Welcome to Confluence PSG

Your partner in policy & system change

Turn Challenge into Opportunity

Let Us Help Find a Path to the Future

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We’re government, policy & corporate strategists with decades of experience.

Drawing on our expertise in the public and private sectors, we help identify the specific issue and mechanism of change, scope of action needed, associated challenges and the affected or involved stakeholders. We work with clients to design and manage comprehensive collaborative processes to develop solutions with maximum buy-in and high likelihood for success.

Expertise

We’re stakeholder, policy & corporate strategists with decades of experience.

Experience

We’ve managed dozens of Task Forces & Work Groups, Engaged thousands of Stakeholders

Results

Our Team’s Work has Shaped over 100 Regulatory, Corporate or Legislative Actions

State Government

Our team has in-depth experience supporting Governors, State Agencies, Legislatures and multi-office initiatives. Support at the state level includes general and targeted community or stakeholder engagement, multi-stakeholder work group or task force design and management and inter-governmental work group and collaborative decision making processes.

Local Government

We’ve helped local leaders at every level of decision making from internal strategic planning and establishing budget priorities to engaging regional partners, community members and the private sector. Our work at the local level has included nearly every issue confronting local leaders including transportation and infrastructure, housing, workforce development and education.

Public-Private Partnerships

With experience in both the public and private sectors, we’re uniquely positioned to help business and government leaders come together to develop true partnerships that recognize the limits, needs and role of each. Our experience includes addressing issues in economic and workforce development, education, housing, transportation and land use.

Regional & Multi-Jurisdictional

We build on our expertise helping local leaders with our experience with state government agencies to bring a unique understanding of the complexities and advantages of collaborative efforts between towns, cities, counties and states. These efforts range from defined topic and timeline initiatives to longer-term partnerships that can involve neighboring communities or those with a common challenge that may be separated geographically.

Community, Non-Profit & NGO

Nearly all of our work on behalf of government agencies engages community, non-profit and NGO leaders as some of the most critical formal or informal partners. Some of the most successful initiatives have them as the driving force of the work whether in advocating for the initiative from the onset, as conveners, group members, as partners engaging communities and as the key players who will ensure sustainability of change.

Multi-Stakeholder Coalitions

While a task force or work group is often charged with studying an issue and developing recommendations, multi-stakeholder coalitions often play the critical role of advancing those recommendations and staying engaged to support implementation or change management. We can help structure, convene and manage these coalitions with membership that can include government, private sector and community leaders.

Our Services

When it’s time for designing significant system change in public policy, corporate operations or across public-private partnerships, an effectively designed and run working group or task force is often an effective forum. Understanding how to structure the group itself, the information that will be needed for the group to fulfill its mission and how to both structure the work across a continuum of conversations and to facilitate those conversations is critical to its success. We’ve managed and facilitated efforts on some of the most complex and contentious topics, finding common ground and delivering progress where other efforts have failed. While other firms rely solely on group management, we combine best-in-class facilitation with a mix of public and private sector experience few firms can match.

From one-time townhalls and regional listening tours to ongoing engagement initiatives and public forums or small group discussions, authentic stakeholder engagement can be a powerful component of any policy or system change when done well. We have extensive experience designing, managing and leading stakeholder engagements of all sizes and scopes. Every engagement program is unique and designed to define the scope of inquiry, identify the impacted or involved stakeholders, ensure all voices are heard and that meetings are comfortable, accessible and productive. Depending on the input sought, the location of participants and our partners’ goals, we can use a mix of in-person large group meetings, smaller focus groups and online meetings, webinars and townhall style meetings with small group breakout discussions. We also utilize a wide variety of online tools to gather additional input recognizing that despite all best efforts, meetings may not always fit every stakeholder’s schedule.

Reaching consensus is not a single step process and it’s not something limited to final actions or recommendations. It starts with aligning on the challenge or problem, developing a vision for a better end state and an effective plan to lead parties with differing opinions on outcomes sought or strategies to get there. Our team has led these efforts among a wide range of stakeholders. We’ve helped state and municipal governments work across internal agencies and in regional or statewide collaboratives and supported membership organizations of all kinds from multi-government to professional associations. When internal efforts needed an outside aide, we’ve helped businesses find consensus across divisions and with partner organizations. Drawing on our own diverse experience, we support dialogs across sectors and public-private partnerships.

We understand the complexity of developing smart, sustainable policies and policy change in ways that few others can. Our team has been involved at every point from stakeholder and leadership discussions of the need to change to developing clear recommendations and seeing those advanced through legislative, regulatory or corporate action. We’ve also been on the implementation side in both the public and private sectors so have a unique appreciation for the need to get it right. We know that even the best change can look different in different economies, communities or under different leadership so we help leaders and stakeholders develop policy that considers all of the potential risks as well as the opportunities to effect meaningful and sustaining change.

From business units or government office divisions and trade associations to legislative caucuses, state or municipal executive offices and state agencies, public private partnerships and regional collaboratives, strategic planning is critical for setting a vision and ensuring efforts, resources and actions are aligned. We have helped a variety of senior officials from county commissioners and state agency leaders to membership organizations and business leaders step back to engage in the important work of strategic planning. We can help with long-range or single year and broad, multi-office or agency plans to individual division planning to align with those higher level goals. We also work with our partners to design and facilitate periodic check-ins to examine progress, check for alignment of action and identify any needs for course adjustment or change.

Advancing and sustaining change does not end with the right ideas being offered by any office, organization, work group or task force. Advancing those ideas through legislative, regulatory, board or other actions requires a strategic plan and, in most cases, a diverse group willing to utilize their networks and influence to support the change. These coalitions of change can be single topic like a one-time board vote to adopt a new policy or they may be longer-term efforts of stakeholders committed to multiple actions to bring about transformative change. Coalitions supporting change are also crucial to ensure the sustainability, quality and efficacy of the implementation of the change. We work with our partners to identify coalition members, goals, actions and responsibilities and we work with the coalition to minimize burdens on members while maximizing the impact of the coalition.

STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGED

WORK GROUPS/TASK FORCES MANAGED

MEETINGS PLANNED & FACILITATED

REGULATORY & POLICY CHANGES INFORMED

Confluence PSG partners with government and private sector leaders to support policy and system change.