California State University, Sacramento

Department of Public Policy and Administration

 

PPA 271

Practice of Collaborative Policy-Making

Spring, 2005

 

 

Professor David Booher, M.A., M.S.P.                        Meeting Time & Place:

Center for Collaborative Policy                                     January 27-May 12, 2005

1303 J Street, Suite 250                                               Thursday 6PM-8:50PM

(916) 445-2079                                                           Location: LSN 3005
dbooher@berkeley.edu                                                Office Hours: Thursday 5PM-6PM, and by appointment.

 

 Prerequisites: PPA 200 or permission of Instructor. Priority will be given to students who have completed PPA 270.

 

Course Contents and Objectives

 

This methods course is designed to provide the skills and knowledge of strategies and methods that may be used to develop collaborative solutions to complex public policy issues and how to assess when these processes may be appropriate in specific situations. The course will include meeting management and facilitation, negotiation in complex multi-party policy disputes, collaborative leadership, collaborative organizational learning, governance network analysis and management, and public participation. Extensive use will be made of simulations and class exercises. Expert practitioners will join the class periodically as guest lecturers. The objective of this course is to provide participants with practical skills and knowledge of several collaborative methods in public policy and the foundation to be reflective and to continue to develop their capacity in using collaborative strategies in practice.

 

Description of Expected Learning Outcomes

 

By the end of this course participants should be able to:

  • Assess a public policy issue and determine if one or more collaborative methods or strategies may be applied to achieve change,
  • Analyze the context for participation within and between organizations and within communities of interest or place,
  • Understand how various collaborative strategies may fit together as part of an overall change process,
  • Use mutual gains negotiation in public policy disputes,
  • Plan and manage effective collaborative meetings,
  • Use several group methods in public policy deliberations,
  • Use collaborative leadership approaches in public policy,
  • Analyze and operate in governance networks,
  • Use collaborative strategies for public participation in policy,
  • Draw on resources about collaborative strategies and methods for their practice,
  • Reflect deeply on their own use of collaboration in policy practice, and
  • Be creative in the development and application of collaborative methods in public policy practice.

 

Required Readings

 

Three texts will be used in the course along with a packet of course readings and materials. In addition a course reader is required.

 

How to Make Meetings Work, by Michael Doyle and David Straus (New York: Berkeley Books, 1993.)

 

Getting to Yes: Negotiating without Giving In, by Roger Fisher and William Ury (New York: Penguin Books, 1991.)

 

How to Make Collaboration Work, by David Straus (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2002.)

 

Course Requirements

 

This course will be built on engaging students in a collaborative learning process with each other, the Instructor, and guest lecturers. The course will seek to model the collaborative process. We will rely on short lectures, discussions, in class exercises and presentations, role-plays and simulations, and students’ own observations and reflections. Students must come to class prepared by having read and reflected on all the required materials prior to that session. Students should read the handouts and article for session one prior to the first class session and Making Meetings Work prior to the second session. Extensive use will be made of class simulations and exercises. (There will be a small charge for the materials for these simulations that will be collected on March 3rd.) Students are requested to make every effort to be present for these simulations in order to assure their success. Student participation will be the most important basis for grading and will be evaluated based upon attendance, quality of participation, and mastery of the readings prior to the relevant class sessions. In addition, all students are required to observe at least two collaborative processes being directed by the Center for Collaborative Policy during the spring semester. Students will be added to the Center’s notification list to receive regular information regarding scheduled processes and should notify the Center when they plan to attend. One of these observations will be for class on April 7th.

 

Students will keep a weekly three-page journal of their observations and reflections regarding public policy issues or contexts as they relate to collaborative policy-making based upon their own experiences, the reading material, and observations regarding current public policy disputes. A copy of the journal will be collected at mid term for review and at the end of the semester. The journal will be evaluated for grading purposes based upon application of the readings and class lessons in the entries and creativity in observation and reflection in applying insights to real world policy contexts.

 

The major student project for the course will be completion of a team project based upon a public policy controversy that could benefit from the use of one or more collaborative processes. Early in the semester students will self-organize into teams. The teams will consult with the Instructor to select a real world policy issue to propose for one or two collaborative strategies. Examples of strategies include:

  • Meeting planning and management
  • Negotiation and consensus building processes
  • Design of a public participation processes
  • Collaborative organizational learning
  • Analysis and management of a governance network
  • Design of a community collaborative processes
  • Building collaborative capacity of an organization

 Team papers should include: a summary of the policy issue and context, a discussion of why, when, and how a collaborative strategy is important; a literature review; a description and critique of one or two approaches in method; a contingency framework for thinking about the approaches or a synthesis of approaches (i.e., under what circumstances would these approaches be appropriate for use); a workbook of process guidelines; and a bibliography including websites. Team projects will be evaluated based upon completeness of the treatment, creativity in the application of the methods and strategies, quality of the written and oral presentation, and potential usefulness in a real world policy application.

 

The team papers will be presented during the final week of class.

 

Grading will be based upon:

 

  • Class participation   40 percent
  • Mid Term journal    10 percent
  • Final journal            20 percent
  • Team paper              30 percent

 

Outline of Topics

 

January 27th: Course Overview and Summary of Collaborative Policy-making Theory and Practice.

 

How to Make Collaboration Work, Straus, Introduction and Part I.

 

“Collaborative Policy-Making Theory Concepts,” Center for Collaborative Policy.

 

“Multi-Party Complex Policy Making,” Center for Collaborative Policy.

 

“The Power of Metaphor: The Elephant Zone,” Lee, Center for Collaborative Policy.

 

February 3rd:  Meeting Planning, Management, and Facilitation (I).

 

How to Make Meetings Work, Doyle and Straus.

 

February 10th:  Meeting Planning, Management, and Facilitation (II).

 

Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Kaner, “Alternatives to Open Discussion”, pp. 69-84. (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers 1996.).

 

February 17th:  Fundamentals of Mutual Gains Interest Based Negotiation.

 

Getting to Yes, Fisher and Ury.

 

February 24th:  Using Interest Based Negotiation in Public Policy Disputes (I)

 

“Stages of a Collaborative Process,” “Conditions Favorable to Initiation of a Collaborative Process,” and “Authentic Dialogue: The Conditions,” Center for Collaborative Policy, www.csus.edu/ccp/.

 

“Consensus Building as Role Playing and Bricolage: Toward a Theory of Collaborative Planning,” Journal of the American Planning Association, Winter 1999, pp. 9-26.

 

Consensus Building Handbook, Susskind, et al, “A Short Guide to Consensus Building,” pp. 3-57. (Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications, 1999.)

 

Consensus Building Handbook, Susskind, et al, “Conducting a Conflict Assessment,” pp. 99-136.

 

March 3rd:      Using Interest Based Negotiation in Public Policy Disputes (II). (Mid-term journal and materials fee due.)

 

March 10th: Using Interest Based Negotiation in Public Policy Disputes (III).

 

March 17th: Using Interest Based Negotiation in Public Policy Disputes (IV).

 

March 24th:  Spring Recess

           

March 31th:  Cesar Chavez Birthday: No class

 

April 7th:  Using Interest Based Negotiation in Public Policy Disputes (V). (Observation of a collaborative process by the CCP.)

           

April 14th:  Principles of Collaboration.

 

How to Make Collaboration Work, Straus, Chapters 2-6.  

           

April 21th:  Collaborative Leadership and Organizational Learning.

 

How to Make Collaboration Work, Straus, Chapters 7-8.

 

April 28th:  Collaborative Public Policy Network Structures.

 

“Perfect Fit or Shotgun Marriage?: Understanding the Power and Pitfalls in Partnerships,” Briggs, May 2003, www.community-problem-solving.net, pp. 1-21.

 

“Network Structures: Working Differently and Changing Expectations,” Keast, et al, Public Administration Review, May/June 2004, pp. 363-371.

 

May 5th:  Collaborative Public Participation Strategies.

 

How to Make Collaboration Work, Straus, Chapters 9-10.

 

“Public Participation in Planning: New Strategies for the 21st Century,” Innes and Booher, Planning Theory and Practice, December 2004..

 

 “The Question of Participation: Toward Authentic Public Participation in Public Administration,” Cheryl King et al, Public Administration Review, July-August 1999, pp. 317-326.

 

 “The IAP2 Public Participation Tool Box,” pp. 1-9 (handout).

 

May 12th:  Team Project Presentations.  (Final journals due.)

 

   

Supplemental Resources

 

Students interested in continuing to develop and apply collaborative policy-making strategies and methods should consider acquiring the following books for their future use:

 

Chris Argyris and Donald Schon (1996). Organizational Learning II. Reading, MA.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

 

John M. Bryson (1995). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Mark Buchanan (2002). Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks. New York:  W. W. Norton & Company.

 

Susan L. Carpenter and W.J.D. Kennedy (2001). Managing Public Disputes. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Sam Kaner (1996). Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.

 

David Straus (2002), How to Make Collaboration Work: Powerful Ways to Build Consensus, Solve Problems, and Make Decisions. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

 

Lawrence Susskind, Sarah McKearnan and Jennifer Thomas-Larmer (1999). The Consensus Building Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publishers.

 

 

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