A working team

Creating a new company vision

ICA was asked to help design and facilitate the Alberta Futures Summit, a major public consultation process that engaged over 4000 Alberta citizens, community leaders, civil servants and members of the Legislative Assembly. The group created a vision for the future, articulated guiding principles, identified priorities and developed strategies and ideas for action. Major elements included regional consultations, compiling the input, a provincial Future Summit and creation of a final report.

Working with staff from the Alberta Community Development (ACD) department, ICA designed a process that trained 35 facilitators in ToP methods. The facilitators held regional consultations across the province over a period of six months. The regional meetings enabled local people to articulate their vision for the future of Alberta, determine major barriers to acheiving that vision and strategies to move toward it. The strategies included initiatives to be taken in all sectors of society.

ICA and senior ACD staff coached and assisted facilitators as they prepared for and conducted the public consultation events. ICA used the ToP Consensus Workshop method to facilitate the synthesis of results from the regional events. The 230 summit participants drew the local wisdom together and gave shape to a vision for the province.

ToP methods are enabling government departments and organization become more effective in their work and work in a collaborative manner. Governments are recognizing the need to reach out and engage citizens in providing input and helping shape the directions taken by government. This kind of work reaches far beyond the ballot box and enables people to participate meaningfully.