One way to build a consultation document is from the ground up – reviewing the source documents, thinking about the topic and drafting the supporting content before landing on the central questions for the document.
But another way is to focus on getting the options right first, and then doing the targeted research to ‘backfill’ the document with supporting information. That’s the approach I’ve followed with my consultation tools.
The fictional scenario I used for testing the tools was a council exploring options for a kerbside food waste collection.
Consultation Tool 1: Issues and Options
I provided this fictional context: the council subsidises compost bins and bokashi systems but even with a very effective education programme, there was a limit of around 25% of households who were processing their food waste at home. For this reason, there was a commitment in the Waste Minimisation and Management Plan to investigate options for a centralised collection and processing system for a township of 20,000 people. The key tension was whether to make the kerbside collection service universal or user pays, given that up to 25% of households wouldn’t need the service.
The tool came up with five possible options which gave me something to respond to, and adapt. This is what I arrived at:
- Option 1A: Weekly collection funded by rates
- Option 1B: Fortnightly collection funded by rates
- Option 2A: User-pays weekly collection
- Option 2B: User-pays fortnightly collection
These options covered the two key variables of funding approach and service level.
The tool also helped me identify that I needed to include details about likely participation rates and cost implications of each option to enable the community to give meaningful feedback.
Consultation Tool 2: Structure and Outline
With my issues and options defined, I moved on to the second tool to build the document structure. I had the option of uploading a good example, but I didn’t have one, so I asked it to start from scratch.
The tool initially suggested a thorough seven-section structure. But when I explained that I would like to get to the questions much more quickly, the tool responded well, condensing three introductory into a much shorter ‘Introduction and Overview’.
Key finding: The AI tools may suggest more comprehensive structures than are useful to you. You need to decide what your specific audience actually needs, rather than assuming AI knows best.
Consultation Tool 3: Review and Improvement
Part 3 of the process is to improve my draft outline. This led to adding notes about visual elements (photos of food waste bins and composting processes being used by other councils) and clearly identifying a preferred option.
This tool provided detailed feedback on each section. The ideas for an ‘Analysis and Considerations’ section to follow the presentation of options was particularly helpful. This was the best place to discuss the important but detailed matters, including trade-offs between options, what we had learnt from other councils’ experiences, and plans to overcome concerns that might prevent people from using the service.
Consultation Tool 4: Feedback Questions
The fourth tool generated draft questions for the feedback form, and this is where I discovered gaps in my thinking.
I knew I needed to ask people their preferred option. But Tool 4 suggested a much more comprehensive approach.
Questions the tool suggested included:
- What’s most important to you in a food waste collection service? (E.g. cost, environmental benefits, convenience, collection frequency, universal availability and/or odour management.)
- How do you currently manage food waste at home? (E.g. general rubbish, home composting, worm farm or bokashi).
These additional questions would help council staff understand what people want, why they want it and what barriers might exist.
Summary
These tools won’t write your consultation document for you. What they will do is help you think through what you need to include and identify gaps you might have missed, and potentially ask better questions.
Instead of spending hours researching and drafting before you know what you’re really asking, you can use these tools to quickly establish a solid framework, so you can complete more targeted research and complete your consultation document in fewer drafts.
Keen to Try the Tools?
If you think these tools might be useful for your own consultation project, you can:
- Try Tool 1 for free and see how it helps you develop clear issue statements and options for your specific topic. Here’s the link to Consultation Tool 1: Issues & Options.
- Find out more about the full set of tools for Consultation Documents.
