Concepts and Tools for Collaborative Inquiry and Social Engagement

This three day workshop focuses on the practice of collaborative inquiry and social engagement, drawing on the tools and concepts of SAS2 (www.sas2.net). The workshop is designed to strengthen skills in problem solving, stakeholder analysis, and assessing options for future actions, using innovative tools that are both rigorous and adaptable to a variety of contexts. Participants will learn by doing, applying the tools to questions grounded in their own individual or team projects and workplans.

The workshop is for people in the voluntary, academic, private and government sectors who are involved in:

• Multistakeholder facilitation
• Project evaluation
• Community-based research
• Workplace training and organizational learning
• Problem solving and strategic planning

• Mobilize people and knowledge from diverse sources;
• Ground thinking in real settings, leading to strategic actions and multistakeholder decisions appropriate to peoples’ goals and available resources;
• Choose the right tools, combine them with other methods and technologies, and design an inquiry that fits the needs of the people involved;
• Scale plans to fit the kind and depth of evidence, planning and participation needed to achieve the expected results;
• Make sense of complexity through the art of data gathering, analysis and story telling that inspires and persuades.