Session Description
Social License to Operate is not achieved through a single engagement process. It emerges from a series of decisions made within complex territories, where competing interests, uncertainty, incomplete information, and changing social dynamics shape project legitimacy.
This session pilots an experiential learning methodology through an immersive Decision Lab.
Participants work in teams responsible for navigating a fictional yet realistic territory. Each team receives the same initial information, including stakeholder profiles, territorial history, institutional context, media reports, and emerging risks. They must decide which stakeholders to engage, what information to seek, how to allocate limited resources, and how to respond to unexpected developments that reshape the scenario.
Three to five experienced impact assessment practitioners participate as stakeholder representatives, responding only from the perspective of their assigned role rather than providing expert advice. Participants therefore experience the uncertainty, negotiation, and trade-offs that characterize real territorial decision-making.
The session concludes with a facilitated reflection comparing strategies developed by each team and exploring how different decisions influence trust, legitimacy, and the conditions for Social License to Operate.
Rather than presenting another framework for Social License, this session tests an experiential approach to professional learning, inviting participants to explore whether immersive decision-making can strengthen impact assessment practice and better prepare impact assessment professionals for practice in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world.
Session Summary
Social License to Operate emerges from decisions made under uncertainty rather than isolated engagement activities. In this interactive Decision Lab, participants navigate a complex territory, negotiate with stakeholders, allocate limited resources, and explore how professional decisions shape project legitimacy.
Additional Information
The session mirrors professional practice: participants inherit a territory, make decisions with incomplete information, adapt to changing conditions, and only then reflect on the consequences of their choices. Unlike conventional workshops, participants do not analyse a completed case or discuss best practices. Instead, they experience decision-making before knowing the outcome, making the session both a professional learning experience and a pilot of an experiential methodology for impact assessment.
Session Chair
SYLVIA NOVELO
Urbanismo en Movimiento
Mexico