Hi all,

I’d like to share a tool I think is wonderfully useful.
A few months ago I sat listening to facilitators in a state agency talking about how multi-stakeholder collaborations go wrong.
One after another, they spontaneously observed that they go wrong before they begin. The conflict and lost opportunities were built in at the start. Specifically, by the failure to create clarity about a series of fundamental questions like purpose, negotiation space, and understanding the meaning of each others’ language!
Let’s call this the Inception Phase. If we were going to be systematic about designing the inception phase (and hence all the foundations of a project), what would we think about?
Here is a tool that tries to answer that question.
It’s now my go-to tool for EVERY strategic workshop, collaboration, or community consultation I’m involved in.
Hope you find it useful. I think it might make a big difference to the quality of public consultations in Australia.
Feel free to download it at www.enablingchange.com.au
Best wishes
– Les
P.S. I’d love some feedback.
The first page summarises the process:
Inception_tool.png