Facilitative processes can be applied to regional, countywide and local planning. Stansbury Resolutions assists the stakeholders and professionals in developing a sequence of planning activities in which people share new insights, overcome obstacles, and increase their respect for other points of view. The resulting plan proposals are most successful when the citizens and professionals mutually recommend them to the decision-makers, demonstrating both local support and technical credibility. Assignments have included cultural and natural resources, park system delivery, neighborhoods, communities, greenways, transportation, re-use water, wetland mitigation and tourism.

Organizations, agencies and communities benefit from developing a perspective of a better future, and the actions needed to attain it. As a prelude, shared history recalls major milestones of the past, while environmental “scans” and shared facts take stock of existing conditions, both positive and negative. Stakeholder-based photography, character mapping, worksheets and other non-meeting techniques help to reveal desired changes. A mission may be reaffirmed or replaced. Visioning then develops a graphical and text-based visualization of what the most desirable future looks like when the mission is achieved. Major themes and priorities are extracted for policy development and strategic action. Strategic planning offers the best tools for implementing an adopted vision. In some cases where stakeholders are skeptical or apathetic, it is preferable to have these tools in place before developing the vision.

A vision in the absence of action is too often just a dream. It is a beginning, not an end. Strategy development brings stakeholders and professionals together to develop integrated actions that often cross sectors, departments or other organizational boundaries. Every strategy needs to be accompanied by clearly defined indicators of success so that those carrying out and monitoring the efforts can measure the results over time. Annual action plans then incorporate specific tasks, resource allocations and targets.

Leaders often need to take a fresh look at where they have been, are now, and wish to go in making their organizations (and their own roles) a success. They may be appointed or elected councils and commissions, professional advisors, or representatives on non-profit boards. Taking stock, examining trends and uncertainties, and identifying desired results and priorities allow leaders to develop a consensus on the “what and why?” questions for the short and long term future. These are then delegated to professional staff to answer the “how and who?” questions.

Facilitators need to be experienced and well-trained. Assignments often call for a team approach, and for budgetary and career development purposes, we often train local staff and volunteers to facilitate small group meetings. Building consensus requires three things – good process design, neutral listening and distillation skills, and facilitation techniques. Stansbury Resolutions' training incorporates all three to develop staff skills in a role-playing setting.

Stansbury Resolutions also contributes papers and presentations to audiences seeking information on case studies of projects relevant to their own situations.

Organizations often establish citizen or staff-based committees and task forces to grapple with important issues and make recommendations. In the absence of clear mandates, scopes and schedules, these teams can flounder. Even when the mission is clear, personality clashes and private agendas can intervene. Stansbury Resolutions assists by identifying the desired results and mandate of an effective committee (before it is established) and by fostering a balance of assertiveness and cooperation. Numerous facilitation techniques include desired results visualization, group priority setting, idea writing, and obstacle anticipation. Topics have included budget preparation, information technology, city charter review, design charrettes, transportation project priorities, affordable housing and other policy focus groups.

Stansbury Resolutions helps participants to distill “action tracks” from complex inputs, using diagramming to illustrate relationships. For example, public inputs can produce a daunting number of themes that seem disconnected. These can be translated into integrative concepts, with specific desired results and principles leading to strategies, accountabilities and success indicators. Stansbury Resolutions embraces teamwork, and often coordinates professional staff and consultants who focus their talents and add value, showing how to expand the community's or organization's toolkit to get things done.