| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Informed Consent | The grudging willingness of opponents to ... grudgingly ... go along with a course of action, that they – actually – are opposed to |
| Values | Likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, fears, strong beliefs, prejudiced, etc. ... some of which surface primarily in the form of emotions oValues are the primary drivers of an interest’s decision-making. |
| An Interest | An entity with a unique set of values ... such as: an individual, a group of individuals, a corporation (for profit or not-for-profit), an institution, another agency, another official (in your own or in another agency) |
| Your PAIs | A PAI is an interest who: 1. IS impacted by what you’re doing, 2. or, THINKS that he/she is impacted by what you’re doing, 3. or, WANTS to – or NEEDS to – be involved for some OTHER reason Your Potentially Affected Interest constitute your project’s public A PAI is almost the same as a Stakeholder (the difference: PAIs includes interests 2. and 3. above, although they don’t really have stake in your project and therefore, are – strictly speaking -- not Stakeholders" |
| PSing | Problem-Solving There are many different Problem-Solving processes that people use. We make a lot of use of the 16 minimum ingredients that are part and parcel of any reasonably rigorous Problem-Solving processes. |
| DMing | Decision-Making The making of choices ... from alternative options |
| The Status Quo | The way thing are now ... as compared to the way things used to be in the past ... or the way things will be in the future |
| The Status Quo-Ante | The way things were ... JUST BEFORE |
| The Null-Alternative | Is defined as: That sequence of events that ... most likely ... will come to pass if no workable solution is implanted. When you’re trying to convince some PAIs of a serious PROBLEM – one that they just cannot see, but is obvious to you –it’s usually because you perceive a Null-Alternative (i.e. an entire SEQUENCE of likely events) that they don’t see. |
| The Worst-Case Scenario | This is VERY different from the Null-Alternative. Only in unusual circumstances is the Worst-Case Scenario a serious planning consideration while the Null-Alternative is ALWAYS the future we’re trying to avoid. Definition: The Worst-Case-Scenario is THAT sequence of events the WILL come to pass if, ALL of the things that could possibly go wrong, DO go wrong. Locating and operating a nuclear power plant is ONE of those rare planning situations where one NEEDS to consider the Worst-Case-Scenario. |
| Issue... (as used in the PAIs/Issues Matrix) | An ISSUE is an unambiguously stated: fact, fear, fancy, perception, misperception, impression, accusation, lie, rumor, misunderstanding, newspaper headline, Etc. An Issue needs to be specific, unambiguous. A gimmick for writing it down in a way so it is NOT open to different interpretations is this: Write the Newspaper Headline– that, you feel, may be written about THIS issue sometime in the future. Write the entire sentence or phrase of the predicted headline. |
| Meta-Process: | A process for designing, or re-designing, or augmenting a PROCESS – rather than an OBJECT. |