin alone. It is essential to understand that each of these efforts is unique to issues, the locale, even the personalities involved.
(I)t is possible to derive some general lessons about how to set up a successful collaborative project.
First, these processes need time to work. People must develop trust in an atmosphere where trust has often badly eroded. Be patient. You don’t get interest on your trust account unless you make a deposit.
Southern Growth Think Tank Adopts
Collaborative Approach to Policy Work
 Alabama Governor Bob Riley chaired Southern Growth’s collaborative initiative on rural development. |
With a multi-pronged approach to building consensus on major policy issues, the Southern Growth Polices Board is tackling growth and economic development across the South by convening dialogs and partnerships among the region's governors, legislators, business and academic leaders, and the economic- and community-development sectors.
Formed by Southern governors in 1971, the public policy think tank makes broad policy recommendations on key issues facing the South. Through consensus building, partnering, and regional collaboration, its 13 member states and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico work together not only to define those issues, but also to facilitate action through policy development and implementation.
“Everything we do in our major reports and policy recommendations stems from a consensus-building platform,” says Jim Clinton, the organization’s Executive Director and a member of the PCI / NPCC Board.
Utah
Sponsors State Agency DR Training
And Hires Full-Time DR Coordinator
The Utah ADR Council – a group created by a 2004 Executive Order and comprised of representatives from each executive state agency – recently completed a course for agency-based mediation and conflict resolution trainers, and also hired its first full-time program coordinator.
The training course, “Don’t Get Mad, Be Even: Moving from Emotions to Problem-Solving in High Conflict Conversations,” focused on training agency staff to manage conflict as it first arises to reduce the number of disputes that require more formal resolution.
According to Palmer DePaulis, Chair of the Utah ADR Council, the ‘train-the-trainer” course earned high marks from agency participants. “The course materials reflect what they are up against every day,” he said. “It’s designed to have practical and sensible applications.” Agencies already are scheduling further training courses for their staff, he said.
Trainers from more than 15 state agencies attended the course to learn and practice techniques for moving emotionally charged conversations toward constructive problem solving. Case simulations were created with the help of state agency staff to focus on agencies’ relations with their external customers.
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