Ethical issues such as privacy and confidentiality were considered by the organization representatives and how these issues might impact a project idea. At this point, the ideas were sorted and prioritized and there was equal decision sharing among the individual organizations. This was often the beginning of a partnership around a workplace literacy project. The next step was the development of project objectives which were written so that they could be understood by all partners involved. They were measurable in some form, and when changes were needed, negotiation was used in the planning process.
During the implementation stage of the project, action plans that had stemmed from the objectives were carried out and focused on the intended audience. Many of the other steps in Caffarella’s model were often used over the life of the project. For example, project evaluation approaches that had been determined earlier were implemented and different formats were used to communicate project results or recommendations.
Cervero and Wilson (1998) believe that program planning in adult education is a social activity where people construct programs by negotiating interests in contexts marked by socially structured power relations. In their work, power is not viewed as a static resource in position but rather as a dynamic process in which agents and social structures interact. They also suggest that planners are operating on two levels as negotiators in the planning process. Substantial negotiations are around important features of the program while meta-negotiations are about the political relationships of who is included and excluded. There are three dimensions to their work: planning actions, power relations and relationship interests. When confronted with issues of power, planners use different behavioural patterns associated with negotiating organizational political processes. As the authors suggest, there are a number of ways that power is used to influence what happens in the planning process.