What to avoid:
Participants have no confidence that they have had any meaningful influence — before, during, or after the public engagement process. There is no follow-through from anyone, and hardly anyone knows it happened, including other people and groups working on the issue being addressed. Participants’ findings and recommendations are inarticulate, ill-timed, or useless to policy-makers — or seem to represent the views of only a small unqualified group — and are largely ignored or, when used, are used to suppress dissent. Any energy or activity catalyzed by the event quickly wanes. |