"It is better to debate a question without settling it, than to settle it without debate."
(Joseph Joubert)

Traditional research methods can illuminate how your communities think, feel and behave, given what they already know and understand. Greater insight can be achieved by engaging communities in a dialogue, by sharing your issues and challenges. With the focus on ‘The Big Society' the need to engage communities in the way services are designed and delivered becomes essential.

Newer engagement techniques, such as deliberative and collaborative events, can take you further by:

• Informing people about the issues you face.
• Enabling and empowering them to contribute to key decisions.
• Collaborating and creating solutions together.
• Involving customers in service re-design.
• Involving audiences in communications or campaign development.
• Bringing different communities together to achieve consensus.

We can design and deliver small or large scale interventions which will ensure local communities really can input into decision making in an informed and meaningful way. These activities can take many forms, including:

• Citizens Juries
• Workshops
• Deliberative events
• Collaborative and consensus building exercises
• Customer dialogue sessions
• Participatory budgeting
• Co-design and co-production exercises

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