1. Size. A housing task force should be large. 30 members, including elected leaders, industry representatives, various experts including outside policy analysts as well as Montanans with deep knowledge of local markets. Also included: housing advocates from across the political spectrum, with very different motives both with unique constituencies, elected allies and media outlets.

2. Openness. Every aspect of the task force was open to the public.

3. A healthy opportunity for dissent. Each recommendation offered space for a dissenting opinion from any other member of the task force. By compartmentalizing its work, they streamlined the task force and removed potential bottlenecks. Dissenting opinions gave lawmakers a full view of the fault lines around controversial policies such as state preemption of local zoning authority.

4. Montana set a hard stop for the task force to wrap up its work. The group had 5 months from the date of the executive order to publish two required reports. This helped keep the task force focused.

Once an accurate and complete inventory of the problems and challenges has been taken into account, with each 'sides' issues and concerns identified all at once, then together we have the capacity to formulate real, practical and actionable solutions

(sourced from a recent BLOOMBERG article).