Please find pasted below Econnect Communication’s March 2002 newsletter. This edition focuses on ‘best practice’ in consultation. Your feedback is welcome. If you’ve missed previous newsletters, you can check them out on our website.

With regards

The team at Econnect Communication (Jenni Metcalfe, Lin Martin, Louise Ralph, Michelle Riedlinger)

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CONTACT ECONNECT COMMUNICATION – phone 07 3846 7111; EMAIL admin@econnect.com.au; website: http://www.econnect.com.au. Econnect is committed to planning and delivering innovative and effective communication in the natural resource and environmental fields to ensure a sustainable future. We work with clients and their partners in an open, respectful and cooperative manner fulfilling our commitment to conservation and social justice.

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NEWSLETTER 8, 18 March 2002

Feel free to reproduce any of the following articles as long as you acknowledge Econnect as the source; and feel free to send this newsletter to anyone else who might be interested and/or put onto our newsletter contact list. Past copies of newsletters can be found on our website.

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WHAT IS CONSULTATION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? By Jenni Metcalfe & Lin Martin

Consultation is a rigorous, open and accountable communication process that provides, gathers, and exchanges information and then compiles, analyses and interprets community feedback as an integral part of decision making.

 

Consultation is a directed communication process between an agency and its partners and is undertaken as an integral stage of decision-making. The process is open and accountable so individuals and groups can participate in decision-making and influence outcomes.

 

Consultation is not about negotiating or resolving the decisions/outcomes of the project - it is an initial participatory stage in the decision making process.

 

Consultation must be seen as an investment that will help deliver appropriate, sustainable solutions that consider partner interests and concerns.

 

Government agencies entrusted with making consultation happen often question its relevance to the decisions they have to make, and struggle with its implementation. On the other hand, partners involved in the consultation process have often felt frustrated by “token consultation” or feeling that their time has been used without any impact on decision-making. There is a general feeling of disempowerment in the community.

 

The reasons given for NOT consulting are often that:

·         there is not enough time

·         it costs too much

·         people won’t understand the complex issues involved

·         there are too many different points of view for people to agree

·         it might increase dissatisfaction levels in the community

 

However, it is possible to overcome these barriers through a strategic and integrated approach to planning and preparing for consultation. Done well, community consultation can be influential over decision making and relationship building. It can help elected officials to understand and incorporate public needs and concerns into their decision-making. It can make the community feel empowered.

 

Consultation will be more effective if the agency undertaking consultation has developed relationships of respect and trust with their partners, and ensured that partners are well informed on agency issues, responsibilities, and consultation processes.

 

Consultation requires ongoing commitment by agencies to resource and implement a wide-ranging communication strategy at all times, and not just as issues arise. Long term relationship building through effective communication will help deliver empowered community input into decisions that are informed and considered, and not based on disempowering emotions of fear, anger, frustration, cynicism or perceived threat.

 

Effective community consultation also works through collaboration. This means ensuring interaction and deliberation with a range of partners who reflect the social diversity of the community being consulted. Collaboration is respectful discussion, which searches for, listens and values real and effective understanding with and between partners.

 

Consultation can only present a ‘snapshot in time’. The statutory and political imperatives that agencies have to work under often limit flexible participatory consultation approaches. To deliver the best possible outcomes of consultation it is vital that agencies are clear and honest about the degree of community participation desired in consultation projects and to then communicate the consultation process expectations and limitations to all partners (both internal and external).

 

Many communities out there are also feeling ‘over-consulted’, so as an initial step it is very important to consider the level of consultation that is necessary, and if so when this happens in the decision-making process.

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LISTENING UP – INTERVIEWING TIPS By Louise Ralph

Asking questions may be the most natural thing in the world, but our curiosity seems to disappear when we are interviewing someone.

 

How do the experts manage to do it, while we sweat, lose concentration and rush to slot another question into the silence? We restate our questions, think about the next question rather than listening, try to write it all down, and end up feeling quite blank!

 

Instead, they calmly and thoughtfully listen to the person they are interviewing. They seem to go with the flow and focus on the person they’re talking to. They don’t try to impress with their own knowledge via long and convoluted questions. They are clear, curious and friendly.

 

The secret to being a good interviewer is to develop a natural curiosity about people and things… Here are some handy tips to follow:

 

~  Prepare - If you don’t take the time to do your homework, you’ll be wasting theirs. You don’t need to do an in-depth study but you do need to know the basics about them, their work, their organisation etc. This will also help you to know what to ask.

 

~ Ask the “who, what, when, where, why and how” questions - Don’t ask “What’s new”. It’s a bit like a doctor asking a patient “what’s the matter” and expecting the patient to reply “Well doctor, I have post traumatic amnesia”.

 

~ Listen - there is nothing worse than someone asking you a question and then not listening to your answer.

 

But most of all, relax - this is not an exam… it’s a conversation!

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10 COMMON CONSULTATION MISTAKES by Lin Martin & Jenni Metcalfe

1.        Consulting with people about an issue that they have already been consulted about – duplicating past consultation.

2.        Ignoring or making assumptions about the perceptions, concerns and needs of those being consulted.

3.        Not planning enough time for the consultation process, or allowing enough time for feedback to be collected.

4.        Using consultation techniques that are not appropriate for those being consulted because partners have not been involved in the consultation design process.

5.        Not communicating effectively with partners to publicise the consultation process, leading to poor involvement. (e.g. using jargon, bureaucratic, racist sexist or stereotypical language).

6.        Confusing explanations about the objectives, processes and the context of the consultation process so that people have false expectations about how their input will influence decision-making.

7.        Failing to promptly feedback collected consultation information as it is collected to participants for their further input.

8.        Trying to defend organisation/decision/person/s when consultation should be primarily a “listening” exercise.

9.        Not using expert advice to assist in designing or undertaking consultation processes.

10.     Relying too much on “representatives” of partner groups to convey the correct view of their memberships’ perceptions, concerns and needs.

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THE USEFULNESS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH FOR CONSULTATION By Michelle Riedlinger

Qualitative research is often used to supplement quantitative research in consultation reporting because it can add colour to results and explanations. For example, you may discover through quantitative means that few stakeholders are taking up a certain management practice or that many disagree with a new policy option. However, it is only be through qualitative analysis that you can meaningfully explain the reasons that drive these actions and opinions. 

 

Qualitative research can also be used in projects where not a lot of information exists on a subject. It can explain dynamics and relationships in ways that can be difficult using quantitative methods. It can also be used to develop methods for gathering more quantitative data if this is required.  Other reasons to use qualitative research include:

·       comparing social processes

·       explaining how processes have developed

·       describing what is going on in a particular location

·       predicting what may happen under future conditions.

 

Data for qualitative analysis can be gathered using a variety of methods, including focus groups, interviews, open-ended survey questions, observation and documentation.  The sources you use will depend on the questions you are asking, what is available to you and how you wish to analyse it.

 

Thematic analysis is a good way of initially investigating your data. This involves pulling out elements that are the most prominent in the data and combining these into thematic categories. You might then look at how these categories are related to each other and investigate the dynamics of the relationships. More data may need to be gathered in order to explain a relationship fully.

 

A number of computer programs such and NUDISTTM and En Vivo make the job of categorising and relating large sets of data much easier, but they don’t make analytical decisions. Decisions on how to interpret the findings must be made by you.

 

For more general information on qualitative research see - http://www.qrca.org/faq.htm and http://www.qsr-software.com/training/qda.html.

 

http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/ryan-bernard_techniques_to_identify_themes_in.htm provides more information on the basics of thematic analysis.

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Econnect Communication runs two-day consultation workshops, that are specially tailored to the needs of the commissioning organisation. They include a comprehensive book of notes. For more information, please contact us or check out our website: http://www.econnect.com.au

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Greening Australia Queensland runs one-day community training courses in Brisbane and most regional centres. The courses cater for a variety of skill levels and are held outdoors on the weekends for an enjoyable, hands-on experience. For more information: Visit the Greening Australia Community Training website at http://www.qld.greeningaustralia.org.au
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For further information on any of the articles provided, please feel free to contact us at Econnect. Any feedback on this newsletter would be gratefully accepted.

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