Practical tools to traverse environmental/public policy conflicts - Part 2
Environmental and public-policy conflicts rarely stall because participants lack information. They stall because facts, values, risk, identity, power, and competing visions of the future collide. As trust erodes, stakeholders argue from fixed positions, question one another’s evidence, and repeat conversations that produce more heat than progress.
This practical webinar will highlight a structured approach to help participants navigate the intersection of logic and emotion. Participants will be exposed to tools that make complex choices more transparent, inclusive, and workable. Each has been tested over decades in controversial land-use, infrastructure, environmental, and community decision-making settings.
Participants will learn how to frame an open-ended Umbrella Question; distinguish positions from underlying interests; recognize cognitive biases that distort risk and evidence; and use jointly developed criteria, decision tables, polling, and sensitivity analysis to compare alternatives without pretending numbers eliminate value judgments. The session will also examine joint fact-finding, “truth decay,” consensus testing, and practical techniques for breaking impasse while preserving neutrality and public trust.
A real-world case will show how stakeholders can move from competing preferred outcomes to shared criteria, expanded options, transparent evaluation, and implementable recommendations. Participants will leave with a concise process they can adapt to public meetings, advisory committees, collaborative-governance projects, and other high-conflict engagement settings.
This webinar is designed for public-participation practitioners, facilitators, government staff, consultants, and decision-makers who must help diverse groups make defensible decisions amid uncertainty, strong emotion, and public scrutiny without advocating for a particular party or outcome, and while keeping affected communities meaningfully involved.
Time Zones
- 01:00 pm - 02:15 pm Eastern
- 12:00 pm - 01:15 pm Central
- 11:00 pm - 12:15 pm Mountain
- 10:00 am - 11:15 am Pacific
About the presenter:
Sam Imperati, JD, is the Executive Director of ICMresolutions, a Seattle-based national dispute-resolution provider offering mediation, facilitation, decision-making, and training services. Sam is experienced at the intersection of policy, politics, science, business, and law. His multi-disciplinary approach combines classic facilitation with the result-oriented tools of mediation to help polarized participants reach agreement both upstream and downstream.
Sam has been a full-time ADR professional since 1992 and has managed everything from “Admiralty to Zoning.” He served as a Judge Pro Tem and taught public policy facilitation at UO Law CRES program, leadership at Willamette MBA, and environmental dispute resolution at Lewis & Clark Law.
2006 – 2026 Best Lawyers in America (ADR). 2026 edition “Lawyer of the Year” for Mediation in Portland, Oregon. Stand-up comedy winner!
During his free time, Sam plays “zone defense” against his four granddaughters and midfield on an Over-68 men’s soccer team, where movement is occasionally observed!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-imperati-jd-b5155b1/
Website: https://icmresolutions.com
