One thing is for sure, if you’re about to embark on a system reset and develop a citizen centric culture then everybody needs to be in. While a policy refresh might help, the underpinnings of any approach should be to develop the appropriate values in the people that work in your organisation.
Here are some of our top tips for success: –
1. Put stakeholder relationships before budget. There’s a fast-track to feeling truly valued and appreciated and that’s when democracy comes before profit. It might be cheaper to put an electricity cable in the air but choosing to dig it underground despite the cost-per-unit-benefit (for the sake of the community) shows real commitment.
2. Ask for regular feedback. While ad-hoc consultation & engagement exercises are necessary, asking for feedback directly after a touchpoint or random sampling can greatly enhance your long-term relationships. Think continual engagement.
3. Be easy to contact. Too few consultations include a direct contact for the person orchestrating them, let alone a telephone helpline. Doing this shows you care beyond a single transaction.
4. Use plain English. Nobody likes an acronym and the average reading age in the UK is between 9 and 11 years. Think about your core messages and make your comms easy to understand so that there is no confusion.
5. Hire people who have a democratic leadership style. This is simple, it basically means invest in people with people skills. You need people who can collaborate and empathies with audiences, not argue with them.
6. Spread the feedback. Citizen feedback is often constrained to silos. Think about how you can radiate this feedback more widely – such as including it on a screensaver, an Intranet page or even on a screen in the lobby of your organisation.
7. Anticipate the needs of your community. Think about forecasts, trends, social media monitoring and involving the voice of your citizens in future plans. Often this means investing in research such as ethnography, focus groups and citizen panels.
8. Go beyond the first interaction. Re-engagement and re-activation are key to increasing the volume of engagement and taking your stakeholders along a path of increasing participation. Gather insights on the wider interests of people so that you can nudge them when they might be interested in a new activity.