From the top: Fostering and demonstrating agency leadership's commitment to public engagement

Why should public engagement matter to public health agency leaders? How can agency leaders demonstrate their commitment to public engagement? These will be central discussion topics at this roundtable. Public engagement, a key component of the President's Open Government Directive, can be defined as the practice of actively involving the public-at-large and stakeholder representatives in group dialogue and deliberation to better inform difficult agency decisions. Agencies can benefit from incorporating public engagement into their policy-setting. Public input provides unique data and fosters trust and collaboration. But public engagement is challenging and takes time and money. How can leaders demonstrate to themselves and their staffs their commitment to a participatory decision-making process? Such a commitment is evidenced by 1) expression in a written charge to participants the value of obtaining ideas from others, 2) clarity about the purpose of the process, including the intended end product, 3) transparency about the steps in the decision-making process, and who will make the decision(s) when, 4) selection of a suitable, truly pending decision that involves difficult choices, 5) giving adequate time for participants to carry out the work, 6) provision of adequate resources to support the process, 7) active participation of key agency staff members, 8) written assurance expressed in the charge to participants to give serious consideration to the results obtained, and 9) an agreed-upon plan in advance of how the agency will communicate with participants after the consultation to give feedback on the decision made and the reasons for it.