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March 28, 2005
Illinois' feedback gathering: a first step
A state government agency is taking a few steps toward creating evangelists: by creating a cause and soliciting widespread input on fulfilling it.
The Illinois Department of Transportation wants to reduce the number of deaths on state roads from 1,300 per year to less than 1,000 per year by 2008. That's the cause, and it's a good one.
The DOT is using another strategy in the evangelism playbook, too: Solicit widespread feedback on how to reduce the number of deaths. As this Chicago Tribune story declares, if you have an idea, the department wants to hear it.
But then reality hits: The DOT's idea gathering has been limited to a few summits with engineers and transportation industry officials. A good step -- if it were still 1980.
If the DOT really wants citizen involvement -- not just the opinions of transportation-industry stakeholders -- it should widen its survey circle exponentially. It should launch a web-based campaign that generates ideas, spurs discussion and, perhaps, conducts polls or votes on specific ideas. From the number of messages posted alongside the Trib's story today, there's no shortage of ideas, some good, some not, depending on your viewpoint.
And that's the point: How will the DOT finalize its plan? What transparency can citizens expect as ideas are discussed? Will the ideas it adopts be molded, shaped or discarded behind closed doors by industry lobbyists? How can citizens who are truly interested in this cause follow the program's progress toward fulfilling the cause?
There are precious few answers to these questions on the DOT's website.
The DOT's wish to include greater numbers of people in the process is great, but it simultaneously requires a higher level of transparency into the eventual creation and execution of its plan.
The congregation of citizens is smarter than the preacher, as the DOT seemingly recognizes, but it should give its congregation greater authority and accountability.
Then it has planted the seeds of evangelism for tackling bigger and bolder causes.
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