A useful first step before embarking on building a community engagement strategy for an organisation or an engagement plan for a specific project is to develop some engagement principles.

These should outline what your organisation holds dear and how it wants to be appreciated for its engagement efforts. Five or six points that can be summarised on an A4 page.

While Google will probably reveal some useful ideas about what others have done, it’s important that an organisation spends some time to develop its own set of principles and outcomes, rather than regurgitating what others may have done, no matter how great those examples may be.

Why? Because engagement is exactly that: the experience of engaging with others, including colleagues in other parts of your business or even stakeholders you’ll need to work with in other organisations. It’s also useful to engage with senior managers and even boards of directors or councillors in this process.

Done well, the process of uncovering and describing some engagement principles can be a powerful way of gaining support, focus and recognition about the benefits that well planned, adequately resourced and effectively delivered engagement can provide.

We offer short courses and longer, more intensive training that can be customised to meet an organisation’s specific needs.

We’re coming to Christchurch in September and Wellington in October to deliver our three-day workshop series for people who have a hands-on role planning and delivering community engagement for their employers. These workshops are highly interactive and also include individual coaching and mentoring after each one. Participants at the end should have an engagement plan developed for a specific project. They will also have some great shared experiences and networking contacts with other practitioners on the course.

Chief executives around the world aren’t that active when it comes to using social media. New Zealand appears to be no exception.

This may be because CEOs are busy people who are accustomed to delegating hands-on tasks to others.

But one thing they can’t, or rather shouldn’t delegate, is how they project themselves to others. People are always interested in other people, what they may think, believe, do and say. Bosses are no exception. Effectively demonstrating leadership is about communicating oneself, not just a bunch of key business messages.

The art of powerful leadership communication is about knowing how much of oneself to share with others. Different leaders may share more of themselves than others. How much each will share should involve taking some risks and trusting the people one may be sharing with.

Social media offers a variety of channels for chief executives and senior managers generally to engage with others. In the case of channels like LinkedIn, this can be formal and structured, although even there CV formality is not the best way of capturing attention. Other social channels are a lot more informal. Twitter and similar short message channels also require some skills about keeping comments short and catchy.

Even internal engagement can be done through social media. Yammer is a good example of a tool that can be used within a corporate environment, keeping outsiders away from comments and discussions.

Yes, social media involves a time commitment, not only for posting comments but also for encouraging feedback and engaging with that. Leaders who do this well are respected by those they’re engaging with. Their social capital will grow considerably, as will their levels of respect and trust.

At the moment there is a handful of CEOs who are actively engaging through social media and a very large number who aren’t doing anything at all.

If CEOs are nervous about what to do and how to do it, I am certain that within their organisation, particularly in a communication team, there are some people who would be more than willing to provide ideas, support and encouragement. Some CEOs may even have partners, sons and daughters who can offer advice. The rest is up to each CEO to do as much as they feel comfortable doing.

It helps to start with an idea of the space that social media can open up as well as some of the potential risks, but specific destinations can be hard to reach, particularly if one isn’t marketing products or services.

The “right” way of using social media is about doing what works best for the person doing it. That’s going to involve taking some risks. The best way to learn is to dive in.

If you’re thinking about building a community engagement strategy or a plan, then you’ve come to the right place! There are some things you may be able to do yourself, and there are some things we may be able to help with.

The trick to building a useful community engagement strategy is not just about asking the right questions. It’s also about ensuring plenty of lead time so that the engagement plan neatly integrates with any project plans and communication plans that are also being developed for the project. It’s also important that all of these strategies are approved collectively, given the reliance that each has on the others.

The biggest limiting factors will be time and resources. Sometimes things have to happen quickly. Sometimes the necessary money and people time are also limited. But prioritisation can’t be done until there is a list of things that can be prioritised.

Here are a few questions that may be useful checklist for constructing a community engagement plan. There are probably some others that relate to special needs around the particularly project or set of circumstances that triggered the need for having an engagement strategy.

Start by clearly identifying:

• The issue and its objectives
  
• What success will look like
  
• What time constraints there may be
  
• What financial and people constraints there may be
  
• Any critical dates and times in the life of the plan
  
• Any related plans or strategies that need to be included or considered
  
• What barriers or hurdles there may be
  
• What behaviours may need to change
  
• Who the key participants are
  
• Who the target audiences are.

Doing this task is also a good opportunity for internal engagement within an organisation – particularly with senior managers and organisational governance bodies, but also across all of the various departments or project teams that will need to be involved in successful delivery. Commitment to success from everybody is essential.

Don’t rush this process. There’s an old saying about going slow to go fast. Murphy’s Law also warns about the things that haven’t been planned for being more likely to go wrong then those that have.

If additional expertise and resources to deliver a successful community engagement strategy are needed, then please give us a call. We can provide as much as you may need. If you just want an informal chat or somebody to bounce ideas off, we’re up for that too – possibly at no cost to you!