ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING
BIG LEAGUE COMMUNICATIONS | FOCUSED
PROBLEM SOLVING
A wide range of subject matter is covered in WPC's environmental consulting practice. These subjects range from municipal solid waste management and recycling, urban litter control, hazardous waste site remediation, agricultural biotechnology, and global climate change. Brief summaries of typical consulting activities follow.
U.S. Department of Energy/Contractors. Dr. Porter has provided site remediation advice to the DOE and its contractors at Brookhaven National Lab, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab, Rocky Flats Plant, and the Hanford reservation. Most of these activities involved strategic advice related to site restoration under the Superfund interagency agreement process. Advice involved management, technical, and communications aspects.
Keep America Beautiful, Inc. Dr. Porter has provided "guest project manager" services to KAB and its litter control programs. Recent projects have included development of a new "litter index" tool for measuring litter; a pilot initiative in Houston dealing with litter in a major city; testing of processes to reduce litter, including tobacco products, in urban settings; and assistance with development of "the urban litter partnership" an initiative of KAB and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Dawson & Associates. Consulting services have been provided to Dawson & Associates, a Washington, D.C. based lobbying organization, in developing the "urban river restoration initiative." The URRI is a program by which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would work with the EPA and others to restore highly industrialized rivers in urban areas.
Does your job involve important communications activities such as testimony to legislative bodies, interviews with media outlets, writing of newspaper op-ed pieces, or major speeches and presentations?
Dr. J. Winston Porter is now conducting intensive one or two-day seminars on "big-league communications" for individuals or small groups of business, governmental, association, or other executives. Using his extensive technical, management, and communications experience, he addresses such topics as:
- Preparation and presentation of understandable and effective testimony before Congress or other legislative or regulatory bodies.
- Writing and placement of persuasive newspaper and magazine articles.
- Participation in interviews with news reporters as well as appearances on network radio and television programs.
- Making effective presentations, ranging from keynote-type speeches to one-on-one sessions with senior executives.
Attendees at Dr. Porter's seminars include individuals who are moving into positions or locations requiring higher-level communications activities, or others who expect to have increased need for improved communications skills.
These seminars are periodically held in the Washington, D.C., area or in client offices, usually in small groups of less than 10 people. These are not academic sessions, but intensive, real-world advice from an individual who has successfully "done it himself."
Dr. J. Winston Porter is president of the Waste Policy Center in Leesburg, VA. Formerly he was an assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with national responsibility for solid and hazardous waste programs. Earlier, he was with the Bechtel engineering organization where he directed environmental consulting activities, and later served as manager of the master plan for the $20 billion Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia.
His communications credentials include testimony at some 60 Congressional hearings, placement of over 50 op-ed pieces for major newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, as well as numerous large regional papers such as the Atlanta Constitution, Houston Chronicle and Sacramento Bee.
He has been interviewed by most of the nation's leading newspapers and newsmagazines, and has appeared on such TV programs as Nightline, Good Morning America, and NBC Evening News, as well as National Public Radio.
Finally he has made over 100 major speeches, as well as direct presentations to executives ranging from U.S. cabinet secretaries to CEOs of major corporations to the Saudi Arabian ministers of petroleum, planning and finance.
In our fast-paced and competitive world successful organizations must develop solutions to complex business and other problems in an expeditious manner. Dr J. Winston Porter, a leading management and environmental consultant, offers a service known as focused problem solving to assist with the resolution of such problems.
This service can be used for a wide variety of problem areas, ranging from regulatory and environmental issues to marketing strategies to technical problems. It can be utilized within individual entities, and is often particularly useful for problem solving among a group of firms or other organizations.
Focused problem solving, which Dr. Porter has applied to numerous problems areas, is a refinement and improvement of the well-known meeting facilitator role. It also has some similarities with mediation processes.
Facilitators or mediators are often used by organizations seeking an objective person to moderate a meeting dealing with a particular issue or problem. Their role is to ensure that the meeting is conducted in a fair and effective manner. While often useful, one criticism of such sessions is that they are often long on process and short on substance and focus.On the other hand, the focused problem solving approach is specifically geared to substance and decision-making. In the FPS session Dr. Porter quickly and clearly describes the problem in question as well as key alternatives for dealing with it. He then leads a focused discussion of the pros and cons of these and other alternatives for solving the problem, as well as major implementation issues.
As the session progresses, increasing emphasis is placed on the best options as well as the information required to make final decisions. The meeting concludes with a plan of attack for implementing the preferred option, or with a specific approach to reaching final decision later.
Key to the FPS approach is that Dr. Porter is, or becomes, personally familiar with the problem under discussion so that he can lead the meeting in a knowledgeable and focused manner. Another important advantage is his own extensive experience with management, technical, regulatory, and communications issues. Thus, Dr. Porter can make suggestions and keep the meeting "on track" as the discussions take place.
Dr. Porter's FPS approach begins with a brief period of research and planning, leading to an agreed-upon agenda and visual aids. He then moderates the session itself, followed by assistance with meeting and decision documentation as required.
©J. Winston Porter 2001
