Engagement Abroad
John Sturrock Spreads the word about 2020 Group overseas, in the US.
I had the privilege recently of participating as a speaker in a session at the American Bar Association annual conference on Dispute Resolution in Washington DC. Our topic was Collaborative Governance for Public Crises. The theme was finding more constructive ways to engage people – decision-makers and others – in discussion and deliberation about the most challenging problems we face in the world today, such as climate change.
Some of the issues I sought to draw out for general consideration included:
- The need to identify and engage relevant and diverse groups
- Achieving a meaningful agenda
- Exploring multiple issues and options simultaneously and the need for skill and patience
- Having a good process and structure
- Working with situations where groups and/or individuals will never agree but need to be able to work together
- Avoiding drift and reaching practical outcomes or output
- Addressing superficial game-playing and getting beneath the surface where some participants may not welcome or want that
I was able to use the 2020 Group as an example of how we in Scotland are seeking to engage with individuals and groups across many sectors in Scotland in order to try and achieve our world-leading carbon emission reduction targets. I described the remarkable cross-section of groups and organisations involved, especially the convergence of business, communities, the public sector and government. The benefit of this type of partnership is not only knowledge transfer, but also the encouragement of new relationships within the group. These new relationships can help to promote behavioural change among individuals and also between organisations within the group. There is growing evidence that to achieve behaviour change we must go beyond simply educating individuals. The 2020 Group offers the opportunity to do that.
It was good to have this opportunity to tell a wider audience about the work of the 2020 Group and to demonstrate that we in Scotland are showing real leadership on this most important of issues.
