Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 87

Practice Issues

Cultural competence
What is also less openly discussed is the aspect of cultural sensitivity and
competence. This is especially pertinent in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural
country with a growing range of culture s and views. Cultural competence,
which underpins the use of spaces and mechanisms to enable sharing and
co-existence, is a core skill for designing participation and involvement.
There is training available for cultural competency and such training can help
achieve designs for participation in an environment that has increasingly
diverse views and perspectives.

Appropriate type of feedback flow
Feedback is yet another word that is closely linked to participation. In
designing any engagement, it is necessary that practitioners map out the
different types of user feedback and how they might be useful to the project.
Feedback that is two-way is often more useful as it enables discussion and
clarification between users and decision makers. Planning what feedback is
to be collected and how they will be used will allow the appropriate types
of feedback flow to be organized. This will reduce the common frustration
of users who often feel that their feedback goes into a black hole and that
there is no closure of what is shared.

Information Gathering and Analysis
A common ranking exercise is the use of sticky dots to vote. This is an
exercise used in the town hall type of gatherings to assess the perception of
participants on issues, solutions and/or actions. While this serves as a quick
way to sense energy and participation, the follow up needs to be more
rigorous in terms of validating and analysing data and information before
determining the final approach. For each step in the implementation of a
project, we can ask the question ‘who is best involved and how’.

Translating and Communicating
While participation is a common desire, there needs to be efforts to
bring evaluation and research findings to users and providers in a more
accessible way. We often hear about the need to do research and conduct
evaluation. However, it is rare that we see the intentional application of
existing research or what is already known. This is important and this is what
knowledge translation is about. It describes an active, multi-directional flow
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