Engaging on the tough stuff

As community engagement practitioners we sometimes find ourselves wedged in that ‘inform’ part of the IAP2 Spectrum where we’re tasked with delivering tough news to people with little scope for them to influence a project or decision that will affect their lives and/or livelihoods. While the given project or decision might benefit the broader community or population, that often doesn’t mean much to people most impacted by it.

Well-seasoned engagement practitioners will always strive to advocate for the community while balancing organisational or project objectives and priorities. But what do we do when there is no clear win for the community? What is the purpose of our role?

One useful framework to guide our approach when engaging on the tough stuff is the five stages of grief theory, which has taken on several forms in psychology literature over the years. This model provides insight on what people on the receiving end of difficult news might be feeling or thinking:

·         Denial: this generally presents in the field in one of two ways. People can adopt an ‘ignore it and it will go away’ attitude where our project letters go in the bin, our phone calls are not returned, and doorknocks go answered. At other times, people are certain they can overturn the project or decision. We might see people scramble to form community groups and get the local media and MPs involved.

·         Anger: this is potentially the most important stage as it unearths people’s key issues and concerns, often expressed through rage. For productive conversations to take place, the heat needs to come out of the situation. People need to vent, express their emotions and get all the issues on the table.

·         Bargaining: during this stage, people want some control back. They’re looking for a win. Using an infrastructure example, that might be in terms of the route, location, size or even the colour of what’s being built.

·         Depression: people will tend to go a bit quiet here as the reality of the situation starts to sink in.

·         Acceptance: this doesn’t mean that people are happy or supportive of the project or decision, but instead their emotions begin to settle. They understand they can’t change the situation and are learning to live with it.

As engagement practitioners, when engaging on the tough stuff, our role is critical in helping people move towards acceptance of the tough news we’re delivering.

To counter denial, we need solid communication and engagement planning and implementation with multiple touch-points, clearly articulated benefits, consistent messaging, and an outline of the process to date and what’s coming next.  We need to actively listen, show genuine empathy and not take anger personally in order to pave a productive way forward. We need to be well-across what is and what isn’t negotiable when it comes to bargaining. And we need to stay in touch, build trust by doing what we say we will, and provide people with support and information through depression towards acceptance.

The Spectrum Comms team has many years’ experience engaging on the tough stuff across road, rail, water, mining, gas, electricity and renewable energy projects. For advice the next time you need to engage on the tough stuff, please get in touch.