CBI Case Studies

CBI assists twenty-six stakeholders to reach agreement on the restoration of the urban lower Neponset River in Boston, Massachusetts.

CBI is working on a holistic approach to community planning and development with residents, local businesses, non-profit organizations, and municipal and state agencies in three Rhode Island communities. Initiated by Rhode Island Housing, a quasi-public agency that focuses on critical housing issues in the state, KeepSpace is a new approach to planning for and directing investment that supports communities where neighbors meet, people work, and children play.

At the request of a Colonel of the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Washington, CBI developed and delivered specialized negotiation training to the Brigade. The training program covered topics ranging from the basics of interest-based communication skills to approaches to negotiating with civilian and development counterparts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2009, the New Castle County Executive (Delaware) and several private parties engaged the Delaware Public Policy Institute and Consensus Building Institute to convene a policy dialogue on improving the County’s application and permitting process for land use and development.

As part of the Borderlands Project’s exploration of how to balance development and conservation in the rural CT-RI border region, the Village Innovation Pilot (VIP) engaged two towns in creating and implementing a vision for their future. Guided by technical experts and local pilot teams, residents participated in visioning and planning exercises to explore how to preserve a meaningful sense of place (the “heart and soul” of the communities) by integrating new development into town villages and centers.

In June 2006, the City of Albuquerque released a draft plan for redeveloping a four-mile stretch of the North 4th Street transit corridor. A contentious public debate immediately ensued as residents and merchants responded with conflicting concerns about the plan and the City’s planning process. Following the City’s unsuccessful attempt to facilitate an agreement, the City Director of Redevelopment invited a consultant team from Consensus Builder to work with merchants and residents to assess and resolve the conflict.

In 2003, developers in the dense city of Somerville, MA presented a plan for a former industrial brownfield site, prompting neighbors’ concerns about adding new units and traffic to an area already troubled by congestion and air pollution. The community’s resistance stimulated the interest of municipal officials, who soon initiated steps to learn more about the community’s concerns related to the site. The City held off submission of development plans and asked the potential developer to fund a community input process to explore issues of community concern.

Prompted by local officials’ hopes to revitalize Durham with a new “village center,” a private land owner invited the town to “develop its vision for the future” of his central downtown property. CBI's Patrick Field helped the Mill Plaza Study Committee and AIA150 team structure their collaboration with a formal Work Plan and guidelines for their consensus-based partnership, including standards of transparency related to members’ personal interests in the redevelopment.

WPP Group, a company made up of over 300 marketing media and marketing agencies, found itself under increasing pressures from clients and their procurement consultants. Based on confidential interviews with top executives, CBI initially provided a careful assessment current practices and opportunities for improvement. We then created a two-day tailored workshop that was given a dozen times globally to over 500 top executives from across the agencies. In addition, we helped an internal coaching team inside WPP to develop its own training and coaching capabilities, reaching more than a thousand additional managers. Thanks to CBI’s intervention, WPP negotiators have reported not only increased confidence and satisfaction with the negotiation process but also increased ROI:  from five cases alone, savings of close to a million dollars were attributed to new learning.

Each year since 2004, CBI has provided training in the Mutual Gains Approach to Negotiation (MGA) to leaders across McDonald’s U.S. Regions. Although corporate and franchisee interests are often well aligned, in some cases their interests differ, and conflicts sometimes arise in implementing new operational initiatives.

From June through August 2008, CBI led a Participatory Stakeholder Evaluation of the main community engagement strategy of the second-largest oil producer in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. Representatives from Niger Delta communities, Nigeria’s government, local non-profits and Chevron Nigeria Ltd. jointly designed and conducted the evaluation in a process facilitated by CBI. The evaluation produced credible, public information about Chevron’s engagement strategy ahead of a renegotiation process that began later in the year between the company, the communities and the government.

The Governor of Delaware determined the need for identifying predictable sources of funding for both wastewater and stormwater and, within that statewide need, addressing regional differences in both needs and resources. With the assistance of Lt. Governor John Carney, Chair of the Livable Delaware Advisory Council, the Governor’s Office, and DNREC staff, DPPI organized and convened a policy dialogue of stakeholders from across the state.

CBI staff facilitate annual strategic planning for a new national network of organizations that provide affordable housing in perpetuity, the Community Land Trust Network.

Facing the possibility of a proposed five-turbine wind farm on Little Equinox Mountain in Manchester, Vermont, the Orton Family Foundation initiated a citizen engagement process to explore citizen’s interests and concerns regarding the proposed wind farm. Over a period of four months, the Consensus Building Institute guided a team through an intense planning, issues exploration, and public outreach process, which included four-topic specific information sharing meetings and culminated in a day-long Wind Summit.

With contracts providing two-thirds of Vermont’s electric power beginning to expire in the next four years, the future source of Vermont's electricity was open for examination. To help the state engage Vermont’s citizens in discussions about their energy future, the Consensus Building Institute and Jonathan Raab Associates helped lead a statewide public engagement process. Over 700 citizens participated in the workshops which included presentations, facilitated discussions, key pad polling, and public comment.