Our approach
"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
- John F Kennedy (1917 - 1963)
We see it as our job to drill down into the evidence base and establish the facts.
With the facts, proper action and policy can be formulated - without them, we can only be building on foundations of sand. This often requires a wider understanding of how delivery systems actually work.
We also recognise that perceptions must also carry weight and through our inclusive approaches and extensive networks seek to account for the full range of views on issues. Through this consensus can be built and a path to navigate can be plotted.
Case study
In October 2004 Beyond Waste was appointed by Buckinghamshire County Council to design and facilitate a stakeholder engagement process involving a high-level options generation and appraisal session for the long-term waste management contract.
We worked in collaboration with organisational change consultants The Art of Change [http://www.artofchange.co.uk/]. Tools and techniques including decision conferencing and multi criteria analysis were used to elicit views from participants, explore sensitivities and build consensus.
The output of this was a report, which identified key areas of uncertainty and areas of broad agreement. This then guided technical work undertaken in parallel to address key information deficits.