Design phase
- Define the decision and the consultation's scope:
- What decision is being made? What is genuinely open to public influence and what has already been decided? Being clear about this prevents a consultation from becoming performative.
- Who are the affected groups? Map all stakeholders: primary (directly affected), secondary (indirectly affected), and marginalized (affected but least likely to participate spontaneously).
- Choose the consultation methods:
Public Consultations typically combine several methods:
- Online surveys: Wide reach, low cost, good for quantitative data. Risk: dominated by organized interest groups if not designed carefully.
- Public meetings / town halls: Allow dialogue and Q&A. Risk: dominated by the loudest voices unless facilitated actively.
- Focus groups with specific communities: Deep, qualitative input from particular groups (youth, indigenous communities, people with disabilities). Essential for reaching those least likely to participate in general consultations.
- Written submissions: Allow detailed, documented input. Best for organizations and expert groups.
- Door-to-door or community outreach: For reaching communities with low institutional trust or low digital access.
- Design for inclusion from the start:
- What languages is the consultation available in? What formats (written, audio, visual)? What support is offered for people with disabilities?
- Proactive outreach is required — a consultation that only reaches those who already engage with institutions reproduces existing power imbalances.
Step-by-step instructions
Announce and inform (weeks 1–2):
- Publish the consultation question, timeline, and how to participate through all available channels.
- Provide a plain-language summary of the proposed decision and its implications. People cannot meaningfully respond to what they don't understand.
Run the consultation (weeks 2–8):
- Keep multiple channels open simultaneously: online, in-person, and written.
- Run targeted sessions with communities identified as key stakeholders or as systematically excluded from general consultations.
- Respond to questions publicly during the consultation period — an FAQ that grows as questions are received builds trust and helps later participants respond more specifically.
Analyze responses:
- Code qualitative responses thematically. Quantify the distribution of views where possible.
- Distinguish between: frequency of a view (how many said it), intensity (how strongly held), and source (who raised it — particularly note views from directly affected communities).
- Document verbatim quotes that illustrate key themes — these make the final report credible and human.
Publish the results report:
- The results report must include: summary of who participated, what they said, and how it influenced the final decision. For each major theme raised, explain what was done with it.
- If a common concern was not incorporated, explain why — not dismissively, but substantively. This is where most consultations fail: they publish what they heard but not what they decided to do about it.
Materials
Platforms
For virtual sessions or collaborative documentation.
Practical recommendations
Define what "meaningful" means before you start. A consultation is meaningful when it can change the outcome — not when it produces a record of having asked. Define in advance: which inputs could change the decision, and how.
Extend the deadline for underrepresented groups. Communities with less institutional access need more time and more support to participate. A single deadline treats all groups as equally positioned, which they are not.
Beware of capture by organized interests. Online consultations are systematically gamed by organized groups who mobilize their members to submit coordinated responses. Weight individual responses with contextual judgment — 5,000 identical form submissions from one campaign represent one position, not 5,000 independent views.
Close the loop publicly and quickly. The longer the gap between the consultation closing and the results report appearing, the more the public concludes nothing happened with their input. Publish interim updates if the process takes longer than 3 months.
Never run a consultation on a decision that's already been made. This is the fastest way to destroy institutional trust. If a decision is already made, communicate it — don't dress it as a consultation.
Inspiration
- Urban planning: A city consults residents before redesigning a major public space, using a combination of online surveys, in-person workshops, and pop-up stands in the space itself — reaching people who would never attend a town hall but use the space daily.
- Healthcare policy: A health ministry consults patients, caregivers, and frontline clinicians before reforming a national screening program, discovering that the main barrier is not awareness but transport to testing sites — a factor invisible in administrative data.
- Education reform: A school district consults families and students before changing the school calendar, discovering that the proposed change to starting times disproportionately affects families who rely on older siblings for childcare.
- Environmental regulation: A regulatory agency consults affected industries, environmental groups, and local communities before setting new emissions standards — producing a final rule that is both more technically accurate and more politically durable than one designed without consultation.
Consulted sources
- OECD. (2022). OECD Guidelines for Citizen Participation Processes. OECD Publishing.
- Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35(4), 216–224.
- Rowe, G. & Frewer, L. J. (2000). Public participation methods: A framework for evaluation. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 25(1), 3–29.
- Fung, A. (2006). Varieties of participation in complex governance. Public Administration Review, 66(s1), 66–75.
