“A Field Guide to Convening Dialogue,” by Joanna Ashworth, Simon Fraser University, 2010. This 8-page question-based guide is designed for anyone who plans to host a dialogue gathering—whether for a brief afternoon or an extended series of meetings over time. The questions in this guide are organized around four components: 1) Prepare 2) Plant 3) Cultivate 4) Harvest.

“A Local Official’s Guide to Public Engagement in Budgeting,” Institute for Local Government, 2010. This publication is a comprehensive guide to involving the public in local budgeting. It outlines several approaches to public engagement in the process, discusses how to think strategically about the purpose of the process, and lists a dozen planning criteria to consider. (NOTE: You may download one copy of this document for individual use at no cost.)

“Caught up in Kumbayah: Are There Limits to Collaboration?” by Cynthia Gibson, Deep Social Impact blog, December 6, 2010. The author emphasized the need to view collaboration as a means to an end (clear and informed decision) rather than an end unto itself. She also argues that too much collaboration can lead to conformity and stifle individuality and innovation. She ends with a suggestion of how to move from crowdsourcing to smartsourcing.

“Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community: Changing the Nature of the Conversation,” Peter Block, Civic Engagement Series, A Small Group, 2005. This booklet is a set of ideas and tools designed to restore and reconcile our community by shifting the nature of the public conversation. The intent of this booklet is to create the possibility of an alternative future by creating a public conversation based on communal accountability and commitment. www.peterblock.com

“Collaboration and Community” by Scott London, Pew Partnership for Civic Change, November 1995 (http://www.scottlondon.com/reports/ppcc.html). This article details the ins and outs of building collaborative communities by defining the principles of collaboration, how it differs from other models of cooperation, how to develop collaborative leaders, and the limitations of collaboration.

“Community of Practice – What’s it All About?” by Kathy Jourdain, Shape Shift Strategies, September 1, 2011. This blog post discusses what it means to be part of a Community of Practice, in particular looking at the elements of work, co-learning, and relationship.

“Community Planning for Success,” by Gloria Franchesca Mengual, Everyday Democracy, September 29, 2011. This short post offers guidelines for organizing community-planning dialogues.

“Core Principles for Public Engagement” National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, International Association for Public Participation and Co-Intelligence Institute, May 1, 2009. These three groups, along with other leaders in public engagement, created this set of seven core principles for public engagement to help guide the work of practitioners in the field of public engagement, conflict resolution, and collaboration. These principles reflect the common beliefs and understandings of those working in these fields. In practice, people apply these and additional principles in many different ways.

“Creating New Futures Through Community Conversation,” Vicky Schubert and Rachel Baker, Leverage Points, Issue 99, June 2008 by Pegasus Communication. In this article, the authors interview Peter Block about his new book, Community: The Structure of Belonging and how creating community conversation can promise something different. Block talks about the importance of diversity and an open, questioning mind. He emphasizes that connection, not problem solving, are the key to creating the communities we desire.

“Effective and Inclusive Public Engagement in Local Government,” by Greg Keidan, AmericaSpeaks blog, December 1, 2010. The author list the following suggestions to overcome the challenges of engaging the public in local government: make it relevant, seek partnerships with other organizations, go to where the people are, build relationships with key leaders, use the internet to broaden participation, focus on outcomes, make it easy and fun to attend, keep it simple, provide different levels of engagement, and get input early. He also lists several tips for face-to-face public meetings related to regional sustainable planning.

“Expanding ‘Public Participation’ in Hard Times,” by Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, July 2009. These days, increasing public participation in organizational and public policy decision-making is often met with resistance because it is deemed to be too time-consuming and expensive. The author, however, makes the argument that now more than ever in this time of scarcity, we need to involve the public. He offers the following practical approaches to effectively and efficiently engaging the public: catalyze participatory conversation, support online connectivity, help community share the load, tap positive possibility, align with evolving professions, tap creative energy, and transform unemployment.

“Fostering Dialogue Across Divides,” by Maggie Herzig and Laura Chasin, Public Conversations Project, 2006. This publication is a detailed and extensive step-by-step guide to implementing public dialogue based on Public Conversations Project’s process. The main body of the guide covers PCP’s general approach and core practices, pre-meeting explorations and decisions, and session design, preparation, and facilitation. Additionally, the guide includes several appendices that contain sample formats, questions, handouts and invitations, to name a few of the added resources.

“From Short-order Cooks to Gourmet Chefs: Recipes for Innovation in Public Engagement,” by Matt Leighninger, National School Public Relations Association, March 2011. Although written from an educational perspective, the main points of this article can be broadly translated for any organization contemplating a community engagement effort. The author outlines three basic issues to consider with any attempt at public engagement: understand the context of the current issues and the community, get some background and training in public engagement, and find allies to support you. He also lists the key ingredients for a successful recipe with the caveat that it is important to make the flavor unique to your own community.

“Getting The Most Out Of Public Hearings: Ideas To Improve Public Involvement,” Institute for Local Government, 2005. This pamphlet explores questions about getting the most from public engagement and offers practical ideas to maximize the effectiveness of public hearings. It is not a sequential “how-to” list of steps for planning and holding public hearings. It is an inventory of ideas for improving public involvement, each of which may be useful for some public hearings and inappropriate for others. (NOTE: You may download one copy of this document for individual use at no cost.)

Grantmakers in Health, “Making the Most Out of Community Advisory Committees,” Kyna Rubin, GIH Inside Stories, Winter 2007. Although this article is written from a healthcare funder’s perspective, it offers useful information about how to draw meaningful input from the populations an organization serves and use it to guide funding strategies and programming.

It’s More Than High Jinks,” by Nancy Thomas, Inside Higher Ed, February 8, 2010. Although this article was written about the climate for dialogue on our nation’s campuses, there are nuggets to be mined here for anyone wishing to create the space for civil discourse. The posted comments add further perspective on the issue.

“Meg Wheatley’s 12 Principles for Supporting Healthy Community” by Chris Corrigan, May 25, 2010 (http://chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/?p=2759). This is a blog posting that very succinctly outlines Meg Wheatley’s approach to community engagement.

“NCDD's Engagement Streams Framework.” The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation developed this framework in 2004 to introduce practitioners in the D&D field to a range of possibilities available to them. The first chart of the Engagement Streams Framework categorizes the D&D field into four streams based on the organizer's primary intention or purpose - Exploration, Conflict Transformation, Decision Making and Collaborative Action. It shows which of the most well-known and well-tested methods have proven themselves effective in each stream. The second chart outlines 19 of the most well-known and well-tested dialogue and deliberation methods and, first, identifies which of the 4 streams the method focuses significantly on (some models can be used in more than one stream with little adaptation). It also provides additional details such as size of group and how participants are selected.

“Open Policy Making 101: 10 Questions to Ask Before Launching Your Online Public Consultation” Joe Goldman and Joseph Peters, November 10, 2009. Don’t let this title fool you! The only part of this article that deals with online engagement is the last one. This is a great article for anyone contemplating a community engagement event. The first nine questions provide a framework to guide the process.

“Planning for Stronger Local Democracy,” National League of Cities Center for Research & Innovation, 2011. This publication is touted as field guide for local officials. It is divided into two major sections. The first part outlines fourteen questions officials need to ask to build a stronger local democracy. Each questions is discussed in great detail, with more specific questions to ask and potential next steps listed. The second section of the publication outlines twelve potential building blocks for creating a shared civic infrastructure. Finally, there are tips for facilitators listed in an appendix along with a comprehensive list of resources.

“Strategic Questioning: Engaging People’s Best Thinking,” Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, Eric Vogt, and Nancy Margulies, Systems Thinker Newsletter, November 2002. This article discusses how asking the right questions enable us to engage in collaborative conversation, exploration, inquiry, and learning. The approach described is grounded in the assumption that stakeholders in any system already have within them the wisdom and creativity to confront even the most difficult challenges. The article gives many tips on how to craft and use strategic questions.

“Ten Tactics for Engaging the Public,” by Matt Leighninger, The Nonprofit Quarterly, May 31, 2011. This is a quick, one-page chart that describes ten ways to engage the public. In addition to describing each of the tactics, they are divided by function (collaboration, surveying attitudes, or prioritizing options), and the chart lists why you would want to use it and some online tools.

“The Magic of Dialogue,” by Daniel Yankelovich, The Nonprofit Quarterly, January 12, 2011. This article is adapted from Daniel Yankelovich's book, The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict into Cooperation. It defines dialogue, outlines why we would choose dialogue over other forms of communication, and describes three distinct features that differentiate it from other forms of talk: 1) equality and the absence of coercive influences, 2) listening with empathy, and 3) bringing assumptions into the open. Yankelovich also offers several strategies for engaging in dialogue that focus on creating the three features of dialogue.

“The People Can Make Hard Budget Choices,” by James Fishkin, San Francisco Chronicle, February 8, 2010.. This article outlines how the state of Michigan was able to make some very difficult budget choices by giving the residents a say. It demonstrates fortitude, the likes of which we typically do not see in our legislative bodies.

“The World Café: Catalyzing Large-Scale Collective Learning,” Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, Nancy Margulies, and Gary Warhaftig, Leverage: News and Ideas For the Organizational Learner, September 1999. This article briefly describes the birth of the Café Conversation model and how to use it.

“Upgrading the Way We Do Politics,” by Sandy, Heierbacher, Yes Magazine (online), August 21, 2009. Sandy is the Executive Director for the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, and she wrote this article in response to the disastrous spectacle of the town hall meetings held by legislators across the country on health care legislation. She discusses a variety of ways to create space for true dialogue that gives participants an opportunity to learn and be heard and emphasizes the need to discover common ground.

“Working Effectively With Public Engagement Consultants: Tips for Local Officials,” Institute for Local Government, 2011. (http://www.ca-ilg.org/print/3466) This article gives a comprehensive list of things to consider when working with a public engagement consultant. These ideas are broken down into the following categories: before you hire (do your homework), selecting a public engagement consultant, the consultant contract, and using public engagement consultants well.