The Praxis Group™ | Involving People.

Frequently, potential clients pose these questions to the Praxis Team.

1. How long has Praxis been established?
   Richard Roberts founded Praxis in 1980. Since that time, Praxis has continued to expand and evolve its work in its core areas of public and stakeholder consultation and survey and social science research.
2. Who are Praxis’ clients?
   Praxis’ client base is very diverse spanning the private, public and non-profit sectors; this is best illustrated by viewing our client listing. Many of our private sector clients include both small and large industry players in the oil and gas, forestry, and mining industries.  Public sector clients not only draw from all levels of government but also various universities across Canada. Similarly, we have undertaken projects for various non-profit organizations such as the Canadian Cancer Society.
3. What types of projects does Praxis undertake?
   The projects we undertake are as diverse as our client base. They range from multi-sectoral public consultation processes for projects such as the Land-use Framework, Government of Alberta, to deliberative dialogue sessions on sequencing the salmon genome for a research team at the University of British Columbia, to annual employee satisfaction surveys for long time clients such as the Calgary Co-op and Spartan Controls. Our team of professionals has specialized knowledge in land-use planning, environment, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, community relations, Aboriginal relations, socio-economic impact assessment, social and health policy.
4. What type of survey methods does Praxis use?
   We bring years of experience in a host of survey methods including telephone, mail back/fax, online, and intercept interviews. The method(s) we choose depends on the client’s needs and budget.
5. Does Praxis have experience in organizing and conducting focus groups?
   Organizing and conducing focus groups is one of Praxis’ core competencies; we bring nearly three decades of experience, best practices and lessons learned to this area of work.
6. What type of public consultation and stakeholder engagement methods does Praxis use?
   At Praxis, our toolkit includes a myriad of approaches, including focus groups, workshops, forums, Delphi panels, expert interviews, deliberative dialogue, appreciative inquiry, trade-off games, study circles, surveys and questionnaires.
7. Can Praxis tailor a public consultation or stakeholder engagement process to meet the specific goals of the project?
   Yes, Praxis is known for its innovation in the area of public and stakeholder consultation.  One of Praxis’ key strengths is our ability to craft a public consultation or stakeholder engagement program to meet the specific needs of our client’s project. We work closely with the client to design, develop, and implement an approach that is practical and effective.
8. What is the STS^©?
   In most simple terms, the STS is a web-based information management system accessible from any broadband internet connection. The STS portal consists of various modules allowing utmost flexibility and functionality for our clients.
9. Is the STS appropriate for my firm?
   The STS is useful where stakeholder interaction needs to be tracked to meet regulatory or informational requirements.  What this means to you is that you can have a cost effective method of obtaining, organizing and reporting stakeholder interactions utilizing the internet. The STS has no impact nor requires any changes to your internal computer infrastructure and IT resources.
   From the work done to date, Praxis estimates that to be cost effective, a minimum number of 200 to 300 stakeholder groups, landowners, and/or the public must be entered into the database.
10. How does Praxis manage regulatory reporting involving stakeholders and landowners?
    Praxis uses various tools to manage input and information gathered from stakeholders and landowners through the regulatory process.  One of our primary tools is the STS that has broad application potential where interaction with multiple stakeholders or clients requires detailed tracking and follow-up. As a company or user moves from one stage to another (planning to regulatory review to construction to operations) different but linked databases, different search capabilities or different contact information can be developed.

Want to learn more? Contact us now.