Why community consultation methods must change

"I wrote on this butcher's paper two decades ago and nothing has changed"

How would you respond to that statement if you were the consultant at the front of the room?

I responded diplomatically. That's what I was paid for, and the budget and project timeframe didn't extend to tears and sympathy.

Yet, the simple, yet powerful statement was the beginning of the end of my consultancy journey as I'd known it.

The woman in the room spoke a truth of regional community members every day, everywhere.

A visceral response to an outdated communication and planning system, a clear indicator that even if we were listening, the custodians of the many and varied reports certainly were not hearing.

It's little wonder community members get miffed with consultation processes that go nowhere. In marginalised communities you could ditch the weekly shop and instead eat out on the consultation sandwiches simply ensuring there is balance in your diet via varying your food preferences on the RSVP list.

In the regions the tradition model is something like this:

• Consultant arrives in town as part of a heavily scheduled roadshow. Sleeps in the nearest regional city or largest town.
• Sets up the PowerPoint / Slido in the most professional looking conferencing centre or club (maybe a hall)
• Greets the audience, states the case, provides list of pre-approved discussion points, gathers the information
• And leaves town
• A few months later the report is published with accompanying mission supporting quotes and data
• Hands are wiped, contracts are settled and the next project starts

While there are some variations of this process which may involve multiple conversations, collection techniques and engagement strategies, some common factors remain:

• Budgets and turnaround times only allow for narrow consultation windows
• The notion that the process is a 'consultation' not a conversation
• Only the loudest voices are represented
• Important parts of the community will never be heard
• Many of the people who are actually doing the work will probably be too busy, and possibly too jaded to show up
• A 3hr process will never capture anything other than vested interests and brain farts

It's been a while now since that butchers paper conversation, but over the years it's certainly been one of those comments that have stuck, urging me to look closely at my practice.

Late last year I met Chad Renando and we agreed to pilot something new. Throughout 2024 we have piloted the Ready Communities model in Kempsey, NSW. The model combines many different community influencing modalities - it is place-based, is applies both community and economic development principles, it pays respect to collective impact practices.

Really, at it's core, Ready Communities is a long, rich conversation with a regional community. The conversation starts with the usual fanfare of a consultation process, however, as it tapers into smaller, more intimate conversations in cafes, via social media, phone and email, over coffee, wine or chance meetings in the street or at local events it becomes something very different.

Why? Obviously, in time people open up, new people step in and new conversations have the opportunity to evolve. There are two very important factors of the Ready Communities process to consider:

1. It's about possibility, not problems
2. It's about driving community-led action around community-identified ideas

Within the first weeks of our pilot 120 community members, hungry for change had identified 70 initiatives they wanted to see acted upon.

My brain set about finding out how to solve the problems. Chad observed them.

It drove me nuts.

I told him I felt like I had 70 screaming babies looking at me for support.

He told me to just look at them.

I didn't like him very much in that moment.

But I paused, I waited, and I looked. Actually, that's a lie. The truth is I started to resuscitate some of the initiatives, and left the ones I thought may have a chance.

It wasn't very long until people started stepping up. They started identifying the resources they had at hand and they started doing.

I noticed the projects I was carrying continued to require that approach. I felt very tired.

I wouldn't publicly say he was right, but I will say I'm pleased for the opportunity to pause.

Seven months down the track it is easy to spot the initiatives that have been led by the local community versus us doing 'at' community. How? These things have stuck.

Nevertheless, through this process we've noticed other consultation processes emerge in the same community. While they have been around different themes the common thread has been (1) the processes have called upon the same people and (2) the processes have simply been about asking, not enabling.

As I observed this, a different type of community consultation paradigm emerged in my mind. Imagine if:

• Communities were asked once, and then had the opportunity to continue to contribute to the conversation thereby consulting in a place-based framework rather than isolated consultation (perhaps for consultation's sake)
• Local community members were enabled with skills in facilitation, community consultation and data capture and analysis better enabling the conversation, and understanding of its findings to continue over a longer period
• Various stakeholders were using information from the same hymn sheet, rather than replicating processes and relying on the people who show up, and the mood they are in on the day to inform important community initiatives
• Conversations were embedded in a 'can do' not 'we are going to hell in a handbasket' frame
• Where a local leader emerges - imagine if they are equipped with the support and resources needed to realise their solution (noting, it's not always money the genuine people need

Can you imagine - if you wanted to get something done in a community and there was a resource that showed you what people wanted to do and who the local leader in that is?

That.

I'm excited about this community enabling program and what it could mean for the future of regional communities. Want to learn more? Reach out.

www.readycommunities.com.au

A note of gratitude to the supporters of the Ready Macleay pilot program, particularly our program partner, local backbone entity Learning the Macleay and for supporting and enabling us to pilot this in your community. It's been an absolute delight and we are very much looking forward to delivering the Social Impact in the Regions in town in just a few weeks.