If We’re Asking the Community to Tick a Box at the End, Are We Really Engaging?

I think we need to get better at talking about the difference between consultation and engagement.

Because they aren’t the same thing.

And in local government, I think we sometimes use the word engagement when what we are actually doing is consultation.

We develop an idea.

We have largely worked out what we want to do.

Then, towards the end of the process, we ask the community what they think.

Maybe there is a survey.

Maybe there is a feedback form.

Maybe there is a box to tick.

And then we call it community engagement.

But if the community’s first opportunity to have a say is when the project is already largely designed, we aren’t really engaging them in the project.

We’re asking them to respond to it.

And there is an important difference.

Consultation and engagement are different

Consultation has a place.

Sometimes we genuinely need to present a proposal and ask for feedback.

Sometimes there are constraints that mean there are only certain things we can change.

Sometimes the purpose of the process is to understand whether a proposed approach is supported.

There is nothing wrong with that.

But we need to be honest about what we are doing.

If we’re consulting, call it consultation.

If we’re engaging, then we need to engage much earlier.

Engagement starts at the beginning.

It starts when the idea is still being formed.

It is an iterative process of testing, listening, refining, changing and adapting.

We put an idea out there.

We listen.

We learn something.

We reconsider.

We test it again.

We bring in another perspective.

We refine the idea.

And the process continues.

The community isn’t simply responding to the finished product.

They are helping shape it.

Good engagement is a feedback loop

The best engagement isn’t a single moment in a project timeline.

It’s a feedback loop.

And it is often multi-layered.

We might be engaging with community members, businesses, local organisations, industry, elected members, Council teams, government departments, Traditional Owners, specialist stakeholders and other people who have a genuine connection to the project.

Each brings a different perspective.

Sometimes those perspectives will align.

Sometimes they won’t.

And that’s okay.

In fact, that’s often where the value is.

Because good engagement isn’t about collecting a room full of people who all agree with us.

It’s about understanding the different perspectives that exist and using that information to make better decisions.

You can’t always give everyone what they want

This is probably one of the hardest parts of meaningful engagement.

You can’t always deliver everything people ask for.

There will be competing priorities.

There will be budget constraints.

There will be legislation, policy, timeframes, infrastructure limitations and strategic considerations.

Sometimes one community group’s preferred outcome will conflict with another’s.

Sometimes the feedback simply isn’t possible to implement.

And that’s okay.

Engagement isn’t a promise that everyone gets what they ask for.

It is a commitment to genuinely listen and consider what people are telling us.

And this is where I think we have another opportunity that is often missed.

Tell people what you heard

A good engagement report can be incredibly valuable.

Not just as a document that gets filed away at the end of a project, but as a record of what a community has told us.

A thorough engagement report can capture the themes, ideas, concerns, opportunities and different perspectives that emerged throughout the process.

It can show what we heard.

It can show how we responded.

And where something couldn’t be incorporated, it can explain why.

But there is another benefit.

It creates a data point for the future.

Six months from now, we might be developing another project.

Two years from now, a new strategy might be underway.

A new team might be working with the same community.

That engagement report becomes a valuable reference point.

We don’t have to start from scratch.

We already have a body of knowledge about what matters to that community, what they value, what challenges they identified and what opportunities they would like to see explored.

Engagement shouldn’t disappear when the project ends.

“You asked us, but you didn’t listen.”

One of the frustrations we hear from communities is:

“You ask us what we think, but you don’t listen.”

Sometimes that’s because the engagement wasn’t actually designed to influence the project in the first place.

Sometimes it is because expectations weren’t managed.

And sometimes it is because we didn’t close the feedback loop.

People don’t necessarily expect us to implement every suggestion they make.

But they do want to know that their contribution mattered.

That means being transparent from the beginning.

What are we asking you about?

What can we change?

What can’t we change?

Who will make the final decision?

How will your feedback be used?

When will you hear back from us?

These conversations are incredibly important.

Because we should never overpromise and underdeliver.

If we tell people they are helping shape something when, in reality, the major decisions have already been made, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment on both sides.

Give people more credit

I also think we sometimes underestimate communities.

People understand that there are constraints.

They understand that governments have budgets, policies, regulations and competing priorities.

They understand that not every idea can be delivered.

What people don’t respond well to is feeling like their time and contribution wasn’t valued.

If we’re upfront about the purpose of the engagement and what influence people can realistically have, we give them the opportunity to participate with a clear understanding of the process.

And when we can’t deliver something, we can explain why.

That’s very different from asking people for their ideas, creating the expectation that they will shape the outcome, and then presenting them with a finished project that bears little resemblance to what they contributed.

So, are we engaging?

I think it’s worth asking ourselves this question at the beginning of every project:

Are we genuinely engaging our community, or are we simply asking them to approve something we’ve already decided?

If we are consulting, let’s be clear that we’re consulting.

If we’re asking for feedback on a fully developed proposal, let’s tell people that.

But if we’re going to call something engagement, let’s do it properly.

Start early.

Listen deeply.

Test ideas.

Adapt.

Create feedback loops.

Bring different perspectives into the process.

Manage expectations.

Close the loop.

And document what we heard.

Because meaningful engagement isn’t about ticking a box at the end of a project.

It’s about creating a process where community has a genuine opportunity to influence what comes next.

And when we do that well, we’re not just creating better projects.

We’re building something much more valuable:

trust.