Find the right representation and balance between types of participants
Whether composing a participant list for meetings, events, or workshops, balancing the representation of all voices is crucial. Ensure that all angles are covered and all (local) voices are taken into consideration.
Balancing the right representation concerns e.g. including a variety of different professions, different citizen groups (culture, age, ethnicity, vulnerability), different skill sets, different mandates, and ensuring incorporating different perspectives into the journey. According to this, different approaches, methods, and formats for voicing opinions and expressing feelings thus also need to be taken into consideration.
Include the willing and able as well as the 'unusual suspects'
A broad representation can help anchor your initiative and secure a more nuanced and fruitful outcome. This requires an explicit focus on how to include those usually not represented. Either the ones who are never asked to join or those who never show up.
The key is to actively target the “unusual suspects” and insist on including them. Understand that you need to reach different people in different ways. Some might need a handwritten letter to receive the message, whereas some might need to bring and feed their children when attending a workshop. Even when it seems difficult, you will often be positively surprised when bringing these types of actors in.
Bring forth and integrate deep knowledge expertise
The success of activities can in many cases be attributed to the inclusion of experts from e.g. biotechnical, architectural, and biodiversity fields. Experts such as botanists are an example of valuable but often overlooked expertise. Ensure a diverse professional and technical representation. Engaging deep knowledge experts generates positive responses from other stakeholders in the green transformation process.
Ensure power for the next generation(-s)
Remember who we are doing this for. Involving and building capacity in the younger generations is crucial in circular transformation processes. Involving young people can help them establish a new language, gain agency, and let them create a voice of their own.
Inviting young pupils into the co-design processes opens doors to rethinking design and tendering. Teenagers and young adults have proven to be excellent ambassadors for biodiversity. Furthermore, children's imagination can be a great resource to catalyse our collective imagination.
Give voice to all - humans as well as non-humans
Our planet calls for a multispecies perspective. For years, a design-driven approach has been a human-centred approach but in our time and era, we need to go beyond the human perspective and put a much bigger emphasis on the species we share this planet with.
One might argue that nature as such will speak in powerful ways - whether humans listen or not. All voices count and it requires time, effort, and designerly and artistic approaches to listen to all voices and gather and systemise all input.
Eliminate current and unhealthy power structures
Be aware that even with the right balance and representation of people (and non-humans) in the room, unhealthy power structures can be present and dominate in a way that prevents a fruitful and democratic process.
Find ways to identify this and put effort into supporting the ones in the room who do not speak their mind because they might feel less important or like their perspective is not as important and valid as others.
Create agency and empowerment
Everybody is an expert in one way or the other. Thus, everybody can contribute. Keep this in mind and be aware that it is time and resource-consuming to engage stakeholders and communities.
Citizens and stakeholders are different, so they require different approaches and methods to engage. Also, do not just engage and then let go. When engaging citizens in transformation processes, remember to provide feedback. It is essential to acknowledge this and allocate resources for recruiting, engaging, and providing feedback.