Theme 5 - Communication

Problem solving with the community

Reaching agreement with others can be difficult, requiring time and patience. Two important steps are:

• Defining the Issue
• Problem Solving

Defining the Issue

The issue needs to be identified and agreed on by those involved. There may not be a real problem. The issue may have been blown out of proportion by emotions. If there is a problem decide if it warrants formal problem-solving, or if it could be solved more simply.

Problem Solving

This focuses on creating options and finding common agreements:

• Get each party to identify their desired outcome
• Look for any common ground.

If there is none then:

• Explore what each party will settle for
• Get parties to identify positive and negative impacts of each option
• Identify the worse alternatives, and discuss the impact that implementing these options would have. This process often helps shift stubborn views
• Once you appear to have consensus, get everyone’s agreement to make sure there is no later conflict relating to the issue

The Centre for Rural Studies site gives an introduction to a problem-solving model

Here The Centre for Rural Studies offer twelve guidelines for consensus, decision making and problem-solving.