Why aren’t they participating?

A common public engagement challenge is lack of participation. Municipalities are often faced with having to think about different and creative ways to get people to participate. Some have coordinated community BBQs where people receive a meal and are then invited to provide input about a project or issue. Others “go to where they are” by attending local events and asking people to share their ideas. Despite these efforts the struggle to get people to take part is very real, especially in the time of a pandemic.

So, what if we took a step back and thought about what influences people’s decision to participate?

Seth Godin talks about how our worldviews affect the information we consume. He defines worldview as the rules, values and beliefs that an individual brings to a situation. Your worldview affects what you pay attention to and he talks about how people clump together into common worldviews (which is not news for those familiar with the trials and tribulations of social media algorithms).  Godin suggests that to help get opportunities on people’s radars we need to do some work to understand their worldviews.

A good framework for this exploration comes from Warren Berger in his book A More Beautiful Question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. He highlights how best to reveal underlying assumptions through questions so that we can discover our predisposed ideas and gain a better understanding of where the community is at. A starting point for this exercise could include questions like –

·      We understand “x” to be an issue or an important project, why might people disagree?

·      Why do they see this differently?

·      What if we dug deeper into these viewpoints, what might we learn?

·      How could we apply what we learn?

This line of questioning can help gain insight into those community wishes and grudges that Godin references as key parts of people’s worldviews. It can help reveal what people value and what they believe. These insights can then be used to frame the project or issue so that it resonates with the community. And, when it’s time to invite participation, what you learn can help you choose words and images that generate attention because it is being done with an understanding of what is significant to people about the project or issue. Carving out a bit of time at the beginning of your engagement planning to explore this with your colleagues, your elected officials and your stakeholders could go a long way in helping influence people’s decision to participate.