Designing Community Engagement and Public Dialogue Using CMM

Join the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution as we welcome Public Dialogue Consortium President and Senior Consultant, Shawn Spano, for a webinar titled, Designing Community Engagement and Public Dialogue Using Coordinated Management of Meaning, on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at 11:30 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5). In this 90-minute webinar, Shawn will share insights and provide practical tools that have emerged from his years of experience consulting with community and government agencies and facilitating public dialogue using the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) as the applied theoretical framework. 

In the context of this important and urgent work of facilitating public dialogue, CMM prompts us to look at communities as complex webs of interconnected conversations involving residents, elected officials, and administrative staff. Bringing these diverse community members together to address issues of common concern (i.e. community engagement) requires careful attention and practical skills in developing processes that enable community members to express their views while simultaneously being open to hear the views of others (i.e. public dialogue).

Consider the following questions:

• What do community engagement practitioners need to know and do to facilitate public dialogue?

• How does this form of communication help community members develop a deeper understanding of the issues that divide them? 

• What are the practical tools that can enable community members to bridge their differences?

• How does the current climate of polarized politics and adversarial confrontation impede public dialogue?

• How can it open possibilities to build relationships and strengthen communities?

Shawn will address these questions by traversing across both theory and practice, offering a bridge between the two. He will demonstrate how community engagement practitioners can integrate CMM concepts into applied activities to improve patterns of communication in local communities. We seem to be at a crossroads in how people engage with each other in community contexts. We can continue to splinter and wall ourselves off from each other, or we can find a better way. This webinar will help chart the path to a better way.

We hope to see you there!

This webinar is the sixth installment in our ‘Communication Creates’ Series, where we explore theoretical and practical applications of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), with a particular emphasis on using a ‘communication perspective’ to make sense of what we are making together in our communication and how we can act more mindfully in our relating to co- create better social worlds together.

For free access to all 2026 monthly webinars and all past and future event recordings, you can become an Associate of the CMM Institute for an annual fee of $100 here: https://cmminstitute.org/join-us/

For more information on CMM, check out our Resource Hub here: https://cmminstitute.substack.com/.

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Shawn Spano is a Communication Consultant and founding member of the Public Dialogue Consortium, a non-profit group devoted to improving the quality of communication in public organizations and local communities. He has over 25 years of experience working with local city government and non-profit organizations, including multi-year projects with 10 different municipalities. Shawn is a specialist in designing and facilitating strategic-planning sessions, stakeholder meetings, team-building events, training workshops, public forums, and off-site meetings with elected officials, Board members, executive staff, middle managers, commissions and boards, and local residents.

In addition to his consulting practice, Shawn is an Emeritus Faculty member at San José State University, having retired in 2022 from the Communication Studies Department. He taught courses and conducted research in organizational communication, small group communication, and public dialogue. He has also conducted 12 organizational improvement projects with faculty and staff in different SJSU colleges and departments. Shawn was selected “SJSU Outstanding Professor” in 2000, and has published numerous articles and chapters, including the book, Public Dialogue and Participatory Democracy: The Cupertino Community Project (Hampton Press, 2001).

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Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Time: 11:30 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5)

Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)


Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)*

*We want everyone who is interested to be able to participate in this event. If the cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please do not hesitate to contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.