PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT - REACHING OUT TO THE HARD TO REACH
Alternate title: You invited people to your consultation/public meeting and almost no one showed up
This article is a follow-up to a previous piece on what to do when you don’t have the kind of data you think you need to move forward with a decision or action.
At another one of my’ hot beverage with a friend’ chats, the discussion dipped into what to do at community or municipal town halls and public meetings when no one (or barely anyone) attends.
On May 10, 2017 I facilitated two round-table discussions on "reaching the hard to reach” at an ‘Engagement Clinic’ connecting municipal leaders and staff with skills and hands-on experience with public engagement. My roundtable discussions were well received by many of the participants who found my shared stories and reflections insightful (as per their participant evaluations).
The Engage NS team was in Lochaber, Antigonish County, hosting an “Engagement Clinic” for Municipal Councillors and staff. The programming comprised a Hands-On Public Engagement Workshop for Municipal Officials and staff looking:
For creative ways to build trust, engage the disengaged, or support citizen-led initiatives
To hear the inside story about how other Municipalities have handled their engagement opportunities and challenges
To share their stories with others
More than 50 municipal officials and staff who were in attendance connected with regional peers and experts in engagement from across the province. Facilitators hosted discussions where those present learned more about: Kick-starting public engagement, Building community partnerships, Creating meaningful engagement strategies AND Building greater trust when raising awareness about specific topic areas in community.
So what did I say you may ask?
At two rounds of discussion, I introduced myself and spoke about my observations from the margins as a new immigrant to NS, particularly in my experiences interacting with government, non-profits and community groups in various roles for different reasons. I also drew from my time living and working in Southern Africa early on in my career. I likened engaging with new parties for the first time like a blind date. And talked about all the ways I have seen people try to have a longer term relationship conversation on the first and awkward “date”. Amid some laughs I encouraged people in my session to share some experiences they have had with what I was talking about if the understood me. Not surprisingly quite a few people shared stories and reflections on what they had learned from those experiences. Many of them, fortunately, had gone on to build really strong relationships with the groups with whom they engaged but this was not always the case. There were people with various levels of experience with community work and even the most seasons among us had great stories to share.
I asked those who were married whether or not there were things they could say to their spouse that may not fly with strangers. And then we acknowledged that the same was true in the other direction -for the sake of preserving relationships[1]. After we chuckled a bit at the imagery, we talked through some of the participants’ experiences with engaging communities in infrastructure development or renewal. Many had stories of unsuccessful discussions, non-attendance at public events or being told one thing by a group during design and build phases and then having the reality of what was meant rather than what was said play out differently at time of implementation/ structure launch. As a group we talked about some examples of jokes you could tell, hard truths you could share and uncertainties you could express in a marriage or longer term relationship that would not fly in the early days of dating or (yes, again) on a first/blind-date.
While I was careful to emphasize that I was sharing from lived experience, I am glad to note that I’m not alone in my thinking (albeit maybe in my use of the marital relationship). There is literature to support what I shared that day. Lisa Attygalle talks about how we need to increase the authenticity of community engagement. Authentic engagement for her to mean “truly listening and being eager to learn from the community about the ideas they have for solving community issues or the opportunities they may see for improvement”.
A space for vulnerability and acknowledging past instances of poor engagement
After a pause in the discussions I gently suggested that perhaps the reason why some in our community (in this case municipalities and towns) were hard to reach was because in previous iterations of whatever it was we were doing, we had ignored the voices and proceeded anyway. There was history there and it wasn`t particularly great. I once again connected these experiences to long-term relationships. And emphasized the need to build trust and connection with the people with whom partnerships were sought. And flagged that some of that would require a willingness to be vulnerable and honest about how things may have not been done well in the past. And it may also require a commitment to making the time to build the relationship - even while acknowledging that there was an ask on the table.[2]
As a summary at the end of each table talk, I encouraged us all to learn from the collective wisdom of the do’s and don’ts that were shared - with chuckles, in the safe space of pre-determined participant agreements. And then I encouraged those present to not try to conduct blind dates like long-term relationships. . I also talked about why getting to know people is important if you really want to know what they think/ want.
The level of engagement and trust in communities becomes increasingly important in facing emergencies and disaster-recovery (see Resilient Cities). Resilience includes action that can be taken to minimize shock and stress as well as accelerate response during emergencies. We recently experienced Hurricane Dorian. Different parts of the province were affected to different extents. As we heard about recovery efforts in Nova Scotia and beyond, I was reminded of presentation I attended via Govloop[3] on disaster resilience through Open Data. It was similar to this 2014 workshop on Building climate and disaster resilience through open data and innovation.
There are benefits and great value in building community relationships in ‘peace’ times for the hard times. Community Resilience rests on its ability to draw upon its own internal resources to recover as best possible. The more socially connected communities are, the faster they can mobilize needed resources in emergencies. Indeed, being part of a healthy community (i.e., one with strong social networks and a sense of community) can improve survival chances and safety of community residents during a disaster (Buckland & Rahman, 1999; Schellong, 2007 as quoted in a Rand report on building community resilience).
Having practical get to the tips friends is helpful. As our chat time wound to a close my friend asked me what I`d suggest to anyone that wants to get better at getting buy-in or at least audience with people, groups or communities that are not seeming as if they are interested in coming forward to listen to what it is one has to share. I swirled my cup to buy some time while I thought about it for a bit and then I shared the following:
Questions we may consider and reflect on in order to improve how we invite and engage in discussion with people we need to meet with but may be hesitant to speak to:
How have you showed up for the community when they have needs they would like addressed/called on you or asked to meet with you?
Are the location and the model you have selected for engagement typically how the members of the community gather? How do you know?
Are there any other ways that you can get a sense of what their thoughts are on the matter at hand? How else might you consider getting the information that you seek?
How will you communicate to them how you plan to use what they share with you? What are your plans for follow-up communications to continue the relationship loop?
What do you know that you may not be sharing (publicly for whatever reason)? How might that be affecting trust among the parties with whom you seek to engage? How might you share it if you cannot be fully transparent with the community?
How have you created space for what the community wants even as you are prepared to be up front about what you want (the purpose for the engagement)?
I asked her to think of a few more questions that she would consider and she told me she would email them to me. We finished off our drinks and gathered our belongings and parted ways with a promise to connect and plan our next hang out and chat date.
How about you? What might you consider?
Do you have any other thoughts on this article? I’d love to hear from you!
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[1] The same can be said for friendships, family interactions or other close connections.
[2] Transparency helps with building trust; inauthenticity doesn’t help in the long run. And people will know you are not being up front about something.
[3] Also Geography is an essential foundation for a resilience strateg