Originally published 1 February 2006. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
A woman I know is a Samaritan.
Whether by instinct or by training, she is remarkably good at listening. People want to tell her their feelings; they will readily unburden before her. And although she seldom offers solutions, her ability to respond empathetically often makes her confidante feel a lot better. Like others in many voluntary bodies, she succeeds fundamentally because she cares.
The analogy with public and stakeholder consultation is strong. Those of us charged with organising a listening exercise are regularly faced with a credibility barrier. It is not that people or community groups don't have views; they just lack confidence that anyone will genuinely listen to them. They see public bodies consulting because the law says they must …or because the Audit Commission gives them more stars …. or because it is now fashionable to do so. What they crave for is a consultor who passionately wants to hear what they have to say. Some individuals have this innately. They attract people to them like a magnet. Sometimes they are great networkers, able to strike up a new relationship in record time. Others are classified as connectors, moving freely between different functional worlds and able to link one with another easily. Yet others are born diplomats, able to argue an opposing viewpoint in subtle ways and without causing offence.
These are soft skills, and much underestimated when structuring teams of people to organise consultation for a large organisation. There is no magic all-encompassing person specification any more than there is a standard job description that is valid for the different circumstances that appertain in the UK public sector.
But, somewhere, involved in public participation, every Authority needs a networker; every police force needs a connector; every quango needs a diplomat - and they all need good listeners.
Consultation is increasingly about teams, and about motivating functional or departmental specialists (eg planning, social services, arts & libraries, environmental services etc etc) to work with communications or consultation specialists. To succeed they need a range of training, especially in basic concepts and techniques. But they also need a balance of personal characteristics, so that stakeholders can relate to them, and find someone with whom they comfortably interface.
Some people believe that women are particularly suited to some consultation roles. Yet the temperament that readily goes alongside listening, digesting and synthesising complex argument in public dialogue is not the provenance of one sex, and there are countless excellent role models of both sexes working effectively in the larger public bodies.
What's needed is an even firmer commitment to the employment of those who really care about the views that people hold and who want to see decisions, policies and programmes take better account of these views before they are implemented.
Trigger points
- Consider those who work alongside you in consultation & public participation. Are they excellent listeners?
- How good a listener are you?
- What is the ideal skill-mix for your function, and do the right people have these skills?
This is the 52nd Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement