Dealing with a divisive issue or a divided community? We go beyond polling and focus groups to design public learning processes that build awareness, insight and agreement.

Inspired by the successful precedent of Canada's first Citizens' Assemblies, MASS LBP was created to extend this model to a wide range of issues and jurisdictions. From municipal to transnational, from within companies to their customers and publics, we work with visionary governments, corporations and organizations to build more people, more directly into effective and legitimate decision-making processes. Our methodology distinguishes us from more traditional forms of public consultation. Our experience has proven that the most successful public engagement strategies include real opportunities for membership, learning and consensus and we build these opportunities into the core of every MASS LBP project.

Our reasoning is simple. Membership in a distinctive public body helps to ensure ownership of the outcome. A robust learning phase that brings together experts, practitioners and experienced lay-people helps to equip members with the information they need to make high-quality decisions, converting public opinion into a richer kind of public judgement. A thorough process that combines membership, learning and the opportunity to build relationships and mutual understanding helps to make consensus possible.

MASS LBP processes can vary from a weekend-long learning process that produces new understanding and strategic direction to a year-long process that can reach difficult decisions with popular support and produce a clear mandate for public action.

Whether you need the input of an informed public or a dedicated decision-making body, MASS LBP can design a tailored process that combines our methodology with high-quality analytic research and a strong grasp of strategic communications to produce results that respects the public and delivers real value to your issue and organization.