What Is It Good For?

This table helps you keep track of which participants are where in the process of solving the problem. This helps focus your efforts by showing where resources can be most effectively used. By identifying which groups are at what level of awareness, you can determine what steps are needed tohelp people toward responsible judgement. If you have a group that is at responsible judgment and one unaware of the problem, then spend your resources communicating with the unaware group rather than preaching to the choir. A large number of unaware publics might signal the need for more active information dissemination.

Implementing a solution is nearly impossible without using the publics' insights and ideas, addressing their concerns, and seeking as much consenst as possible. To chart public involvement activities and progress, sometimes it is useful to take the pulse of the public at key times to determine where they are and what actions need to be taken to get to the next step.

How Do I Use It?

1. Identify groups you want to track.
2. Discuss issues to determine how these groups view the problem.
3. Develop questions or thresholds that would show their level of awareness and participation.
4. Interview key representatives of those groups or survey the groups.
5. Use a table like the following to record the groups and the percentages of each group to assess what level they are operating under.

Sample Table

If someone has a low level of interest or awareness, explain the problem in terms of how they or their community will be affected. Grouping approval of alternatives by publics can also be a useful tool to gauge the acceptability of an alternative or to pinpoint ways to change the alternative. This helps gauge the commitment to the alternatives.

The Stonefield Learning Group uses a quick survey to determine a group's level of commitment, understanding, and/or attitude toward an idea, proposal, plan, etc. Whenever a medium-to-large group of people want to see what the group's attitude or level of commitment is:

 
1. Determine what is to be measured.
2. Distribute post-its.
3. Agree whether or not the answers are to be kept confidential.
4. On a flipchart--draw a scale from 0 to 100, in increments of 10 (0, 10, 20, etc.)
5. Each person writes (on a post-it) where they are on the scale, relative to the specific topic.
6. Post-its are collected by the facilitator.
7. Facilitator places the post-its on the scale (flipchart).
8. Group discusses outcome of process.

Go On