In today’s government, it isn’t enough to just communicate with citizens. Today you must listen, respond, take comments, put them to use and show that you are doing so. The Framework for Action will guide you to successfully create an action plan that results in effective, meaningful, and valuable citizen engagement. This workshop was given at the Social Media for Government Communications Conference in Washington, DC on February 13, 2012. It was facilitated by myself, Joseph Porcelli, Director of GovDelivery Engagement Services and Lauren Modeen our Digital Strategist.

1. GovDelivery
Discuss, Plan, Act, Evaluate
Framework For Action: How to Take Information Received From Citizens
and Solve Problems.
February 13, 2012
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2. Agenda
• Introductions / Housekeeping
• Purpose and Application
• Background
• Engagement Funnel
• Framework Overview
• Problem Identification
• 10 Minute Break
• Workgroup Exercises
• Report Back
• Prioritizing What Action To take On
• Evaluation
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3. Us
1:00 – 1:05 pm
Lauren Modeen Joseph Porcelli
Digital Strategist Director
Engagement Services Engagement Services
@Exilauren @JosephPorcelli
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4. All of us
1:05 – 1:20 pm
• First = Name 1. Introduce yourselves to four
people you don’t know as your
• Middle = Value
new name
• Last = Action
2. Ask them why they choose
their name
Joseph Courage
Communication
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5. Objectives
1:20 – 1:25 pm
Objectives:
1. Create a foundation of workability grounded in commonalities
2. Create a “safe environment” where asking questions is valued as much as
knowing answers
3. Address root problems and measure against objective-focused metrics
4. Create a likely-to-succeed action plan that builds trust and support
5. Manage expectations: “People rather choose than loose”
6. Have citizens take action that is meaningful to them and valuable to you
and produce a measurable result (in most cases)
“We are human beings having a human
experience through technology”
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6. Background
1:25 – 1:35 pm
Developed by teams of people in response to frustrating and unproductive
dialogue where problems did not get resolved. Lots of anger, finger
pointing, fear, AND no action.
WHY?
Poorly thought out meetings/experiences/online dialogues by organizations
NOT taking the time to:
− understand what is happening and what is important for whom? (i.e. what
are the values driving their views?)
− distinguishing problems from symptoms
− designing feedback/shepherding processes
• Where I’ve used this:
− Our Border
− SnowCrew
− Everyday
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7. Comprehensive Immigration Reform Group
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8. I’m right – You are wrong
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9. Yes we can….
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10. Discuss – Booker
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11. Plan - It snows in Boston too
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12. Act - Snow Crew: 2.0
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13. Evaluate - Snow Crew: 3.0
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14. Engagement Process Methodology
1:35 – 1:40 pm
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15. Discuss
1:40 – 1:45 pm
• What are the problems and • What strategies and tactics have
symptoms we are facing? been effective at addressing these
• What are good aspects of the current problems or opportunities?
system(s) that should be preserved? • What authority is needed and from
• Who are the key stakeholders who whom?
must be engaged? • What is our time-frame?
• What are the opportunities and • What are their short, medium, and
impacts that could be made? long term phase components?
• What are our values and what do we • What are our risks?
want to achieve and for whom? • What's in our control vs outside of
• How do we deal with conflicting our control?
values? • What are we assuming?
• What data is available to us that • What have we done similar in the
shows what is currently going on? past?
• Who or what organizations are • What can we build on?
currently addressing these problems
or opportunities?
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16. Plan
1:45 – 1:50 pm
• What are are we going to do?
• What resources do we need to support our action?
• What tools are we going to need?
• Who is going to support/managing the action we are
going to take?
• When are we going to take this action?
• How are we going to record action we took?
• What Key Performance Indicators are we going to
track?
• How are we going to acknowledge and reward action
and results?
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17. Act
1:50– 1:55 pm
• Do it
• Record it
• Report it
• Thank
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18. Evaluate
1:55 – 2:00 pm
• What did we actually get done?
• What did we get done vs. what we planned we do?
• If applicable, did we involve those with authority to
do the really important things?
• How did the getting it done go?
• What was the feedback?
• What can we learn?
• What do we recommend we do differently next
time?
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19. 10 Minute Break
2:00 – 2:10 pm
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20. Problem Identification
2:10 – 2:30 pm
1. Break into groups with people you don’t know
2. Each person Identify top 3 challenges
3. Discuss challenges with group mates
4. Groups select 2 challenges to work on (write
down on next page).
• 1 person serves as note-taker
• 1 person serves as reporter
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21. Workgroup Exercises
2:30 – 3:00 pm
• Group talks through questions for each problem:
− Discuss
Problem 1:
− Plan
− Act
− Evaluate
Problem 2:
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22. Group Report Back
3:00– 3:30 pm
Group Reflections - Each Group Report 10 min
• What did you learn?
• Was the outcome of this process different, if so
how?
• Will you adjust your approach, if so how?
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23. Prioritizing what action to take
3:30 – 3:50 pm
Order: Objectives: Desired Impacts:
(What want to accomplish) (What success looks like)
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24. Evaluation
3:50 – 4:00 pm
Strongly
Agree Disagree
Questions Agree
WORKSHOP DESIGN
The workshop objectives were clear to me
The workshop activities stimulated my learning
The activities in this workshop gave me sufficient practice and
feedback
FACILITATORS
The facilitators were well prepared
The facilitators were helpful
WORKSHOP RESULTS
I accomplished the objectives of this workshop
I will be able to use what I learned in this workshop
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25. Here to help!
Joseph Porcelli
Director, Engagement Services
Joseph.Porcelli@GovDelivery.com
857-222-4420
@JosephPorcelli
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