Grounding in Community Feedback
By Melanie Tsuchida
When it comes to our strategic planning projects, it is rare to not include some form of community engagement. Collecting feedback from an organization’s staff, participants, key partners, and board members allows for discussions and decisions to be grounded in the experiences and perspectives of those who have the most knowledge and understanding of the organization. Throughout numerous projects with clients, I’ve seen the value of authentic community engagement and the ways in which it can help organizations move forward with more insight, knowledge, and attentiveness. Below are some ways I’ve seen community engagement elevate our strategic planning work with clients:
Affirming what organizations already know. I’ve seen clients breathe a sigh of relief knowing that what they believe to be true is also what their community believes to be true of them. While not groundbreaking, feedback that affirms what organizations already know helps with level setting and a foundation for the next steps in the process.
Lift up what people have been thinking but haven’t been able to name. There are times when feedback from the community helps name and bring attention to certain topics or ideas that have been discussed in smaller groups, felt individually, or brushed aside. By bringing authentic feedback into the process, organizations have the exciting, hard, and pivotal conversations that are needed to ensure their organization is responding to their community.
Call in organizations to respond to the voices and experiences of those with marginalized identities. At times, a community engagement process reveals differing experiences, feelings, and perceptions based on the identities or background of participants, staff, or partners. When this occurs, organizations acknowledge, center, and respond in a way that values equity.
Help answer big questions about direction. At Point b(e) Strategies, we often ask clients to think through the big questions facing their organization and its strategic direction. Community engagement provides organizations’ clients, participants, staff, and partners the opportunity to weigh in on those big questions, ensuring answers or solutions aren’t made in silos.
Clarify how others perceive and understand organizations’ work. Often times, the community engagement process reveals insight into how others perceive the organization, clarifying its unique value, role, and purpose within the community or system.
Whether affirming what an organization already knows, helping answer big questions, or shedding light on important discussions, the benefit of grounding in community feedback, and doing so early on in the process, helps an organization move forward with more clarity and make decisions that prioritize the experiences and perceptions of those who will be most impacted by the organization’s new strategic direction.
