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Citizen Participation Handbook
for Public Officials and Other Professionals Serving the Public

by
Hans & Annemarie Bleiker

More Information Limitations of the Handbook History of the Handbook Relating CP Techniques to CP Objectives Principles of Citizen Participation Objectives to Citizen Participation Techniques of Citizen Participation Designing a CP Program to Your Needs Table of Contents Back to Overview

Limitations of this Handbook This handbook is a part of this larger effort of our's, i.e. our effort to help legitimate public agencies address legitimate public-sector problems and opportunities.  For you, the reader, to get as much use out of this text as is possible, you need to understand a couple of important limitations of this handbook. Limitation #1:  This handbook was not written as a free-standing text; we wrote the first version in 1977 to complement the class-curriculum of our SDIC and CPO courses.  (SDIC is a 3-1/2-day course on the "Systematic Development of Informed Consent"; CPO is a 3-1/2-day course on "Citizen Participation-by-Objectives".)  The handbook does not cover the same materials that these courses cover; rather, it complements that material.  We have, since 1977, put various updated versions of this text into the hands of over 20,000 public officials.  Although we created it for use in our courses, we have always made it available for outright purchase by people who are not taking the SDIC/CPO courses; and, they generally find the handbook useful.  We, thus, hope you'll find this text useful if you choose to purchase it.  But please understand, it does not -- and in its current form cannot -- cover all the material that you need to learn if you are going to become a really good Consent-Builder.    Limitation #2:  Although we -- Hans and Annemarie Bleiker, the authors of this CP Handbook -- spend most of our time conducting Citizen Participation training sessions all across the US, from Alaska to Maine, . . . we are not really terribly interested in Citizen Participation . . . nor do we particularly like Citizen Participation. . . This is really a bias on our part . . . a bias that, we feel, you need to know about.   So, if CP is not our "real" agenda, what is?  Why do we teach Citizen Participation if we don't really care about Citizen Participation?   Here is our real agenda:  We are single-mindedly focused on: Making individuals and teams who are responsible for solving important, difficult problems more effective . . . better at accomplishing their missions . . . not just on paper but in the real world of politics and hard-hitting special interests . . . in the world of:             - "No you don't!"             - "Not in My Back-Yard (NIMBY)!"             - "Not in My Term of Office!"             - "Hell No!"             - "Over my dead body!" Making public officials and other professionals who work in the public arena more effective precisely in that situation by having them earn the Informed Consent of their publics . . . especially of the interests who will suffer the negative effects of their work. . . i.e. of the publics that are most opposed . . . that is our single-minded agenda.   Our 30+ years of research clearly shows that earning the public's Informed Consent -- including the opponents' consent -- is a lot more feasible than most public officials and public-sector professionals think . . . provided . . . . Provided they have the integrity, the courage, and the practical know-how -- to do three things:   1. - Be brutally honest with all their various publics. 2. - Be the harshest critics of their own work. 3. - Look at what they are doing from the points of view of people who have different values and concerns.   You'll discover that, if you use Citizen Participation strictly as a tool for making government agencies more effective . . . better at accomplishing their missions . . . especially when that mission is controversial, unpopular, difficult. . . when all hell breaks loose, . . . then you'll be doing your Citizen Participation differently from how it is usually done.  Don't be shocked by this.   SDIC/CPO is a fundamentally different approach to public involvement.  It is un-conventional, even strange, and is not easy to use.  It makes some people uncomfortable . . . On the other hand, it has the beautiful result of having you lead . . . be effective . . . govern with consent rather than contempt! [ Top ]

IPMP PO Box 1937; Monterey, CA 93942  Tel: (831) 373-4292  Fax: (831) 373-0760
Please send Hans & Annemarie Bleiker your questions or comments to: ipmp@aol.com.
Visit us at www.consentbuilding.com or www.ipmp-bleiker.com.