Engaging Communities – Beyond Surveys: A Practical Guide

Haley Sharpe is passionate about including communities in decision-making about their local heritage and culture, and our consultancy team are experts at inclusive and accessible consultation. With an increase in value placed on public engagement, communities are increasingly being subject to impersonal questionnaires and feedback forms. Our heritage consultant, Lucy Asbridge, has highlighted her three top tips for developing creative consultation to combat ‘survey fatigue’.

1)?Asking the question – developing creative engagement starts by asking the right questions. When using creative engagement tools, it is crucial to narrow engagement down to just a few questions. From experience having one central core question, with a few additional questions creates a firm base. For example, engagement may focus around asking ‘What would make you want to visit this museum?’, with further questions such as ‘What stories are you interested in?’, or ‘How much would you pay for a ticket’.? It is also important to frame these questions in both a positive manner and centered on the participants’ own experience, for example asking, ‘Why would you…’ rather than ‘Why do you think people aren’t…’.

2) Get creative – participants in workshops want to ‘do’ or ‘make’ more than they want to talk. This is especially true when engaging with audiences who would not traditionally visit a cultural or heritage venue. Developing methods of creative engagement does not need to be resource intensive, and often only a few simple materials are needed. Engagement methods can be broadly placed within the following categories.

• Comment Activities – using an interactive tool such as bottle tops or sticky notes, or digital platforms such as Slido, to ‘vote’ or comment on proposals. This is especially good as a warmup activity to get participants in the right frame of mind and to relax into the session.
• Making Activities – asking participants to create something which reflects their views – this could be a collage, model, floorplan, or any other art form.
• Dream Activities – for young participants, designing a dream museum / gallery / attraction is an accessible and exciting activity which can yield a range of insights and spark conversation
• Challenge Activities – using a twist on an established and known activity e.g. a ‘Silent Auction’ to understand economic value or using a target to place ideas in increasing value to get the best results possible.
• Storytelling Activities – tell the story of your visit through a comic, storyboard, timeline or similar.

This list is not extensive but gives a good basis for most consultations. The key is to be open and responsive to the needs and individuality of each project – and reflect the uniqueness of each site within the consultation approach.

3) Observe and listen – Participants will provide feedback through the activities above, but also through their natural discussions whilst participating. It is important to listen to conversation communities have as they engage and where appropriate, gently nudge through the auxiliary questions to enrich and deepen the feedback received.