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Max Hardy

Max Hardy
Max Hardy works with leaders and organizations to achieve results through collaboration. He works as a coach, facilitator, process designer, trainer and strategic advisor.

Recent Posts

It's Time to Do Stakeholder Mapping Differently

Posted by Max Hardy on November 11, 2020

I’d like to offer another suggestion for improving the way we plan community engagement processes; stakeholder mapping. The classic process used is the 2 x 2 matrix of plotting stakeholders according to their level of interest and their level of influence.

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How Safe Is It to Participate?

Posted by Max Hardy on October 7, 2020

Something we don’t discuss much is the importance of the ‘do no harm’ principle when engaging the community (especially relevant now with the COVID-19 pandemic). Anthony Boxshall and I identified ‘people feeling unsafe’ as one of the key challenges to co-design. We rely on bringing together a diverse community of interest, but what do you do if alternative views are not welcome, or indeed people fear the consequences of participating and expressing unpopular or inconvenient points of view? This can be even more challenging than just ensuring physical distancing at this time

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Toward Robust Online Community Engagement

Posted by Max Hardy on March 18, 2020
Enough is being said right now about Covid-19. Yet projects are still being planned, important decisions are being made, and there are programs to be designed and implemented. Some community engagement methods, including deliberative panels, are not acceptable now due to the perceived risk of spreading infection. So, what to do?
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What is fashionable with community engagement? A blog about Citizens’ Juries, Co-design and Collective Impact

Posted by Max Hardy on April 19, 2017

With the more frequent use of citizens’ juries, and deliberation in general, it can be tempting to think such processes as the pinnacle of community engagement. I really, really enjoy designing and facilitating citizens’ juries, and have been promoting them since 1998. They not only demonstrate the wisdom of everyday citizens; they invariably strengthen democracy and build trust between the community and sponsoring organisations.

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