For the past twenty years, I've helped governments, non-profits, and community groups work better together through community engagement, strategic planning, conflict mediation, and leadership coaching. With certifications in community mediation, public participation, the Six Conversations, and compression planning, I enable organizations to navigate complex problems involving diverse constituents. Client groups use Design Thinking principles and communities of practice to co-create innovative solutions that resonate with staff and community members. I've just published a book that explores the transformative meeting methodology I've developed over 20 years. Humanizing Public Conversation: Building Trust and Cooperation with Your Constituents offers public engagement and meeting facilitation strategies that show leaders how they can foster a community where people meaningfully participate in civic life, where problems are seen as opportunities to come together and learn from each other, and where the quality of conversation inspires cooperation and faith that we can build a future that works for all.What will your meetings be like when you use the Humanizing methodology?Imagine a dinner party you dreaded attending because you didn’t know anyone there. But as soon as you step inside, the atmosphere shifts. The host welcomes you, introducing you to people who are genuinely curious about you, who listen deeply and who ask thoughtful questions. By the end of the evening, you feel seen, understood, and inspired, surrounded by newfound friends who appreciate each other’s ideas and embrace the possibilities of what can emerge from meaningful connection.The book’s public engagement and meeting facilitation strategies show leaders how to foster a community where people meaningfully participate in civic or work life. From Peter Block, author of best-selling books Flawless Consulting and The Abundant Community:"Jeff has created an important book that defines a path to our collective humanity. It is an approach not based on hope or vision, but on innovative practice. It offers a blueprint for how to plan and inhabit every room we have some choice over in a way that produces an alternate experience from our dividedness. It gives us alternative practices based on an alternative narrative. It declares that polarization and conflicting interests are just one story, one option. If we pay attention to the structure and conversations of how we come together, we can find new ways of connection and common good. A third way is within reach."