Dialogues on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review

Posted by: citizenserviceaward on: February 22, 2010

• In: 2010 Award Applications
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Question 1: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR), a comprehensive review of the entire homeland security enterprise. DHS employed a variety of methods to engage with stakeholders across the distributed, decentralized homeland security mission space, including study groups, literature reviews, interviews, and media interactions. DHS leveraged an iterative online collaborative discussion forum called the National Dialogue on the QHSR to further engage with stakeholders. Through a series of three public Dialogues, DHS tapped into stakeholder wisdom and expertise and incorporated their insights, expertise, and experience into the QHSR process.

Question 2: The National Dialogue on the QHSR was one of the largest, most complex stakeholder consultation efforts that the federal government has undertaken. Rather than set policy internally and implement it in a top-down fashion, DHS undertook the QHSR in a new and innovative way by engaging tens of thousands of stakeholders and soliciting their ideas and comments throughout the process.

To ensure stakeholder input could inform the QHSR in a useful way, DHS implemented a comprehensive outreach strategy with its partners, including the National Academy of Public Administration, that involved indentifying stakeholders within DHS, but also throughout government and in the private sector. Hundreds of groups were contacted that represented millions of people across the homeland security enterprise, from community groups to law enforcement professionals to policy makers. OSP worked aggressively to target these groups with vested interests in homeland security by encouraging stakeholders to spread the word and by reaching them where they already convened online. Social media played an integral role in reaching these citizens, as OSP and the National Academy leveraged social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and Ning communities to advertise the National Dialogue. However, as the universe of homeland security stakeholders is so vast, the National Dialogue was open to anyone in the public who wished to comment on the materials posted.

Through a series of three week-long, web-based discussions, stakeholders reviewed materials developed by DHS study groups, submitted and discussed their own ideas and priorities, and rated or tagged others’ feedback to surface the most relevant ideas and important themes that would further inform the QHSR study groups.

By engaging stakeholders at all levels, DHS was able to incorporate operational-level expertise and specialized knowledge into the review. By conducting a process accessible to all interested parties, without regard to their position or formal credentials, the Dialogue provided the opportunity to strengthen trust among homeland security stakeholders and create potential buy-in for later implementation of policies and priorities. The approach was validated by the engagement and participation in the Dialogue: During each dialogue, participants from all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and more than 1,000 U.S. cities joined the conversation from a variety of disciplines to provide input to the QHSR.

In an effort to be transparent and engaging, the National Dialogue allowed stakeholders from across the country to review, rate, and openly discuss the raw, unvetted materials developed by QHSR study groups. This approach carried significant risks and commitments. DHS’s sharing of draft, pre-decisional materials with thousands of stakeholders and citizens meant that it had to be prepared to hear and respond to potentially negative feedback. Moreover, conducting a review of this scope and importance so transparently has created the expectation that it is the first of many opportunities for stakeholders to offer their opinions on the nation’s homeland security issues.

The benefits of this engagement to DHS’s development of the QHSR were numerous. Dialogue participants, which spent an average of nearly 7 minutes on the site, contributed to the rapid improvement of the dialogue tool, leading to a more streamlined, productive conversation. Participants validated the need for standard terminology employed by the study groups, a desire for simplistic yet measureable goals, objectives, and outcomes, and a continued expectation of collaboration, interaction, and transparency in the future of DHS policy development. They offered insightful comments about critical concepts such as resiliency; achieving balance between security and the facilitation of trade and legal immigration; individual, community, and family preparedness; and the need to develop working relationships and partnerships. The participant’s insights validated and informed the work of the study groups, and were critical.

Question 3: Although it is difficult to measure direct cost savings to DHS, the National Dialogue on the QHSR provided incredible and perhaps immeasurable value by improving the decision making process that will guide homeland security policy for the next four years. By engaging stakeholders at all levels, DHS was able to incorporate ground-level expertise and specialized knowledge into the Review. And because the process was accessible to all interested parties, without regard to their position or formal credentials, the Dialogue provided the opportunity to strengthen trust among stakeholders and create potential buy-in for later implementation of policies developed by DHS.

The Dialogue also afforded many stakeholders the opportunity to participate in the conversation about homeland security that would otherwise be unaffordable or unmanageable for such a large group of people. Between the Dialogue’s initial launch on July 16, 2009, through its closure on October 4, 2009, more than 20,000 visitors came to the site, and almost 3,000 registered to participate. These stakeholders came to the site from all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and more than 1,000 U.S. cities. Engaging such a large, vast, geographically diverse community of stakeholders would have been cost-prohibitive if carried out through traditional means, such as conferences and town halls. However, using these innovative tools, OSP was able to engage these stakeholders in the development of the QHSR, build community, and increase transparency in a cost-effective, efficient manner.

Overall, more than 2,977 individuals registered to participate in the Dialogues, leaving 856 unique ideas, 3,174 comments, and 8,425 ratings. This input was used to inform the Study Group’s work in an iterative fashion, ensuring that their final recommendations considered the insights and perspectives of the homeland security stakeholder community. In these three National Dialogue sessions, DHS asked stakeholders to review, rate, and discuss the concepts, ideas, and draft recommendations developed by the six QHSR study groups. Overall, the extensive stakeholder feedback, along with insights from the DHS study group members, interagency partners and key homeland security Associations and stakeholders, continuously informed the work of the QHSR study groups. This critical input from homeland security stakeholders ultimately helped inform the final review and decision-making on the QHSR study group proposals.

The outreach strategy for the QHSR proved successful by expanding the ability of stakeholders to engage on these topics by essentially making them force multipliers for the study groups. Exceeding expectations of the participation goals for the Dialogues is only part of the story.

The long-term value of the National Dialogue for DHS was in identifying the homeland security stakeholder base and initiating a conversation among vested parties that will carry into the future; gaining lessons learned on how to best engage with this stakeholder group; and proving the value of collaborative technology as a resource to help inform government decision making.

DHS has continued the momentum for stakeholder outreach built in this initiative in its recent launch of the OpenHomelandSecurity discussion forum at http://openhomelandsecurity.ideascale.com.

Question 4: One of DHS’s critical goals for the QHSR was to ensure transparency of the process. To facilitate this goal, DHS used a variety of methods that included maintaining strict version control of documents, posting timely updated draft documents on the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) portal, posting weekly updates on the DHS Today webpage and hosting media events to provide progress updates on the process.

DHS implemented a successful outreach strategy for the QHSR by maintaining and sharing an up-to-date communications package of materials that included a current fact sheet on the QHSR, email and website blurbs, business card and flyer templates, and talking points. The dhs.gov website provided valuable information on the ongoing QHSR process, including links to participate in the National Dialogue. A meticulous review process ensured the highest quality documents were produced. All outreach effort was directed at driving interest to the National Dialogue website to ensure a data collection. See the archived results for all three National Dialogues on homeland security at http://www.homelandsecuritydialogue.org .

The outreach strategy included archiving lessons learned about the process designed to inform future QHSR efforts and other outreach efforts. Seizing the lessons learned and momentum generated from the National Dialogues on the QHSR, DHS recently launched OpenHomelandSecurity, a new online collaborative discussion forum soliciting citizen input on how DHS can build its capacity for public engagement. Members of the original QHSR outreach team are serving as advisors to this new initiative.