Lessons Learned for Structured Democratic Dialogue Methodology

A

• A structured participatory method like SDD helps participants converge their opinions towards a common vision and a common action plan;
• Achieve positive engagement with all types of local stakeholders including relevant government agencies, local businesses; regulators; NGOs, CSOs, researchers and citizens;
• Achieve success through multi-stakeholder engagement and consensus;
• Action and follow-up the co-defined action plan;
• Adopt participative methods tested in MARINA in other initiatives including stakeholders;
• Advocate on the necessity of creating specific funding schemes to support the development of the targeted sector based on RRI principles;
• All relevant stakeholders need to be involved in the process of developing sustainable tourism ventures within MPAs ). (this relates to strategic goal 12);
• Allocate a good part of the workshop for creating a clear common action plan;
• Analyze the impact of plumes and waste produced by Deep Sea Mining exploitation;
• Ask participants to state their workshop expectations because experience shows that some find the workshop and its partcipatory method intriguing, others were interested In how to develop a shared vision, some had an interest in being inspired and build networks;
• Avoid conflict through policies for ensuring that any supports are widely known, widely available and not exclusive;
• Avoiding "Groupthink" and the "Erroneous Priorities Effect": taking measures for the protection of the authenticity of all ideas;
• Awareness and education are fundamental in changing mindsets;

B

• Be aware of the motivational factor that workshop participants may feel because they like the fact that an interdisciplinary group representing all society's niches is invited to brainstorming for resolving the problem;
• Be aware that policy-makers are not easy to attract to a workshop unless they know the organiser personally;
• Be careful of possible competition of other events happening as the same time in the same city or on the same topic;
• Be flexible with the methodology adopted in order to finalize the process, even if not in the way you planned;
• Bring people and particularly the young on location where they can have transformative experiences that they will seek to relieve throughout their lives;
• Bring researchers from ‘non-conventional’ areas related to Deep Sea Mining;
• Build capacity through education by developing local and national programmes for secondary schools and outreach programmes through citizen projects utilising real-time data from monitoring equipment;

C

• Carefully consider the workshop's duration as many participants think that a one day-long workshop is too long;
• Changing customer demand requires attractive and sustainable products that provide unique and customised experiences;
• Choose a suitable method for the number of participants and the specific of the workshop;
• Choose your methodology considering your audience;
• Clarify from the start of any process or workshop all terms and acronyms so that all participants from various backgrounds understand them;
• Collect participant's post-workshop feedback focusing on the added value workshop points: the participatory method, the topic, the action plan, the common vision, the future participation options;
• Communicate broadly and raise wide awareness about the specific initiative to anchor change;
• Consider personal e-mails as the recruitment mechanism because it has been proven by far the most effective recruitment mechanism;
• Consider the impacts of any activity beforeconsenting which may require the deployments of monitoring technologies to facilitate monitoring and impact assessment;
• Coordinate all activities related to policy, planning and regulation in the best possible way to reduce conflict and help meet environmental, economic and social objectives;
• Create a friendly and relaxed workshop atmosphere for participants to have lively and open discussions;
• Create a seafood producers organisation in France to reduce the gap between the producers and consumers;
• Create an open access platform with all Deep Sea Mining data available including biological and geological information;
• Create an organized knowledge synthesis on Deep Sea Mining;
• Create funding mechanisms to promote RRI in research and innovation in the specific sector;
• Create higher awareness on technological achievements from challenging and cutting edge successful projects to attract skilled people to work in the sector;
• Create innovative tools to guide the consumers, thus inducing public and private stakeholders (including NGOs) to invest in more sustainable directions;
• Create platforms where industry and academic leaders can disseminate accurate and influential information which can be accessible by the general public;
• Create training programs targeting SMEs and investors by focusing on enablers and barriers;

D

• Dedicate the needed time to discuss and clarify the methodology and the agenda with the facilitator - and among the organizing group;
• Define a clear plan for the future engagement of the workshop's participants to keep the community active;
• Define a workshop triggering question that is short, clear and easily understood by all stakeholders;
• Define SMART common vision and actions towards a specific goal and project;
• Defining the Workshop's Triggering Question: What actions are needed from a policy, social / cultural, economic, technological perspective to develop the subject?;
• Develop a common vision and an action plan with a more narrow focus combining development milestones and follow-up workshops;
• Develop efficient monitoring systems and assess the environmental impacts of best/worst policy practice;
• Develop information exchange systems between government, industry and the universities;
• Develop real-time information systems, training activities and incentives to share knowledge and information for avoiding tendencies of local governments and businesses to downplay negative consequences;
• Disseminate research and innovation outcomes that have societal relevance for ethical acceptability;
• Distinguish between occurrences and resources, in order to know what exists and its potential economic value;
• During the recruitment phase, ensure the methodology has been clearly explained and understood, to avoid misunderstanding during the event;

E

• Each initiative on sustainable tourism products requires the right expertise (knowledge and skills) and institutional participatory processes that will support stakeholders' succesfull involvement;
• Educate all stakeholders about sustainable tourism sustainability to achieve socially and environmentally acceptable goods and services;
• Educate children on the importance of biodiversity and how to think about the environment responsibly;
• Educate citizens about the value of the sea in their daily lives is necessary to raise ocean awareness and literacy;
• Educate planners, civil society leaders, business industry to be more collaborative, responsible and exert place-based leadership;
• Educate the public at large in their individual role in marine conservation and sustainability (Public Engagement, Science Education);
• Education is necessary for the marine biotechnology development thus the need for developing university educational programmes on marine biotechnology;
• Email and telephone were the best communication channels for promoting the workshop;
• Empower citizens beyond data collection, in decision making and governance;
• Empower European citizens, business representatives, researchers and policy makers to take informed decisions on the high seas through science education;
• Engage government and law makers in order to make sustainable change in ports and ship;
• Engage researchers with the industry for the development of appropriate technologies since there is a discrepancy between the academia and the industry needs;
• Engage the public, involve governance bodies at various levels to generated ideas with ethical components, are sustainable, inclusive and of social justice;
• Engage young potential "citizen scientists" in schools to promote the issue at hand;
• Enhance coastal and maritime tourism by adapting to demographic changes, while maintaining the original vocation and atmosphere of the coastal cities;
• Ensure that the process of co-generating an action plan is concluded during the workshop;
• Ensure you have some big institutions newsletter to disseminate your workshop for recruitment and spread of the results;
• Establish cooperation among diverse stakeholders (researchers, innovative businesses, politicians and citizens) even when it's challenging;
• Establish transparent, efficient and effective democratic mechanisms amongst all involved and throughout all the phases to create trust;
• Explain at the start of the workshop the different phases that participants will go through;
• Explain RRI and innovation tools and how to embed them in policy agendas as participants find it useful;
• Explain the workshop topic in an inclusive, strategic and broad manner for involving all types of participants;
• Explain clearly the workshop methodology and how the outputs will be used at the beginning of the workshop and include some warm-up activity;

F

• Focus not only on high-level ideas, but also on required research and innovation actions needed to execute them;
• Focus on making a good enforcement of already existing legislation mechanism rather than reinventing one from scratches;
• Focus on RRI issues by prompting participants to talk more about how researchers can be enrolled in all actions generated and how other stakeholders can be useful to researchers;
• Focus the workshop on a topic relevant for the participants and related to their daily lives;
• Follow-up with all participants with the results regularly and engage them in post-workshop knowledge sharing and networking through an online platform;

G

• Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: a) simple, short title; one line describing the idea and one-two lines (minimum) explaining and clarifying the idea;
• Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: b) think who would be responsible for implementing the proposed action and how to engage the person or organisation;
• Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: c) timing (when could such an idea be implemented);
• Generate ideas for actions during the workshops by having: d) resources (how would the idea be implemented);
• Give tight bounds to participants about the shape of the contributions they have to provide, so they won't have other option than provide what is needed;

H

• Help the participants with examples to understand how to embed RRI principles when discussing a sector and societal challenges.
• Hook RRI abstract subjects to a topic related to participants lives and interests;

I

• Identify and invite the right number of participants representing all necessary science fields to create a viable action plan. Participant recruiting is time-consuming and must be planned well in advance of the workshop;
• Identify what are the society perceptions and knowledge gaps to be considered in future planning of Deep Sea Mining research and innovation initiatives;
• Implement innovative and responsive policies to face climate change effects and assure a balanced competitiveness, growth and sustainability of the maritime tourism sites;
• Implement RRI in real situations, with many participants proposing many actions, are not suitable with a one-day SDDP;
• Improve governance by defining a shared and common vision by involving citizens and business networks for clean and green industries to attract tourists and investments;
• Increase awareness in the use of raw materials and their importance on our society;
• Increase awareness in the youngest about the (local) marine issues to create a new generation of people that are aware of the problems and want to engage themselves, to take action also through a political career;
• Increase environmental and science education to promote societal understanding and participation;
• Increase knowledge on deep sea minerals occurrences and their economic;
• Increasing use of LNG fuel for ships;
• Initiate open access through public offices also to non-governmental stakeholders;
• Initiate target awareness campaigns towards all stakeholders through a specific media campaigns;
• Invest in communication campaign from professionals, work with marketing societies to translate the scientific results into clear messages that can reach in particular young people;
• Invite additional stakeholders and communities to join the MARINA knowledge sharing platform and direct them to the results and materials related to Deep Sea Mining;
• Involve a multitude of stakeholders and implement actions as widely as possible, even globally, in order for adopted policies and solutions to be as relevant as possible, resulting in more support to implement the changes by all sides;
• Involve politicians and municipality representatives in workshops to increase its effectiveness;
• Involving customers ranked the most favourable cluster with specific actions including the adoption of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) business model;

J

• Joined stakeholder involvement produces ideas with integrated and holistic focus requiring synergy and collaboration;

K

• Keep the workshop's duration short and engage an experienced facilitator;

L

• Learn about participatory methods and how to use them;
• Look for participants open to dialogue, but who don't usually interact with each other;

M

• Make environmental impact assessment mandatory for Deep Sea Mining within the EU;
• Make ports hubs of sustainability;
• Make sure that funding will be secured for action plan execution and workshop follow up actions;
• Make the high seas more visible to all stakeholders, the benefits for all and the issues at stake;
• Make urban planning and tourism development collaborative and democratic by involving citizens and business in envisioning urban futures and resolve negative environmental impacts;
• Mobilise stakeholders early in the process to develop viable and sustainable business models;
• Moderate the workshop with an experienced facilitator to avoid "Groupthink" and the "Erroneous Priorities Effect";
• Motivate to receive ahead of the workshop and on time the participants' action ideas and to attract participants from all stakeholders’ groups;
• Multidisciplinary research considering the sustainability vector is key;

N

• National and international organizations must balance economic profit and a competitive market with the goal of preserving the natural environment of our seas cannot;
• No actions tackled Gender Equality directly;

O

• Oblige companies by contract to use 10% of their investment in an investigation in engineering design for mitigation of Deep Sea Mining during all the operation;
• One day is not enough for SDD;
• Open access, i.e. giving free online access to the results of publicly-funded research data will boost innovation and increase the use of scientific results by all societal actors;
• Organise carefully the workshop phases for successfully meeting the objectives and for engaging all participants;
• Organise follow-up workshops by involving more decision makers to anchor change;

P

• Participants do not subscribe gladly to the platform, they don't have time and/or willingness to learn using another tool;
• Perform an analysis of publics' behaviours before engaging the public engagement;
• Plan well the participant groups so that all stakeholders are sufficiently represented;
• Plan well the workshop so that participants provide their ideas in an active way;
• Promote governance arrangements and practices to favour sustainable tourism and seafood consumption;
• Promote public engagement actions to raise awareness to the urgency of deep sea mapping;
• Promote scientific knowledge and professional growth which have a fundamental role in supporting innovative sectors;
• Promote the workshop through websites and a poster campaigns;
• provide a quality framework in which all stakeholders can work toward a solution thanks to a good governance;
• Provide Open Access to data for a proactive response to societal challenges;
• Provide the high-tier governance from governmental bodies for local initiatives to have the biggest impact;
• Push for cooperation among academic institutions and the industry as it is crucial;
• Push for governance and ethics to be required in business registration requirements for creating awareness on sustainability;
• Push for Sustainable Tourism policies to improve coastal and marine ecosystems, minimise pollution and create economic growth by combining efforts at national, regional and local levels and creating green funding schemes and incentives;
• Put in place a policy-oriented, holistic and integrated approach to tackle complex marine issues;
• Put in place an effective communication about greenwashing, so to improve the critical sense of the public against "fake" green activities;

R

• Raise awareness among pupils and students about environmental protection through informational programs as well as promote the specific sector as a means of employability;
• Raise citizen and business awareness about the environmental protection and sustainability;
• Reliable scientific information is not easily accessible for tourist and stakeholders of the tourism industry;
• Request the participants to state their “ideas” in the form of action statements in order to “push” them to think in practical terms;
• Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) can help to overcome the current marine and societal challenges and unlock the potential for Blue Growth;
• Run awareness campaigns so that the issue problem is clearly understood by all stakeholders;

S

• Science & Education and Open Access have a vital role in achieving success in the development of sustainable tourism ventures within Marine Protected Areas;
• Share data for a better cooperation and public engagement on the high seas;
• Start measuring and collecting marine scientific data on board different non-scientific vessels;
• Start planning at least 4 months in advance the organisation of a workshop as it is very time consuming task;
• Start specific economic changes (investment, taxation) to support the goal of efficient and sustainable ports and ships;
• Stream only the most crucial sections of the workshop, disseminate the streaming agenda;
• Succeed with public engagement through science education and open access in policy;
• Suggested actions were mainly focused on Science Education in sustainable development and marine resources management as a critical part of local culture and coastal tourism;
• Support local and international decision-makers in charge of evaluating if, when, how, by who and for what should Deep Sea Mining ever take place;

T

• Take measures to develop and further enchance the engagement and cooperation between different stakeholders;
• The absence of gender equality reveals a critical gap in access to opportunities and resources and decision-making power for women and men;
• The education of young people and the use of exchange programs between schools will lead to active citizenship respectful of the environment;
• The greater majority of actions relate to more than one RRI dimension; this shows that actions are multidisciplinary and involve multiple stakeholders;
• The SDD dialogue is a rigorous and efficient participatory methodology, but also time-consuming, leaving no time for the interpretation of the presented ideas in terms of their RRI dimensions by the participants during the workshop;
• The SDD method allows for integrating contributions from individuals with diverse views, backgrounds and perspectives through a process that is structured, inclusive and collaborative;
• The SDD method was evaluated as very well structured, inclusive, productive, scientific, interesting and dynamic;
• The ultimate aim should be to develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts and to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products;
• There is a strong need for redefining and refocusing the business model of tourism;
• To develop a sector, develop a legal framework to promote and regulate the development of the specific sector;
• To measure the workshop's success, define clear and achievable objectives;
• Translate the WS results in something short and friendly in short time and disseminate among the participants and others, not to loose momentum;
• Try to develop a stronger engagement between schools and the local authorities for the maintenance of basic infrastructure;
• Try to engage volunteer groups/stakeholders who use the sea on a regular basis;

U

• Use audience targeted communication for all types stakeholders that is engaging;
• Use both phone and email for citizen recruitment;
• Use citizen observatories through mobile phones to report pollution sites and inappropriate environmental behaviour;
• Use diverse communication channels (e-mail, telephone, face-to-face and word of mouth) for recruiting participants;
• Use of technology as an instrument to both monitor the regulations and to disseminate data in near real-time;
• Use the media to bring awareness to the society about the results from research and innovation;
• Use the SMART action format to ease the follow up of the workshop;

W

• While interpreting the results consider the location of the workshop: statistically most of the participants will come from the area where the workshop is held;
• Work together (science, law, economics, policy) to give advice on seabed mining issues;

See also...

Workshop Methodology