Sometimes we think our ideas are the best thing since the smartphone but unfortunately, that's not always the case.
Sometimes we get defensive in public meetings because we think constituents are attacking us personally, and that's not always the case. Sometimes we fail to inform the community because we don't want to admit we were wrong and for them to think we did something maliciously, but (you get the idea)... EGO: a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance. We often take ourselves too seriously and we shouldn't. The work done at the local level is important, it certainly matters and it certainly affects those who live work and play in the community. However, rarely does one person have the power to change an entire system or set of circumstances. It often takes many actors to make or break a project, a policy and idea or a community. When we interact with the public we need to remember that. When we interact with other staff we need to remember that. When we look in the mirror we need to remember that. No one person can change an entire community. Sometimes people are blamed or honored as having a significant impact, and that is true because there are change-agents among us- advocates who are also the agitators we need to get moving in a certain direction, but we need to understand we play a small role in the overall picture. That is not to say our role is insignificant, quite the contrary, but we can only be the author or our own story, no one else's. Read the story behind See Spot Run here. So yesterday I wrote about the importance of knowing who your local elected officials are and how to find them. Today, I am flipping that around as a message to locally elected officials to find out who the local community influencers are.
Influencers are people that have influence. There are beauty influencers, brand influencers, etc. In marketing we used to know these people as brand ambassadors or spokespeople. They have a following; an audience that listens to them and believes their opinions to be solid and worth acting on. For example, if they recommend a product or service, you might see sales go up as a result. The same is true for what I call local community influencers. These are the people that can make or break your project as a collective. Local influences can wield their audience to either support what you are doing or become highly skeptical of your intentions. What they say goes and these are people you want to identify early on and possibly get them on your side. People who might be local influencers: - Local media outlets - Thought Leaders - Artists - Pastors - Non-profit Leaders - Community Activists - Civic Association Leaders - Former elected officials - Current elected officials - etc. Think about who these people might be, reach out to them and set meetings to get to know them before you actually need something from them. It may work in your favor down the road! Pro tip: Influencers are a subset of your existing stakeholder group and may be "key stakeholders" for certain projects. In order to pay attention and have an impact on your local government, you need to know who the people are who are serving you. What do they look like? Can you recognize their name in print? Would you know them if you saw them in person? Once you know who they are it's easier to follow them and their actions and make mental notes of whether or not they represent you and what you want your experience in this life to be at a local level. One of the easiest ways to get this information is by using a Facebook feature called Town Hall. Click on the feature and then input your address. It will then show you a list of government officials and you can decide whether or not to follow them. This is a quick and easy way to get information about your local officials. They will post to let you know bills they are voting on, events they have attended and general philosophies about policies impacting the current administration and their constituents. What's great is that you can comment on their posts and usually someone in their constituent service office will get back to you. If you don't have Facebook you can google "local elected officials in {zip code}" and you will get a list like this: Either way, it's important you have this information. The squeaky wheel gets the oil but if you don't drive the car you can't complain when it stops working. Government works when you use it.
Take a minute to read through the websites of some of your local officials. Your local township or county website will give you a list of people who serve your district specifically. These are the people closest to you and your experience. Not the governor, not your congressman, but your LOCALLY elected officials. Try reaching out to them first, and then if you don't get an answer, take it a step further up in the hierarchy. There are soooo many ways to engage the community, business leaders, service providers, constituents, un-employed, etc. and I really wish more elected officials and non-profit leaders would take the time to research and utilize these methods.
Here is a list of 10 resources you may have not ever heard of: 1. Pen and paper (otherwise known as acting like you care) 2. Google Alerts 3. LinkedIn (for thought leadership) 4. Masterminds 5. Facebook Groups 6. Text marketing 7. Engagement HQ 8. Darzin 9. Stakeholder Circle 10. Bots These suggestions span everything from software to in-person meetings, but the idea is that there are so many resources available, the ones in green cost money yet are worthy investments because they streamline data collection so well it's ridiculous. When I worked in India, we had to collect data first-hand, and I mean really first-hand, like using a ruler, reading the newspaper and counting words and recording information in an excel file. We were trying to figure out how much the government of India was spending on infrastructure across 5 different cities. We had people working in 5 different cities doing this and they would send their results to me and I'd compile it and synthesize it for the report. It was kind of a nightmare. We got it done, but it was difficult. In the United States, we don't have that issue. We don't have to do everything by hand. We have access to systems that when incorporated as part of a larger engagement strategy (not in place of) we can develop something truly dynamic that engages people but also collects information in a way that is useful to multiple entities over a longer period of time so that we are not duplicating efforts and taxing our stakeholder unnecessarily. I challenge you to think about how you can incorporate multiple tools into your engagement approach. Need help brainstorming? Schedule a 30-minute call with me. By better I mean more effective.
Recall the last meeting you were in? Did you feel any continuity from the last meeting or was it about an entirely new topic? Did you know why you were there? Did you know what you were supposed to do after the meeting was over? Would it make sense for you to attend meetings for that group again? Was the group making progress on their goals? Do you know what the goals were? These and other questions can be easily answered if meeting coordinators take the time to address them beforehand. How to conduct better meetings: Before the meeting: 1. Set and agenda (atleast 1 week beforehand) 2.Send out the agenda and let people know if there is time allotted for them to add something. For example, "Hi all, here is the draft agenda for our next meeting, if anyone would like to add a topic for discussion, please let me know. At this time we have about 20 minutes free to discuss additional topics. If there are no additions, we may end early." 3. If this is an existing working group, remind them what the purpose of that particular meeting is. Not the purpose of the group but of that particular meeting. 4. Identify someone who can take notes. Read why this is ESSENTIAL. At the meeting: 5. Introduce yourself if you are the organizer 6. Have each person introduce themselves. 7. I like having an ice-breaker but it is optional. I'll talk about community building and activities you can do in another post. 8. Go through the agenda and ask that if anyone has something they'd like to discuss, to please let you know and you will put it on the next meeting's agenda. Also make sure they give their contact information so they are included in the next round of emails setting the agenda. 9. Explain what the previous meeting was about and what the action steps were. Here you need to identify: - Action to be taken - Responsible Party - Timeline for deliverable 10. Move on to the next agenda item. 11. Before people leave, set a date and time for the next meeting, unless this is already known. After the meeting: 12. Send out a thank you and summary of what occurred. Summarize all action steps at the bottom with Names, actions and due dates. 13. If there are organizational items that need to be addressed, for example, you need someone to help you with XYZ, include that in the email. 14. Repeat In-person meetings really need to be working meetings these days. Otherwise, you can send out an email, do text-marketing or keep them engaged on your Facebook page, GroupMe or some other platform. People are taking time and energy to do meaningful work, help them do it effectively. If you don't have a clear call to action that requires their presence, find a less evasive means of communicating. When I was in graduate school I had a professor who would say, "don't underestimate the amount of time it will take you to think through these challenges," and he was absolutely right.
When you're dealing with complex concepts, doing research and trying to answer a question, uncover the best methods or evaluate the outcomes of a particular intervention, you need to take time to think. You need to find the time and physical space to think. Not on the go, not while you're in a meeting, but a dedicated physical space where all you're doing is thinking. Fast government is kind of a paradox, but that's what seems to happen. We see local leaders make rash decisions to appease upset constituents or to quickly address "a fire," yet by constantly reacting to whatever is urgent right now, there is a failure (intentional or not) to plan in a way that allows room to think and make better decisions. That is not to say that each decision needs to take you days or months, but rather that clarity comes when we cancel out the noise and give ourselves the necessity (not the luxury) of time. Constituents and stakeholders depend on actions that are well thought out because it is almost impossible to undue bad decisions and their consequences. So often we see our city council people and mayoral staff ill-equipped with the soft-skills necessary to interact with each other and the public in an effective way.
Sexual Harassment Training, Diversity Training, Conflict Resolution Training, Project Management, and the list goes on. When was the last time you heard of any of your local government officials participating in such training? I don't mean a conference. I mean training. This should be part of any local government's Human Resources set of deliverables and the professional development plan of our appointed and elected positions. When I was consulting with the City of Wilmington, Delaware I worked to make Fair Housing training a mandatory requirement for key city staff and sub-grantees so that our local leaders were educated about this fundamental commitment and had the knowledge to help constituents. I want to see more of this happen. There are so many low-cost trainings available that can help us build the capacity of those tasked with making the tough decisions that impact our lives. We talk so much about building soft-skills training and workforce development for citizens, but what about our local leaders? Shouldn't we start there? What kind of training do you think would benefit your local government? Today we're talking about that T-word... Transparency. I get it, I really do. Not everything can be public knowledge. There are often times when plans in the works could be severely threatened if all details were released. Furthermore, no one likes to be micro-managed. However, if transparency were an innate part of government we wouldn't be asking (and at times demanding) for it today. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed to institutionalize transparency in government. Under this Act, anyone can request records from a Federal government agency, and the agency must respond within a set time frame (usually 15 days) with the information or give rationale for why more time is needed or why the records cannot be produced. If there is a fee associated with acquiring such records, the agency must notify the requestor of the amount. Although FOIA applies only to Federal agencies, many state and local governments have adopted this as well, to their credit. However, this process can be lengthy and arduous, and by the time you actually get the information it may be irrelevant, or inaccurate, leaving you little power to influence a decision-making process (if that was the intent). Read more about FOIA here. So aside from FOIA, how can we facilitate transparency in local government? Participatory Budgeting. Participatory budgeting is a process in which members of the community come together to decide how to spend part of a public budget. This process can be facilitated by the local government, or a neutral third party. There are many ways to do this: 1) Organizations pitch proposals and the community members vote on them 2) Community members brainstorm projects and create a shared vision together which is then implemented. 3) Members of government work hand in hand with community members in a design-thinking capacity to test and re-test projects before submitting them to a larger vote. and many more... Overall, the idea is that multiple diverse voices determine the best use of funds and measures of success. This participatory mechanism fosters greater appreciation for the budgeting process and those who work to make it happen. It also increases civic awareness which may curtail misunderstandings in the future. Do you think this is something your local government could adopt? You can't please everyone.
Part of the reason we see muddled messages from local government officials is because they don't want to upset constituents. We've all come face to face with an angry constituent, perhaps we were that constituent at one point, and I can tell you it's not pretty. But nevertheless, ask anyone who's upset and they'll tell you: it's not necessarily what the government did, but it's how they did it. Constituents are smart people. We pay attention, we read the headlines, we know people who work in government and we talk to our friends. The average constituent is a reasonable person who can make sound decisions and accept sound logic if given enough information. Unfortunately, local government officials rarely give us insight into how government works so we can draw our own conclusions. If you don't know the answer to something, or if a situation seems to complex to get back to a person right away, let's just admit those limitations and create a plan to move forward. Don't beat around the bush because you will get called out. - Adria Document everything you want to make progress on. Photo source: See Spot Run LLC If you're not asking questions about how things will be implemented, what are you doing?
Unfortunately, the urban arena is too messed up for us to rely on the goodwill of people. We need to know what the action items are, who is responsible and what is the timeline for getting it done. How many plans have you seen? How many task forces created? How many white papers published? And for what? To have all that knowledge and research sit on a shelf? I hope not. The next time you go to a meeting, I want you to pay close attention to what's going on and if anyone from the host organization is taking notes or reporting progress from the last meeting. If you don't see this happening, I will say it again here - ask why and then walk out. You're wasting your time. I don't know about you but I know I have better things to do than watch the goodwill of people yield no tangible result. - Adria |
AuthorAdria is a community development consultant. She loves all things local and when she's not writing online you can find her enjoying the outdoors. Archives
January 2018
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