Consult.
Your community’s solution sharing space
CONSULT is PeerConnect’s consultation forum – a moderated email group where Community members facing a challenge can tap into their colleagues’ knowledge to obtain experiences, insights and solutions to help with problem-solving. While SHARE uses a fast-turnaround format for exchanging information, CONSULT relies on email to encourage considered, thought-through interaction.
CONSULT leverages PeerConnect’s diverse membership – professionals from governments, non-governmental and civil service society organizations, academia and research institutes, donor sponsors, and the private sector – to obtain the full range of perspectives on any issue. It is based on the values of collegiality and trust. Collegiality is how members relate to each other – as professional peers, irrespective of the organization they work for or the level of their position. And collegiality helps build trust, which is critical for knowledge-sharing because only if you trust someone will you value the knowledge they have to offer. Unlike other sites, here there are no gatekeepers – you are the judge of the quality of the advice; sound advice increases your trust of the contributor. Thus, through collegiality and trust, CONSULT brings professionals closer together, strengthening their effectiveness both individually and as a group.
How it works
The CONSULT service is an email-based forum, where members subscribe to an email group to consult and contribute knowledge and insights with their Community.
A member sends a query about their challenge to the group; other members respond with recommended resources – comparable experiences elsewhere, documents to read, organizations and experts working on the subject etc. – up to a given reply-by date (anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks); the thread is compiled and summarized in a Consolidated Reply, which is posted to the group and indexed in PeerConnect’s COLLECT public repository, available for reuse by anyone anywhere in the world with a similar challenge.
The email group is actively moderated by skilled facilitators who are both familiar with the domain and proficient in keeping the group vibrant and valuable to its members. When you want to post or respond to a query, a facilitator can work with you to ensure your message is clear and compelling. They will also work behind the scenes to encourage responses.