No one wants to come to your public engagement session and maybe you don’t need them to

Meet them where they are

At the workshop after my recent keynote at the Arkansas Municipal League, a guy shared his frustration. He wanted to get people from his town of about 400 people together to hear their ideas. What would they like to see the city become? What kind of improvements could they work on together?

“We have tried having city hall meetings to let them know, ‘Hey, come out. Voice your opinion. Let us know what you would like to see us do,'” he said. “We even went through the churches to let the people there know. ‘Come to the meeting so you can voice your opinion.'”

But people weren’t showing up.

City Hall itself isn’t the friendliest location. It implies this process is all about the city government. People go to City Hall with their problems and negativity, and that negativity has seeped into the walls.

I suggested the answer was already in his question.

I said, “You went to the churches and said, ‘We want to hear from you.’ But then you said, ‘We don’t want to hear from you right now. We don’t want to hear from you here where you’re already in community. We want you to come to City Hall where it feels negative and share your ideas there.'”

He was doing almost everything he needed to do. He just needed to shift from inviting them to City Hall in the future, to inviting them to share right there, right now.

While you’re at the church, ask for those ideas. What are you already doing? What’s going on with your organization? What’s your youth group doing? Who are your connections in the community?

And it’s not just churches. Go everywhere in the community. Two guys playing pickup basketball? Go talk to them. Listen to what they have to say because one of them might be harboring a really great idea.

Where you find the best ideas

You will never get the best ideas for your community by asking people to come to City Hall and sit in council chambers.

The best ideas for your community are out in your community. You have to go look for them and listen to them.

People will get more involved in the things they care about. They won’t necessarily get involved in the things you think they should care about, but they will engage with what matters to them.

So this is what you’re listening for: What do they care about?

Go where community is happening. Listen there.