Trained in impartial facilitation at CSU’s Center for Public Deliberation under Dr. Martín Carcasson. Response coding, analysis, and clear writing that turns what people said into findings a council or board can act on.
How Patrick facilitates
Framing the issue fairly
Before a room opens, the work is the framing. For CSU’s Week of Democracy he co-designed a process document on ranked choice voting, kept short and built to “summarize an issue and potential approaches to an issue in an impartial way,” strengths and weaknesses side by side. On the Center’s Design Process team he helped plan and teach a class session on reframing for new facilitators.
Asking the right question
Patrick reviews his own facilitation on video, intervention by intervention. One lesson: find the “questioning equilibrium.” Too broad and a table has nothing to grab; too narrow and it collapses into yes or no. Another: “get down to the personal, but not too personal.” Questions anchored in someone’s own experience draw out what general prompts don’t.
Making room for every voice
He tracks who hasn’t spoken, draws quieter participants in, and turns the floor away from whoever is carrying it. At an intergenerational dialogue with middle schoolers and older adults at the same tables, he used storytelling and called on each age group. At a table made up entirely of communication professors, he managed speaking time and represented voices not in the room.
Holding disagreement
His most politically diverse table was at an UnDivide Us screening in Estes Park, where school choice became the flashpoint. Rather than argue the policy, he asked what values people saw in it: one side named freedom, the other diverse spaces. He keeps the room respectful and makes sure no one feels pressured to agree, and pushes past easy consensus with the empty chair or devil’s advocate so a group tests its own assumptions.
Capturing what people said
Much of the work happens on paper. At a care-management event he ran three tables, paraphrasing and recording the points each group agreed on, which moved the conversation past the same few points. He has taken notes for Poudre School District’s Future Ready event, coded participant responses from a regional Housing Summit into themes, and run field interviews in Fort Morgan for the Rural Action Project.
Learning from every room
Each event is also data on the process. In Fort Morgan he saw how compressing a four-night process into three produced “a shallower conversation.” He coaches newer facilitators through practice sessions, and in training plays the difficult participant so they can practice handling one.
Tools you can use
A free, fill-in-the-blanks kit for running a 100-minute deliberative forum on any contested policy. The worksheet plans the event; the notes workbook captures it and feeds the findings back into the worksheet.
Word · plan the forum
Policy Forum Planning Worksheet
Purpose, goals, who should be in the room, roles, materials, a 100-minute run of show, three rounds of starter questions, themes to listen for, and a report section.
Excel · take the notes
Policy Forum Notes Workbook
One sheet for every table, one idea per row, dropdowns instead of typing, a two-minute table wrap-up, and a summary that ranks themes and agreement on its own.
Free to use and adapt. Credit appreciated.
