Work Group

On some of the most complex, contentious and critical issues facing government, communities and businesses, we’ve seen stakeholders with very different views come together to make meaningful progress where other efforts have stalled out or been unable to find common ground. We’ve written in previous posts in this series about the basics of Collaborative Decision Making Processes (CDMPs) and when or why to use such a process.

As professional facilitators and conveners for all forms of consensus building efforts, we are big believers in their potential. With experience managing efforts across the U.S. on nearly every policy topic, and with efforts at the city, county, state and regional levels, we have plenty to share about best practices in the facilitation, design, structure, and membership management of task forces and work groups.

If you work in government at any level, advocate on policy issues or work with government agencies regularly, you’ve likely heard about or even been part of a specially formed group addressing one or more complex issues. The names may change depending on the purpose, the authority it holds or even just who created it but whether it’s called a work group, task force, blue ribbon committee or special commission, these collaborative decision making bodies have incredible potential to inform bold, consensus based action.