Rugby cement plant engagement stakeholder meeting

The meeting I attended on Tuesday evening was one of several with the intention of setting up a future engagement process. Unfortunately the recent meetings of this group have led to very little progress and as a result The Environment Council, who are a charity whose goal is to “help society deliver the best outcomes to the most challenging sustainability issues through ensuring we and others apply the right engagement strategies” have been invited to assist with setting up new ways of working. I found the exercise very interesting with highly professional facilitators trying to make progress in the group who up to now have been unable to agree on a way forward. Their approach was to avoid conflict by getting the participants to agree on a way forward “for now” under headings that people present “could live with”. While the meeting was very lengthy (4 hours!), I did feel that the basis of a way forward was provided. However it also seemed to me that while the Environment Council people were present, they acted as a driving instructor in a car with an inexperienced driver. The test will be what happens when the instructor leaves and the driver is left on his own.