Enhancing public participation with diverse and divided audiences

Loud, angry people make it difficult to meet the goals of town hall meetings - finding out what community members think and want.  The actions of the loudest tend to intimidate anyone who has a different opinion from speaking up.  If you take others' silence as agreement, you might make decisions that unfairly favor one group over another.

If the others won't talk for fear of the yellers, here are some tips for getting their input:

• Develop with the audience workable ground rules for public participation.  If one of the rules is "everybody's voice is respected," the audience can agree that "no one gets booed or laughed at."  Enforce the rules during the meeting, or you will lose credibility with the audience.
  
• Provide everyone with index cards where they can write their comments and a box to put their comments in.  Make sure the box is covered or not clear, and has only a slot (that way audience members can't open up the box.)
• Arrange the room in small tables if you can.  Most people feel more comfortable speaking up from a table with their friends than in an auditorium format. When the yellers do appear, they are less likely to appear to be speaking for the whole audience.
• Invite people to share their input via email or phone calls before and after the session.  Organized activists will also dominate this type of communication.  But you're more likely to get other opinions.
• Set time limits on speakers during the public input portion of the meeting.  This will help prevent a yeller from running out the clock on a public meeting.
• Consider holding online public meetings.  These are more difficult to disrupt.  This should be done only in areas where most people are comfortable participating online.  It always should be an add-on to in person community meetings, not a replacement.
  
• If a yeller says anything that appears intended to intimidate participants from presenting other opinions, use that as an opportunity to defend the right of everyone to speak their minds.  This changes the subject from the yeller's concerns to the fact that the yeller is trying to disrupt the democratic process.  This might make some in the audience more comfortable about speaking up or sharing their thoughts later on.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Have a professional development tip you want to share? Share it with Leo


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For more information:
 The Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program offers courses in public participation and community outreach.  Among them are Planning in the Age of Direct Democracy.  For more information, and to see upcoming courses, or our course catalog, please visit the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program.

Speaking truth to false dilemmas

"Either build that toll road to lessen congestion or let traffic speeds go down to 10 miles an hour during the rush." "The debate about global warming is about letting the free market take its course or making regulations that will hurt our economy." "Either I take this job that I'm going to hate, or just not have any income coming in for six months." These are examples of false dilemmas, a rhetorical tool that blights productive conversations. False dilemmas make us less creative and more prone to making bad choices.

A false dilemma is a statement that creates the impression that there are only a few real options, when there may in fact be many more. In the first example, there may be other realistic options to reducing congestion besides a toll road -- such as more public transportation, improvements to existing roads, etc.

There are two main causes for false dilemmas: either the speaker is not aware that other realistic options exist, or the speaker is trying to manipulate us into accepting the speaker's preferred alternative. A classic example is the case of residents of a low-density suburb who oppose townhouses or apartment buildings on the grounds that these buildings will turn their community "into a city." Assuming there are no ulterior motives, this is an example of an innocent false dilemma. To these residents, a "suburb" and a "city" are completely different, and there is no way to combine the best of both worlds.

What should you do when confronted with a false dilemma? The best approach is to name it and show that there are a number of reasonable choices. But this is easier said than done.

• If you're in a position of authority, you can simply make the speaker aware that other possibilities exist, and should ask the speaker to investigate other options.
  
  
• If you're in a subordinate or peer relationship (such as with a colleague or client), you have to be more artful.
• First, try to understand why the speaker is making the false dilemma. Does it appear to be a lack of awareness? Or is something more going on there?
• If your relationship with the speaker is already tense, avoid naming the false dilemma. This may aggravate the tension and cause the speaker to dig in on a position.
• Ask non-threatening questions, such as "what would happen if..." "have someone considered..." These may help to expand the thinking of the innocent speaker. The manipulative speaker may still dig in, but other members of the audience might start to think differently.
• Create learning opportunities. To help residents think differently about higher density houses, planners and architects use charrettes and other public forums to show how many communities can add different types of buildings and stores while protecting their character.
  

If you have a professional development tip you'd like to share, please send your tip to Leo Vazquez at vazquezl@rci.rutgers.edu.  Please also give us your full name, title and affiliation, so we can give you proper credit.

Getting to the point: An exercise

Busy people have little time to read and listen.  You want to get their attention?  Present your best arguments quickly, clearly and concisely.

Here's an exercise that can help.  You will need a large index card, a small index card, and a smaller sheet of paper (such as a 3x3 square).

First, write down everything you want to say on a regular sheet of paper.  Use as many sheets as you'd like.  (If you don't want to write something new, use something already prepared, such as a memo.)

Now write it again, on the larger index card.  Use one side only.  You have less space; think about what's most important.  (No fair writing in a smaller size.)

Now write it again, on the smaller index card.  Use one side only.

On the smallest piece of paper, write down the "key" words or phrases that you most want your audience to remember.

For an added challenge, try to write a headline for what you wrote on the small index card.  A headline is typically is one sentence that presents the key facts of the entire article.  (Check out headlines in your favorite newspaper or news site for inspiration.)

What you prepared on the smaller index card is your "elevator speech."  It may also serve as the executive summary of your memo or report.  On the smallest piece of paper are the key words and concepts that you would want to emphasize in any longer presentation.
   

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Do you have a professional development tip you would like to share?  Have a question that you would like to see answered here?  Please send it to Leo at vazquezl@rutgers.edu

A new role for planning in a culturally fractured society

An interesting article in Miller-McCune (by way of Planetizen) on growing segregation in the United States: Re-crafting the United States as Disunited Duchies

What can and should urban planners do about this troubling trend? We’ve tried inclusive zoning and promoting more public spaces as a way to bring people together. Culturally competent urban designers work to make disadvantaged communities more visible by developing streetscapes that reflect the art and voices of their culture.

But we need to go beyond land use solutions. Planners should use their ability to see the relationships among people and the built environment to transform how communities address diversity. What distinguishes planners from other land use professions, such as architects and civil engineers, is our focus on the dynamic network of relationships in places. (In other words: architects design boxes. Engineers design the connections between the boxes. Social workers help people who use the boxes and connections. Planners develop and manage the relationships among all these things.)

A plan can be a first draft of a community. Both plans and drafts are similar in that you learn as you do. You can see connections, opportunities, mistakes and bad assumptions as you plod through. Of course, the more you try to accomplish, the more you struggle.

By engaging leaders and power brokers over time, planners have the opportunity to shape how they think about diversity and integration, and build their confidence to do the right thing. But here’s the thing: It’s not going to happen in one meeting with a bunch of good data and charts. It’s not going to happen in a single public hearing with a bunch of pretty pictures. Transformative leadership requires commitment, patience and persistence, as well as excellent strategic communication skills. The quiet conversations together are more powerful than the soapbox orations.

To do transformative leadership that promotes sustainable solutions involving diversity and inclusion, you need to be culturally competent. Cultural competency is more than “being nice to people who are different than you.” It is a set of analytical and communication skills – a competency – that allows individuals to better understand and adapt to culturally diverse environments. For more on this, read the works of Leonie Sandercock, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
We need to work on these issues now because our society is becoming more fractured. It’s not just that people are moving away from one another and clustering with people who look and think like them. The explosion of different media means that many people are not seeing the same information or hearing common interpretations of the facts. We are in a society with a shrinking mainstream and less common ground.

Why is self-segregation so bad? Shouldn’t American planners and other land use professionals respect the rights of people to live how they want – and with whom – even if we don’t agree with their decisions? I believe that the most critical responsibilities of American planners are to enhance opportunities for all people to fully partake in society, protect individual freedoms that do not restrict opportunities for others, and develop solutions to sustain the world so future generations have equal opportunities and freedoms. When people move away from one another physically, intellectually and emotionally, conflict is easier to start and harder to resolve. History tells us that dominant groups in society will use their powers to restrict opportunities and freedom for others. (Low-income housing built on the opposite side of the highway. Ordinances banning taco trucks. Exclusionary zoning.) Whether we do neighborhood or regional planning, the problems we face – environmental, economic, traffic – are spread wider than the communities in which we work. We need people to work together to promote opportunity, protect freedom and pursue sustainability.

Planners can help. But it means spending less time looking at maps and spreadsheets and more time leading conversations.

Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

The power of handshakes

It's always hard to meet with people who don't like or don't trust you. It's even harder in open, public meetings, where your antagonists can merge into the crowd while you're in a fishbowl up at the front. You can't prevent people from being hostile, but here are tips to manage the conflict.

• Diagnose the hostility the way you would any other problem. Why is the other side angry? Is it because of what you did, or perhaps what you are? (If you're a planner in a neighborhood that has had bad relationships with earlier planners, you may be seen as a proxy for those others.)
• Identify those people who are leading or stoking the hostility. Try to understand their concerns.
• Go to the meeting early and seek out the antagonists. Say hello, shake their hands and make small talk. Do not try to resolve conflict there, or discourage them from speaking up at the meeting. If they want to express their anger there, encourage them to talk with you at another time. If you try to engage in conflict resolution before the meeting, you may lose your focus.
• Under the best of circumstances, your antagonists will find your actions disarming and be willing to think about you in a more charitable way.
• If the antagonists refuse to engage you, or even shake your hand, that's ok too. Remember that others might be watching. If they see you make an effort and be rebuffed, it might make you look better, and your antagonists look worse.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Do you have a professional development tip you would like to share? Have a question that you would like to see answered here? Please send it to Leo at vazquezl@rutgers.edu

Dealing with writer's block

It happens to all of us. You have great ideas and a lot of data. You go to your computer, put your hands on the keyboard, stare and the screen and... nothing.

Before you walk away in frustration, try this:
*Talk as you type. You may find it easier to put the words together if you feel like you're talking to someone.

*Pretend you're talking to a supportive but skeptical person. Here's what the person might ask:
-- Why is what you're writing about important?
-- Why should I care about it? How does it affect me?
-- (If you're asking for action) What do you want me/him/her/them to do? When?
-- What information do you have to support your arguments?
-- Do you have any charts, images or other graphics that might help convince or persuade me?

Another good tip: The best way to become a better writer is to write more often. Writing is like exercising; the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more you can do.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Selling and sharing your vision

You've got a great idea to do something somewhere. You can make it happen, if you can get enough "buy-in," support, or enrollment from the right people. How do you do it?

Simply informing others isn't enough. You need to let your audiences know what you would like them to do. That depends on whether you're trying to sell or share your vision.

Selling your vision is like selling any other product. The audience either buys it (in other words, supports it) or doesn't. Selling is useful if you're trying to get financing or need support from a government agency.

Sharing your vision is more complex. Audiences don't just support it. They get involved with it. They may even modify it. Sharing is useful when you want to build long-term relationships or motivation. Successful plans need the ongoing support of the people who are affected by them. If those people are sold a vision, and there are unforeseen problems -- as there always are -- people can change their minds quickly. (Think about toothpaste. If you start to dislike the taste, the price, or the company that sells it, do you wait for it to change? No. You buy another brand.)

When you're selling, the vision tends to be more detailed and constructed. When you're sharing, the vision is more vague and open-ended. The more detailed the vision is, the more it seems "finished" or "closed." Most people don't feel comfortable trying to change a finished product.

Let's say your vision is to build a supermarket in a low-income community. You probably have a sense of how big the supermarket should be, what it should look like, and maybe even who should run it.

You would probably sell that vision to a bank. The banker would want to know that your vision is a safer investment for the bank's money. More details can help your credibility.

You would probably share the vision to community groups. They may have different ideas about the mix of products in the store and who should run it. If you simply try to sell your vision, they may say "no thanks."

Be prepared to sell and share. In today's world, the bank might feel more comfortable buying your vision if the community shares it.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Making a public participation toolkit

Having a toolkit ready for almost any type of presentation or public participation event will save you a lot of time and reduce your stress.

The first part of the toolkit is the toolbox. Use something with several pockets or compartments. I use a medium men's travel toiletry case. It is light and easy to carry because it folds up and has hooks for hanging onto a door (or the clip of my work case).

Inside the toolkit, have at least the following tools:

• Dry erase markers, four colors
• Whiteboard eraser and small bottle of whiteboard cleaner
  
• Flip chart markers, four colors and labeled to avoid mistaking them for the dry erase markers
• Large index cards, multiple colors
• Draft dots, multiple colors
• Sticky paper, such as Post-Its or similar paper
• Flash drive
• Laser pointer
• Box of pens
• Box of pencils
• Masking tape
• Household tape
• Stick-on badges
  
• Fine point markers, in standard land use colors
  
• Other small props you regularly use

Building effective relationships with reporters

Developing effective relationships with the media is a good way to help your cause, organization or yourself. Being a favored source for newspaper reporters helped Robert Moses become the foremost figure in planning in 20th century New York. "Rebuilding Communities," a landmark study by Avis Vidal, showed that funders were more likely to give support to community development corporations with greater visibility.

Here are some tips on building effective relationships with reporters. (By the way, I was a newspaper reporter for five years and still write for online publications and magazines.)

First, ensure that you have the appropriate permissions to speak 'on-record' to the media. Many governmental agencies and organizations, having been stung by bad publicity, limit who can talk to the media and in what capacity.

Reporters are like police officers; once they identify themselves professionally, everything you say or do can be used for their purposes.

Cultivate relationships with reporters who ask good or difficult questions. This often demonstrates that they are attentive and have prepared for the interview. Reporters who ask you for basic information that they can find on your website might be lazy or unconcerned with the story.

Reporters look for stories that have any of the following qualities: new information, unexpected information, clear impacts on their readers, and conflicts in which the issue and the opponents are easy to identify. For example, most reporters wouldn't be interested in writing about a capital improvements plan. But they would be interested in writing about new roads or street improvements that would reduce flooding.

Look for or create photo opportunities. Stories that have 'art' (the journalistic term for photos and other images) are more likely to get published and to get better positions within the publication.

Unless you are a whistleblower, there is almost never any need to go "off-the-record." If you decide to go off the record, understand what the reporter means by that term. For some, off-the-record means they can use the information without naming you as a source. (This is what other reporters call "on background.") For other reporters, off-the-record means they can't use the information at all in a story. In either case, you should expect that reporters will share what they know with editors, who are responsible for the content in their publications.

Good reporters are busy, especially in today's 24-hour news cycle. If you call a reporter, ask him or her if she is on "deadline." If so, ask about a better time to call back.

If a reporter calls you, call back within 45 minutes. Give the reporter all of your contact numbers, and be prepared to take calls at night or on weekends. Be patient and pleasant. A reporter might file a story at 5 pm, but has to respond to an editor's question at 9 pm.

"General assignment" reporters and those new to a beat are usually not experts in the subjects they cover. The more useful information you can provide, the more valuable you become to those reporters.

Remember that the story belongs to the reporter and his or her editors. They choose what goes in and stays out of the stories. If you want to control what goes into a publication, take out an ad.

When writing press releases, try to adopt the writing style of the publications you are trying to influence. In some cases, especially for shorter stories, reporters may simply lift or slightly revise what you wrote.

If you want to be quoted, speak in short sentences and a little more slowly. Most quotations in newspaper and magazine stories are only a sentence or two long.