If you’ve ever struggled to explain the “return of investment” of community participation, this article is for you. We recommend turning your mind to a ROI - one that focuses people’s attention on the pain of front-page disasters.
The 5 stages of online engagement maturity
How is consultation different to engagement? Let's get your jargon sorted.
Is your council taking full advantage of the opportunities for community engagement?
The true purpose of local government might not be what you think. And Peter McKinlay from the Local Government Think Tank argues that councils are missing opportunities to make their lives easier by working differently with communities. This article reveals the true purpose of local government and the little word that has the potential to shift your council’s relationship with your community - if you’re willing to take action.
Which of these 6 engagement objections is holding your organisation back?
How to be truly innovative with your community engagement
Innovation appears to hold the key for councils and government agencies who want to better engage with communities and other organisations. But being innovative means more than just using the latest fancy method. It’s about using different processes. And at its heart, it requires your organisation to embed new principles in how it works with others. If you want to be more innovative with your engagement, this article is for you.
Councils: Are you overcoming these barriers to climate change engagement?
Community engagement is crucial for climate change adaptation, according to Local Government NZ. Yet almost no councils are engaging with communities on climate change. Most are currently “planning to plan”. In this article, we summarise an excellent webinar series to help councils engage their communities on the biggest challenge of a generation.
How effective are Community Boards?
What role are Community Boards playing across the country in local democracy? What are the opportunities for the future role of Community Boards? These two questions are at the heart of this 2018 research project by Callum Hammond and David Hammond. Community Boards were set up in 1989 through the local government reforms of the Fourth Labour Government. Now, 30 years later, this report investigates the effectiveness of Community Boards and make five recommendations for the future.
Is low trust hamstringing your organisation?
Do you ever struggle to communicate or understand the investment logic for engagement? Then this article is for you. In it, we build on the work of Rachel Botsman, the author of "Who Can You Trust?". Trust is the most important currency for organisations to survive. But how do we earn trust in our over-communicating world?