 |
This Just In…
Seven strategies to achieve lasting community relationships
February 19, 2010
All successful community relationships seem to share seven powerful ingredients. There may be other factors beyond this list, but if any of these seven are missing, community relationship building is that much more difficult.
These seven strategies energize relationships, accommodate differences and perhaps most importantly manage the extraordinary impact of those who perceive themselves as victims.
Make realistic assessments of community attitudes. Listen to their fears and concerns, pursue and answer questions. Let what you learn drive your activities.
1. Promptly commit to do what the community really expects. Offer public meetings. Provide extra data. Address the crucial questions early on and refer back to them often: Is your proposal really necessary? Aren’t there other alternatives? What are the real risks? Why do you have to threaten everything we care about? Why now?
2. Base decision making on realistic assumptions. Personal beliefs and values matter more than economic benefit. Bad decision making angers people. Your proposal must help the community today as well in the future.
3. Ease up on the PR stuff. Focus on face-to-face strategies. Lots of face-to-face means large meetings. Go in the front door rather than the back door. Be sure, before you start, that third party endorsements are really in your interest. Address the community’s concerns directly.
4. Be open with the community to a fault. Be pre-emptive. Whenever possible, talk about issues before they arise.
5. Listen carefully. This means making some adjustments in your plans or concepts to reflect what you have heard from the community. Establish a public timeline of key decisions as well as answers to questions to reduce community surprise.
6. Engagement matters. Assign people to these projects who care about people and neighbors, and communicate empathetically and who can actually have respect among opponents or activists.
Ideally this is an operating person, rather than a PR or public affairs person, someone who wants to be involved and is comfortable being a public figure.
7. Independent local oversight. To be trusted from the start, allow outsiders to look over your shoulder and serve as independent validators of your practices, ideas and decisions. Start early and establish processes for access. This approach disempowers opposition, gives public officials more backbone and helps you manage the inevitable pattern of criticism that public decisions almost always cause.
If you include these seven strategies as you develop community relationships, your odds of success will be much higher and your projects will meet less resistance.
Learn more ...
Want to learn more? There is a lot more to talk about on this topic. You may wish to join the author in a powerful 90-minute PRSA teleseminar on this concept called Building Community Relationships, on Thursday, February 25, 2010 from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. EDT. Please visit PRSA's Web site for more information and to register.
This teleseminar provides 1.0 Maintenance Credit towards the minimum of 10 credits required to maintain your APR. Please contact Kathy Mulvihill at (212) 460-1436.
Comments
No comments have been submitted yet.
Post a Comment
Editor’s Note: Please limit your comments to the specific post. We reserve the right to omit any response that is not related to the article or that may be considered objectionable.