Engagemeant: intentional engagement that means something!

“Meaningful” is often a word associated with better practice community engagement. Companies and governments use community engagement to better understand the views of their stakeholders, but rather than the process being purely transactional, companies and governments attempt to make the process ‘meaningful’, as any and all communication with stakeholders doubles as a relationship building exercise and better relationships hopefully lead to better outcomes for everyone. 

But what does it mean for engagement to be meaningful and how do you do it? 

Ultimately, for community engagement to be meaningful it should be transformative both for participants and the practitioners and decision-makers involved. That is, the experience of engagement should transform ALL people involved in the process. 

Community engagement starts with a decision to be made, which affects and impacts a specific or broad community. The engagement process tries to hear and gain an understanding of the views of a community so the decision-makers can make an informed decision and determine an outcome which has considered and incorporated community views.  

The process of making the decision obliges a transformation to occur. From the point at which we identify a decision to be made, to the point where the final decision is determined, a transformation has taken place. We started with a question: what will the community think about this and how will it impact the outcome? We ended with the answer: we know what community thinks and it has led to this particular outcome.  

The project itself undergoes a transformation: from starting as a problem to be solved, leading to theoretical options either directly or indirectly being communicated to a community for input, to the problem being solved and some path forward being designed and created based on the outcome of the engagement process. 

So to, should people involved in an engagement process be transformed for the process to be meaningful for them. The starting point for people most interested and impacted by a decision to be made is hearing about the opportunity to influence the decision and being invited to participate in the engagement process. The natural transformation is that by the end of the process they feel like they had a say and their input influenced the outcome. They know this because of how the result has been reported back to them. They have a feeling of transformation, a sense of ownership over their community and general sense of belonging. They feel satisfied with the process, regardless of the result.  

Without participants feeling changed, like they’ve been heard or like they made a difference, the sense of belonging, ownership and being part of something meaningful is reduced. People are left with a feeling that the process was meaningless. Community engagement practitioners know all too well that this occurs and builds increased distrust between community and decision-makers. 

So if we agree that transformation for those involved in an engagement process (participants feeling changed for the better) is a key indicator of meaningful engagement, then the question becomes: how do we plant the seed in an engagement process to achieve it? 

1. Transformation through story. 

The story is important: what the decision is, why we need to make it, how history has brought us to having to make this decision, who is best placed to make it, if there’s research, evidence or knowledge required to make an informed decision, if the decision can be divided up into a series of smaller decisions and what that might look like, what the future or various possible scenarios could be and what happens once a decision is made. The details of the story are important, some people want the big arcs of the story, some want the nuances. What are the major plot points, the twists, turns, climaxes and possible endings to the story? Is there a physical or visual metaphor for the engagement which you can use to express and tell the story? What does the metaphor actually look or feel like? A cemetery or a playground? Building blocks or scattered sticks? People building a bridge, a highway heading towards a sea of diversity, a blank canvas or an empty fridge? The story of the project and the engagement process is a transformation in itself. Participants need to hear it, understand it and be part of it, so they can feel connected to the journey. Knowing and being clear about the story, ONE story which includes all its facets, angles and tangents, and is clearly told, builds trust with participants and makes the engagement process more meaningful.   

2. Transformation through people and personas

People are important: who is making the decision, who is responsible for delivering the outcome, who reports back to community, what are their names? What are their roles? What is their responsibility, level of accountability and professional trajectory? Will they still be there in a year’s time when the decision has been made? It matters. Participants want to know. People want people to rely on. Participants rely on decision-makers to be transparent, present and accountable. Presence is paramount - present in the room during a discussion, present in being aware of where participants are at, where the decision is at, what’s flexible or negotiable and what’s not, what participants want to talk about, what matters to them, what they want to do or change or build. Practitioners and decision-makers need to be present around the issues being discussed and new ones arising. Presence means being open and adaptive to change because no two moments in time are exactly the same. People change jobs, paths, agendas, interests and their minds; they learn, grow, develop ideas and connections and transform throughout a given time period, project and process. Participants want to know and be part of this change and journey. Being transparent about the ‘characters in the story’ and their stories, being present, human and honest about the changes which naturally occur as a project develops is critical for trust, relationship building and meaningful community engagement. 

3. Transformation through words and language

Language defines a project and engagement process: what’s said or written about it and what others say or write about it. Is it inclusive or exclusive language? Is it accessible and easy to understand or full of acronyms and hard to share with others? Are there groups of people or communities alienated by the language used in the engagement process - either written or verbal? Language, like the story and the people involved, changes and transforms throughout the life of a project and process. Words can change, and always have impact: either to exclude or include people in the subject matter. Language might change to better express an idea, change the scope, clarify a concept, raise a new option, discuss a next step, build trust or mitigate risk. As the language evolves within the development of a project or community engagement process, participants must be kept in the loop and be part of this transformation, be kept up to date with the (sometimes perceived as) ‘secret’ or ‘coded language’, or what the words actually mean, so that they feel included, feel like they belong and are part of the process and the journey and feel that the engagement is meaningful.      

4. Transformation through theme

The story of a project or engagement process is about what we see, hear and know: the plot points, what actually happens, the deadlines, milestones, key dates, events and activities. The theme is about the sub-text: what the story is really about, what the project and process ultimately means for community. Not the jargon of a more vibrant community but what it really means. This is where that metaphor again becomes very handy. Showing what we’re all striving for through an image or diagram. Children sitting on a shooting star, a skyscraper under a dream catcher, communities putting their cards on a large dinner table, farmers jumping over a moon, organic sustainable wind-run service stations... what’s it all about? How can you sum up the purpose of the project in a picture? How do we communicate it to communities in one clear image? Knowing this and clarifying this is key for meaningful engagement. Let’s not be vague: how will the outcome of the decision honestly change us, progress us, help us, meet our needs, defeat our demons and achieve our dreams? What is the future we’re all seeking and how do the steps of engagement and decision-making get us there? The clearer we can be, the more we can involve participants in understanding the context and sub-text, what it all means, what it’s all about, the more meaningful the engagement process will be. But that’s not all. It’s also about articulating the big picture in a way that resonates with the journeys of participants involved. The purpose, theme and subtext of the engagement MUST 100% connect with participants; they must see genuine reason for coming along for the ride; answering the survey or having the discussion; they must see the larger story as urgently relevant to them, right now! A story which is absolutely about them and their life and about the future of their family and community. Suddenly, from something which may have felt distant and tangential, we now have genuine, important, vital and meaningful engagement.  

5. Transformation through rhythm 

The rhythm or flow of a project or engagement process is important: how it starts, develops, climaxes and ends. Clarity builds trust. Participants knowing where they are in the process is critical to build their faith in it. Community engagement practitioners need to be aware of how flow affects participation. A process can start with BANG, or a soft launch - neither is the correct way, but both ways will produce a result and consequence, which better suits your project? How long is the engagement period? Too long will leave people wondering, too short will be seen as unfair. What’s the best time length for the engagement, and what are the rise and fall moments throughout? A survey on its own will be seen as limited engagement, a town hall meeting might be too confrontational or contentious, workshops might be appropriate but with who and for what purpose? The flow and format of the engagement process is critical to including all those impacted by and interested in the conversation to the level they would like to be included. Get it wrong, and the engagement is seen as exclusive and meaningless but get the flow and format right and the process will be seen as relevant and meaningful. 

6. Transformation through spectacle and surprise 

An unlikely and often underrepresented element in community engagement is the key component of ‘spectacle and surprise’. Engagement always works better when you have something ‘wow’ about it. As a small example, in a conference type engagement session, a microphone that looks like a fluffy ball which you can throw around the room to help people be heard is great fun. Engagement with pictures, metaphors or sounds or objects, a time capsule or using other creative ideas can excite people to participate;and transform them in a small way - from being bored to being keen to engage. The element of ‘spectacle and surprise’ can be used to transform people, attitudes and feelings; it can be used to highlight relevance and purpose.

But it can also be large in size, scope and impact. If your project is about the future, getting young people involved in a significant and/or surprising way might serve a dual purpose of being relevant but also being ‘spectacular’ to decision-makers. Youth Citizen Juries often surprise government decision-makers and provide spectacular new insight into age-old issues. Running engagement on forests and decorating the room as a forest can be visually powerful and inclusive. It’s those special, spectacular and surprising moments, smells and sights in our lives which we remember, which make us sit up and listen, or make us different or better or more aware of a situation. It’s those moments which change and transform us, and enrich us as human beings. It’s those types of ‘wow’ moments which inspire us to sign up, play our part, and participate in decisions which are bigger than us as individuals, which is why these moments are so critical to a community engagement process. As community engagement practitioners we need to plan and plant these moments.

We need to provide the opportunity for them to happen: the moments that make us sit up and take note, get involved, get excited, get engaged and have a say; and increase the possibility for genuinely meaningful engagement. 

Participants, practitioners and decision-makers feeling a sense of belonging and being part of an inclusive process, feeling like after a long ride that a fair and reasonable decision (that they can live with, even if they don’t like it) has been made and feeling transformed, more stable due to being part of a transparent decision-making process, more powerful due to the genuine opportunity to influence the decision and more connected to each other and their own communities is all the direct result of meaningful community engagement.