A great failure of our profession seems to be securing adequate buy-in for our work among people with influence. This has been demonstrated in the recent cull of consultation and engagement professionals in the NHS but more generally in the woeful resourcing that local authorities provide in the support of stronger decision-making.
On the one hand it is hard to articulate return on investment, on the other politics is moving towards rapid, scrutiny-free decision making. And while there are a range of measures you could take to improve the situation (think leverage of regional networks, enhanced internal reporting and capacity-building), you could argue that public participation is now more of a process than a skill.
Enter toolkits and playbooks – like this recent example in Greater Manchester or the freshly launched digital community engagement toolkit for planners. Just follow each step and the problem is solved. And while this might generate some safe, mediocre output it does not really do justice to the non-linearity of reality yet alone community relationship management or troubleshooting skills that most of us use on a daily basis. In other words, it hints that anybody can start doing our work – they can’t.
However, not all playbooks have the same audience. Consider this, a playbook for the community in exercising their rights or even elected members in engaging their constituents. That’s because we think there is an imbalance when it comes to supply and demand…. we have been busy working on an excess of supply in a world of diminishing demand and consequently the value of our profession has gone down.
Regrettably it seems to take a crisis to make a difference – many consultation and engagement professionals face a rollercoaster ride depending on the local appetite for change, both internally and externally. Which is why embedding practice, consistency, quality and skills could be the first steps into a transition. It also means there is wider, long-lasting recognition and less escape from the midpoint.
Our conclusion is that the knowledge economy is dying a death but the execution economy is only just getting started – those with soft skills will be the increasingly of value and our roles will be less about the design, collection and processing of feedback but more about advising senior leaders on whether and how to consult, managing political risk and ensuring that change is smooth.
The profession isn’t going away, but it’s bifurcating. The process-execution end gets automated; the strategic, legal, and relational end becomes more valuable.