wrapping it up, right
We get it, you’re busy. Wrapping up the engagement process can feel like added work after weeks of surveys, meetings and gathering feedback, you may be ready to move on to your growing to-do list.
But the final stages of the engagement process – the wrap-up and reporting – can be just as important and as planning the engagement itself.
At ZINC, we believe that cutting off or shortening the reporting and wrap up of your engagement could significantly affect public understanding of the work itself. Worse – you might event stop people from taking part in future engagements. Nobody wants that.
So why are the last stages of public engagement so important? We believe engagement has at least three important purposes:
- To enhance trust and transparency. Public engagement is about gathering public opinion on policies and projects that affect people. It’s about improving transparency in how decisions are made and building trust between decision makers and residents. Documenting and communicating what you learned shows you value the insights and feedback that were provided. Care needs to be taken to accurately reflect the sentiments provided – no where is this more important than in marginalized communities, where not reporting back is one-sided, and builds distrust in the process.
- To provide a public record. Throughout the engagement process, participants have shared large amounts of unique information and knowledge about the project or policy and its local impact. By accurately summarizing public input, you provide a valuable resource for community and decision makers.
- To support future engagement. People are more likely to engage again if they feel their contributions made a difference. By summarizing the information you’ve received and reporting out on it, people are more likely to understand how their input – and the input of others – informed the process.
Unsure of where to start? At ZINC, we have a go-to process for concluding the engagement.
- Say thank you. Throughout the engagement, people gave you their valuable time and thoughts – thank them for their time and effort.
- Share what you’ve learned. Provide detail of the in-person and online engagement. How many people took part? What were their demographics? What are the themes of what was said? Once you’ve published the report, use a press release, social media, or direct emails to explain how public input was used and what the next steps are.
- Reflect. Regular reviews can help you find gaps and better target your engagement tools, timelines and processes. No engagement process is perfect, but you can look for strengths and weakness to build into your engagement next time.
In short, wrapping up public engagement in a timely way is essential step to the entire process. It’s a critical opportunity to share the outcomes and next steps of project.
What do you ZINC? How do you plan ahead for reporting on your public consultation? Drop us a note at info@zincstrategies.com.