Glossary T

Text Messaging

Simple polls can be taken at present by this method (e.g. Big Brother!), but potentially, it has many more serious applications to consultation.

The Consultation Institute

Founded in 2003.  Seeks to promote the highest standards of public, stakeholder and employee consultation by initiating research, publications and specialist events in order to disseminate best practice and improve subsequent decision-making.

Theatre & Drama

Often used to explore issues of conflict without committing participants to one view or another. Widely used in education to address issues such as bullying.

See also Games

Therapeutic Consultation

Consultation exercises which are perceived to provide more value for consultees or participants than for the consultor.

Third Sector

The generic collective term for non-profit, charity, voluntary, non-government and campaigning organisations (NGOs) who are frequently stakeholders and the consultees in a consultation exercise.

Topic Guide

See Discussion Guide

Tokenism

Symbolic actions, which are the result of pretending to give advantage to those groups in society who are often treated unfairly, in order to give the appearance of fairness

Toolkit

See Consultation Toolkit

Topic Management

Activities undertaken by Moderators to select, prioritise, monitor, guide and terminate debates on interactive forms of e-consultation (eg e-discussion forums).

Town (Hall) Meeting

Engagement method popular in the USA. A meeting where an entire geographic area is invited to participate in a gathering, often for a political or administrative purpose. It may be to obtain community suggestions or feedback on public policies from government officials, or to cast legally binding votes on budgets and policy.

Transparency

Ensuring that all aspects of a consultation – from the information given to the reporting of the conclusions and their effects - are clearly accessible to all.

Tree Maps

A Tool for Structuring, Exploring and Summarising Qualitative Information. Essentially a tree map is a nested classification. It can be represented as a diagram that grows from a single trunk and ends with many leaves.