Facilitation and Engagement

Facilitation:  Meetings between government and stakeholders or those involving two or more departments are often more productive if designed and facilitated by a neutral, third party.   This can also be the case for groups or whole organizations who need to explore new directions or governance for themselves.  The design of these meetings raises important questions regarding clarity around the desired outcomes. The venue location and set-up, the agenda, the nature of materials that participants are given beforehand, and the use of small group deliberations at critical points are all important.  The productivity of the actual meeting itself, if expertly facilitated, can increase significantly through judicious time-keeping, the development of meeting action plans, summations at key points and written summaries of the meeting.  The IOG has a number of highly skilled facilitators with years of experience in working in complex and politically charged environments, and can provide these services in both official languages.

Engagement:  Creative ideas are not limited to government officials. Citizens, NGOs, associations, business and academia have talents and experiences that can help. But partners need to understand each other's environments and drivers. They need a range of tools to help build common solutions and think through how implementation can best be achieved.

A precursor to engaging citizens in policy development is clear communications around mutual responsibilities. What can or must government do? What are the rights and duties of citizens? Where are the grey areas? How can messages be successfully exchanged?

The IOG has extensive experience in helping clients explore the answers to such questions.  We have investigated current procedures and made recommendations to improve practices.  We have helped to spread understanding of new behaviours within government and civil society representatives. 

The IOG has experience in needs analysis, developing strategic and implementation plans for engagement; designing, managing and facilitating engagement initiatives (live or web-based); preparing input analyses and reports; and providing advice on policy partnerships.

For more information on our Facilitation and Engagement services and how we can help you, please contact us.