“Sense making & decision making in public policy” workshop with Neill Allan
Posted by webmaster 5 April 2007
What attracts a community engagement practitioner to a public policy seminar ? It must have been the decision making part of the invitation. Policy development is about making decisions as is community engagement. The Dept of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) has a vested interest in developing public policy that engages its partners, stakeholders and citizens in its decision making.
Presenter, Neill Allan (pictured with grin) who is currently undertaking futures work with New Zealand Govt, talked about one of the qualities of “knowledge” as “knowing more than we can tell and telling more than we can write down.” It was good to be reminded that more meaning is carried in stories or narrative and that more sense is made by discussing rather than writing.
According to Neill, “we need motivation to use knowledge.” Engaging others in the development of knowledge about sustainable behaviours is probably the best way of building the motivation to positively change behaviours in the Victorian Community. As we undertook an exercise to explore the implications for sense making on Truth & Lies, Facts & Fabrication and Belief & Dis-belief, I was reminded of the equation Hazard + Outrage = Risk (Peter Sandman.) It is too complex to delve into here but I believe that in our focus on facts and hazards we pay too little attention to beliefs, outrage and other ways of knowing about issues or problems.
Neill discussed the change model (fron denial, to resistance, to exploration and then commitment) in terms of policy making. In the exploration phase lies the greatest opportunity for Govt to engage citizens in the possibilities for what might be and how how they might participate in shaping the future.
The seminar confirmed my belief that wise policy can only be developed in an inclusive manner. Only by incorporating a variety of knowledge and beliefs can we build policy that is intelligent and practical.
Finally, I considered the extent to which my own project incorporates the element of inclusiveness and narrative by building knowledge through communities of practice in community engagement, conducting lunchbox seminars and inviting staff to coffee circles to discuss risk communication. Many thanks to the CIN and to Neill for another interesting seminar from which Neill has kindly provided the ppt presentation below.
Sense-making and Decision-making in Government Policy.pdf
Many thanks to the State Revenue Office for their support in planning this event.
Post kindly provided by Frankie McLennan, Community Engagement Project Leader, Dept. of Sustainability & Environment.
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April 5th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
There was so much content but it all made sense! It was really jam packed with lots and lots of practical help. Thsi was the first actual CIN event I have attended and i was very impressed.
For a complimentary framework relevant to influence I suggest George Lakoff ‘Don’t think of an elephant- Know your values and frame the debate’ 2004. It is perhaps more relevant to our citizen role rather than working in government but contains some really powerful and stimulating insights.
April 5th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Neill combined the difficult topics of sense-making, beliefs and stakeholder engagement to outline some effective tips for the development and application of policy work in the public sector. His experience really shone through, by cutting through the nonsense and helping the group to identify some practical tips to take forward in their own work areas.
The main point that I obtained was the clarifying insight that so many decisions (60%) are based around an implicit favourite model and we as public servants then spend our time trying to rationalise them (for subsequent audits!).
April 6th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Something that only makes sense retrospectively can be a real challenge for many. We love to assume we have a pretty good idea of how the cards will stack up. Hence the value of a sense making approach that not only utilises a diverse array of input, but one that will explore possibilites and alternatives.
We have recently had Edward de Bono share the same message with us, and we acknowledge the veracity of the message, but as Luke indicates above – in regard to our decision making, we too often choose the most familiar and comfortable option without a great deal of exploration.
Many thanks to Neill for again shining a light on on some interesting areas of potential benefit.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:31 am
The seminar brought together many concepts relevant to decision (sense) making. As simple as some of these concepts may seem, at times I am guilty of forgetting to apply them. Neill Allan reminded us that the variety of beliefs held by the public means that the inputs into policy making are a likelihood rather than an absolute. He also reminded us that “we know more than we can tell, and yet we can tell more than we can write”. This is important to the process of exchanging knowledge with the public.
April 16th, 2007 at 10:22 am
The Workshop introduced some very interesting ideas and a different way of thinking about public policy. It was thought provoking and engaging. Excellent work!
April 29th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
[...] At a recent presentation to VPSCIN by my good mate and fellow birdo Neill Allan from the UK, he talked about sense-making as being reliant on sensory information and interpreting that information in some form. He stated that we sense-make in the following process; first by trying to categorise (ie it looks like a chair), if we have trouble with that, then we try to pattern-match it, and if we are still trying to make sense of it after that, we will construct a hypothesis and test it. Sense-making then is less subject to accuracy and is more driven by likelihood – it is more narrative rather than objective in its approach. [...]