Don’t do it! 10 Consultation Mistakes to Avoid

CPD/APC Credits: 25

Have you got responsibilities around consultation, pre-consultation engagement and/or option development? If yes, then this one-day course is a must for you. Over the past ten years, the Institute has monitored the mistakes consultors make that result in challenges, judicial reviews, referrals, enquiries, trial by media, political fall-out, bad decisions and worse! A catalogue of costly errors that are alarmingly repeated on a regular basis, even within the same bodies.

This course is a combination of ten mini workshops exploring the ten most common and costly mistakes. The Institute’s highly experienced facilitator introduces them in descending order, explaining the error, why it is a fault, an example of the cost of making a blunder, before involving participants in working out how to work smart. Participants benefit from being able to review their own experiences and forthcoming consultations in the context of each mistake. They are introduced to consultation risk management and the best methods for meeting best practice within time constraints and costs.

Who is it for?
This has proven to be of benefit to anyone with consultation related responsibilities, whether engagement/consultation practitioners, communications professionals, event facilitators, staff new to consultation, commissioners, project leads, decision makers, Directors, Councillors or Ministers. No matter your level of experience, everyone learns something new and of value in this course.

Course Aim
• Make participants aware of what is a mistake and why
• Enable participants to understand how to avoid mistakes
• Introduce participants to consultation risk management, something that ISO31000 fails to cover
• Enable participants to better plan and execute projects that involve consultation, option development and engagement that informs decisions
• The sharing of essential knowledge all participants benefit from

Key Learning Points
• The ten mistakes most likely to get you into trouble and/or be costly to your organisation
• How Courts, IRPs, Ombudsmen, enquiries, investigators etc, view and regard what you do
• Methods for working out practical solutions to consultation dilemmas
• Basic consultation risk management
• Consultation problem solving