|  What They Are
|
|
If an agenda is never brought out openly,
it is a hidden agenda . Hidden agendas which
cannot stand the test of public scrutiny or are counter to a
professed agenda pose problems for the decision process as they
embody the antithesis of public policy and open decisionmaking.
Your own agendas need to be explicit. If you find yourself
promoting a hidden agenda, change it to an open agenda as soon
as possible. Otherwise, your logic process will be flawed and
the program will fail--taking you and your motives with it.
|
|
| What They Do
| 
|
| Hidden agendas are the lurking land
mines of the decision process. |
| |
|
|
Hidden agendas can:
- Disrupt the decision process
- Thwart or skew analyses
- Preselect an alternative without a thorough evaluation
- Redirect the decision process after the decision has
been made
- Create loss of credibility
- Sow mistrust among key parties
- Result in lawsuits, funding withdrawals, and public conflict
- Risk nonacceptance or even noncompliance with other agencies,
policy, legislation, and regulations
|
|
| What To Do About This
| |
| Agenda Myth-Truths
Sometimes, participants may be convinced that there
is a hidden agenda when everything is above board and
open. Others may be sure that something sinister is afoot
because they can't accept or don't understand internal
and external changes in the process
(e.g., Reclamation's role and mission). To dispel these
myth-truths, you may need to clarify actions and decision
factors, explain the analyses,
or reevaluate the process. |
| |
|
|
Keep checking for hidden agendas by watching
for counterproductive actions, unexplained inactions, or conflicts
and reversals in policy, actions, or statements.
If you suspect a hidden agenda (either internal or external),
first validate that perception by asking concise, direct questions.
Then examine past and current actions to see if results diverge
from the professed agenda. These explanations will probably
reveal the real concerns, and you can then address those concerns
as you would any other agenda or political
concern.
If you still feel that someone is refusing to provide a
rational explanation and continuing to hide an agenda, you may
need to speculate on what that agenda might be and work around
it. You may be able to:
- Bring the agenda out.
- Some tools, such as devil's advocate, trading cards,
ranking techniques, Pareto charts, and issue maps, may be
useful in bringing agendas into the open.
-
- Show the implications.
- It might be possible to show the inherent dangers within
a hidden agenda and, thus, lead participants into an open
process.
-
- Develop broad-based support.
- If the hidden agenda centers around a special, specific
interest group, developing broad-based support for the study
process and the solution may diffuse the agenda's impact.
-
- Meet the underlying need.
- Sometimes, hidden agendas themselves hide deeper, more
basic objectives, which may be met in other ways. If you or
the agenda maker can express these deeper objectives, then
ways to meet these objectives might be developed.
-
- Plan around it.
- Determine how many resources (time, energy, money) the
individual is willing to invest
in the hidden agenda and plan your actions accordingly. Determine
if you need to put the process on hold.
Be careful, however. This may lead to second-guessing the
process and may confuse issues even more than the original
hidden agenda did.
|
|
Hurdles
Agendas
Conflict