ABSTRACT
This artide makes the ease, based on the authors' observation of and participation in stakeholder-based consensus building, that processes that succeed in producing breakthroughs and innovative ways.of resolving policy conRiet proceed de facto through role playing in wh ich participants play out scenarios and take on different roles. This approach, whieh is much like the eooperative role-playing games that have recently gained worldwide popularity; aHows participants seeking consensus to eonsider strategies that are not normaHy acceptable to their agencies and constituencies and to cooperate in a way that is stimulating and encourages their genuine engagement. Participarits create packages of recommended actions not through goal-directed analysis, tradeoffs, weighing eompeting evidence, or taking moral positions, bur through collaborative bricolage ortinkering. That is, participants bring to the dialogue the experienees, ideas, methods, and scenarios thattheycan imagine and then jointly piece [hem together co create a strategy on which all can agree. The process itselfis simply and foremost one of learning, whieh transforms participants' previously held eonvietions and helps thern to develop new shared meanings, purposes, and innovative approaehes to otherwise intractable issues.
