Concept PaperCapacityBuildingforRoundtablesVer

• Title: Concept Paper Capacity Building for Roundtables
• Date: 11/30/2006
• IBCC - Doc Type: Program Planning, Budget & Contracts

DRAFT
C P
ONCEPT APER

B C IBCC R C W
UILDING THE APACITY OF OUND T ABLES TO OLLABORATE ITHIN AND

B V R

ETWEEN THE ARIOUS OUNDTABLE S

Revised as of: 30 November 20 06

Concept origin.
This concept arose from discussions between Eric Hecox of

Colorado DNR and Joseph McMahon of J.P. McMahon , a Colorado facilitation
LLC
This Concept

and consulting firm . Eric Hecox is the Manager of the Office of Interbasin Compact
Paper describe s

Negotiations. Josep h McMahon is a lawyer and P.E. who p articipat ed as a member of
Roundtable

the Brown and Caldwell team in the IBCC Technical Assistance proposal process.
support designed

to increasing
Discussions about the Round t able process suggested that is was possible , or perhaps

their capacity to
likely , t hat additional capac ity building assistance provided to the Roundtables would

carry out their
help the Roundtable s carry out their challenging work.

challenging work .

This Concept Paper was drafted by Eric Hecox and Joseph McMahon. Mr. McMahon

drafted Annex 1 – a tentative capacity building work plan.

Conce pt s ummary
.

The Roundtable s have been given a very challenging task , p articularly for an ad
?

hoc group assembled for a specific purpose.

The efficient and effective use of Roundtable members’ time is very important.
?

Some or all the Roundtable do not fully have the capacities needed for the task –
?

they have not been trained in collaboration, conflict management and technical
More ef ficien t

decision making .
Roundtable s will

A lack of skill can cause groups to fail in their purpose, waste time, encounter
demand less time
?

unnecessary conflict or achieve less than was possible .
from me mbers,

and produce
Capacity building – undertaken in the specific context of the challenges and
?

better outcomes
decisions they face – can improve the work of the Roundtables.

for the IBCC.
The capacity building described in this Concept Paper would be coordinated with
?

DNR, CDM, the se lected Roundtables and others . This effort must improve, not

interfere with, ongoing Roundtable work by DNR, CDM and others .

This Concept Paper does not propose independent training events because the
?

Roundtable members already have committed a great deal of time to this work .

Rather , the Concept paper propose s the training be undertaken in the context of

decisions the Roundtable s are now making – fitting into their existing schedule .

‘Learn by doing.’

Improving Roundtable capacity now may produce some succ esses that can be
?

More important
spread to other Roundtable s. ‘ Success breeds success. ’

than saving time

is the key goal of

Subjects of capacity building.
This intended c apacity building would include
improved

helping the Roundtables in the following subjects :
outcomes from

1. Effectively u sing i nterest based negotiations.
Roundtable

2. Improvi ng group communications and levels of understanding.
work.

3. Using technical assistance more efficiently and avoiding common battles over

‘my science is better than yours.’

4. Transforming unproductive conflict into productive.

5. Clarity and i mprov ement in decision mak ing.

6. Developing creative options to avoid ‘winner take all’ con flicts .

7. Avoiding common decision errors.