The Spectrum of Engagement provides a helpful framework for thinking about how to involve stakeholders and the public in agency action or decision. The International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) developed the spectrum to help agencies determine their expectations for public and stakeholder involvement. With those expectations in mind, the spectrum can also help agencies communicate more clearly with stakeholders and the public about how they can participate in agency decisions.
Inform
To provide the public with balanced and objective information to assist them in understanding the problem, alternatives, opportunities, and/or solutions.
Promise to the public
We will keep you informed.
Considerations
The Inform level does not actually provide the opportunity for public participation. Rather, informing is simply the agency providing stakeholders and the public with information they need to understand the decision-making process.
Including this level on the spectrum reminds agencies that sometimes there is no opportunity for the public to influence decision-making. In such circumstances, simply informing them is the appropriate activity.
Informing does not mean trying to persuade or manipulate the public in any way. Informing is not a public relations campaign. Rather, at the Inform level the agency is promising to serve as an honest broker of information. The agency will provide the public with the information they need to fully understand the project or decision in a timely fashion.
Example techniques
Consult
To obtain public feedback on analysis, alternatives, and/or decisions.
Promise to the public
We will keep you informed, listen to and acknowledge concerns and aspirations, and provide feedback on how public input influenced the decision.
Considerations
The Consult level provides the basic minimum for public input. Consulting simply means to ask. The agency asks the public for their opinions and considers that input as it makes a decision. There is no dialogue or opportunity to work through differences of opinion. When consulting, agencies generally ask for input at set points in a decision process. Public input often takes the form of formal oral or written comments. Typical NEPA public comment processes with public meetings during scoping and public comment periods on draft and final decisions are examples of consultation.
Example techniques
Involve
To work directly with the public throughout the process to ensure that concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and considered.
Promise to the public
We will work with you to ensure that your concerns and aspirations are directly reflected in the alternatives developed and provide feedback on how public input influenced the decision.
Considerations
Involving means including stakeholders and the public in a more meaningful way than simply providing comments. At the Involve level, stakeholders and the public are invited into the decision process at multiple points. They are brought in from the beginning and provided multiple opportunities for input as decision-making progresses. There are opportunities to establish a shared understanding of the decision or action, discuss any questions, and explore differences of opinion. However, the agency is still the decision-maker. Involving does not convey an expectation of building consensus or providing the public with any sort of high-level influence over the decision. It does convey an expectation of two-way dialogue between the agency and stakeholders.
The agency goal at the Involve level is to work directly with the public and stakeholders so that their input can be considered throughout the decision-making process. The promise is access to decision-makers and the decision process, and the opportunity to both give input throughout the process and receive feedback on how that input influenced the decision.
Example techniques
Collaborate
To partner with the public in each aspect of the decision, including the development of alternatives and the identification of the preferred solution.
Promise to the public
We will look to you for advice and innovation in formulating solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.
Considerations
The Collaborate level includes all the elements of involving but goes even further by allowing the stakeholders to help define the decision-making process itself. Collaboration implies constructively exploring different aspects of a problem and differing opinions about solutions to find solutions that might not have been evident at the outset.
The Collaborate level can include attempts to find consensus solutions. However, as with the Involve level, the agency is still the ultimate decision-maker. Furthermore, agency personnel need to be aware of Federal Advisory Committee Act requirements for convening consensus-seeking advisory groups. Regardless, the agency needs to be explicit about the amount of decision authority they are willing to share.
As collaboration entails working closely with stakeholders to craft a decision process, understand various aspects of a problem, and/or determine and decide on alternative solutions, it can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. However, successful collaborations have the potential to generate creative solutions, provide meaningful participation, produce decisions that receive broad support, and ultimately make implementation easier.
Example techniques
Empower
To place final decision-making in the hands of the public.
Promise to the public
We will implement what you decide.
Considerations
At the Empower level, agencies share decision making authority with stakeholders and the public. As agencies are generally not permitted to delegate their decision authority, the Empower level is often not an option. Empowering serves as a bookend with informing to indicate the full spectrum of engagement from none at all (informing) to delegation of authority (empower). While agencies cannot typically empower stakeholders in relation to official government decisions or actions, agency staff may be asked to participate in processes where a private company or NGO is empowering others to help make a decision.
The agency goal at the empower level is to work with stakeholders to design and implement a process where the agency sits alongside others in a group decision-making process as a participant, not the decision authority. If a federal agency seeks to empower the public or stakeholders to make a consensus decision, agency personnel need to be familiar with the Federal Advisory Committee Act.