Optimizing Community Engagement
Business Challenge Group
August 24, 2011 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. EST
Objectives for this call
• Better understand cross-functional team (internal)
implications of what is learned from community
conversations
• Understand how to “theme” and use (both internal and
external) information from community conversations
• Introduce more Harwood tools to support community
engagement and use of public knowledge
2
Agenda for the Call
•
Welcome and Introductions
•
Highlights of online activity since last call
•
Review of July’s call: summary and homework
•
Group discussion: cross-functional implications of community
conversation information
•
Themes from community conversations: how to organize and use
the information
•
Peer sharing: Toledo’s use of community conversation
information
•
Three new Harwood tools
•
Homework assignment
3
Review July Call Agenda and Summarize
Key Points from the July Call
• Welcome and Introductions
• Overall objectives for the business challenge groups
• Specific objectives for the Optimizing Community
Engagement
• Framework (pathways) for community engagement
• Group conversation: what has been learned from
community conversations and how has the information
been used
• Harwood tools for the future
• Homework assignment
4
Review Online Activity
• Why using the online Groupsite is important
• What information is included on the site
• How to easily navigate the site
• How has the site been used since our last call: what
important learning and sharing is occurring
• What to expect between now and the next call
5
Review homework for this call
• Have a cross-functional meeting of your leadership team
(including CEO) to discuss what you have learned from
community conversations including implications for
communications, resource development, and work in the
community
• Engage at least one board member to participate in a
community conversation
6
Questions for group discussion
1. What are you hearing from community conversations that
potentially could affect the way work is done in your
United Way?
2. How is your cross-functional team learning from
community conversations—what process is in place for
sharing the information?
3. What did you learn from your cross-functional team
discussion regarding the implications of community
conversations for the way work is done within your
organization?
7
• What is public knowledge?
• Why gain public knowledge?
8
The 3A’s of Public Life
• Accountability
• Authority
• Authenticity
Using community conversations to
gain public knowledge
Note Taking Tool (pgs. 15 – 16)
Ask yourself during conversations or immediately after:
1. What kind of community do people want? What are their aspirations?
2. In talking about their concerns, what do people really care about? What
words do they use? What issues do they connect together?
3. What’s going well and not so well in the community?
4. What do people want education to be like? What are their aspirations for
education?
5. How does education help to get the kind of community people want?
6. What’s going well, or not so well in regards to education?
7. How do people talk about education? What words do they use?
8. How did education touch these people personally? What gave people a
sense of possibility that things can be better, or different?
9. What did people believe could be done to improve education? Who do
people believe needs to act to improve education? Whom do they trust?
10. What questions do people still have? What follow up do people want?
Identifying themes
•
Pull together a small group of those who led or listened to the
conversations
•
Look for patterns, and listen for themes across the conversations
•
Identify someone to lead this discussion
•
Use examples from conversations to provide concrete examples
as you talk
•
Have the “Note Taking” sheets handy for this conversation.
•
As you talk, record your thoughts. Label your findings under:
– Themes
– Tensions
– Ambivalence
– Language
Identifying Themes
Questions (pg. 17)
•
What, if any, common themes do you see across the conversations?
– How are people’s comments connected or related?
– Around which areas does agreement seem strongest? Why?
•
What, if any, tensions are emerging?
– Why are these tensions important?
– How do people in the conversations resolve them, if at all?
•
Where do people seem ambivalent, or torn?
– Why are they torn? What are they torn between?
•
How do people talk?
– What language do people use?
– What emotions do they convey?
– What quotes or anecdotes capture the flavor of what people are
saying?
Public Knowledge Keys
• ISSUES OF CONCERN
• ASPIRATIONS
• SENSE OF PLACE
• SOURCES
• PEOPLE
• CIVIC PLACES
• STEREOTYPES TO WATCH
Share What You’ve Learned!
• With others in United Way
• With participants
• With important stakeholders
• With the public
Building relationships with conversation
participants
What is needed?
United Way of Greater Toledo
Community conversations and public knowledge
Bill Kitson, President and CEO
Sarah Gill, Vice President for Engagement
(1) Community conversations
a) Role and importance
b) Theming
(2) Blending of public knowledge with expert and quantitative
data for decision-making
(3) Internal and external changes
(4) How the information has been shared back with participants
(5) Has it led to more advocates, volunteers, or givers?
16
Other Harwood tools for future use
• Community Rhythms – The Stages of Community Life
• The Public Capital Framework
Public Capital Framework
A way to see and think deeply about the realities of communities
•
An Abundance of Social Gatherings
•
Organized Spaces for Interaction
•
Boundary Spanning Organizations
•
Safe Havens for Decision Makers
•
Strong, Diverse Leadership
•
Informal Networks and Links
•
Conscious Community Discussion
•
Community Norms for Public Life
•
A Shared Purpose for the Community
18
Homework for next meeting
• Use the tools introduced in today’s call:
• Note taking tool
• Themeing questions
• Public Knowledge Keys audit
• Public Capital audit
19
Brief assessment of this meeting
• What worked?
• What would we change for next time?
20