When buying goods, it’s always a good idea to have a look at the “small print”! There, buried deep in the legal verbiage you may find something like The Supplier has a policy of continuous improvement and therefore reserves the right to make changes to the product specification at any time …… or words to that effect. In principle, the same is true for professional services and other hybrid deliverables.

It’s a wonderful get-out, and is the ubiquitous defence against customers or consumers whose expectations have not been fully met.

Now think of public or stakeholder consultations in a similar way. Even heavily-centralised departments with years of experience are still experimenting with slightly different ways of going about the task of gathering and listening to people’s views. The standard disclaimer would fit quite nicely – for we are definitely witnessing a drive for constant…improvement …. So maybe we should draft some words along these lines ….?