How I work
I work with people in councils and not-for-profit organisations who have valuable knowledge and a range of views to reflect in a strategy, policy or plan. They need help to make sense of background information and feedback, so they can agree on the way forward.
My role is to understand the issues, come up with ideas, invite feedback and listen to stakeholders. I reflect on their views when making recommendations, and write clear, concise documents for the people who will deliver the plan.
This page walks through the four steps I use on complex projects, with examples from recent work. I can run the process for you, or show your team how to use AI to help them run it themselves.
The rule underneath it all
There is one rule I stick to when using AI: after every AI step, take a manual step. It keeps me fully connected to my work, and it’s central to all of my AI training.
In practice, that means I read the background material and the feedback myself, I make the recommendations, and I stand behind the content of every document I work on.
Step 1: Research and reporting
What happens: I read the background material and talk to the people closest to the work. Then I write a report that sums up the current situation and includes ideas about where things might go from here. You (or your oversight group) review it and request any changes before we move on to stakeholder engagement.
Your involvement: You provide access to the background documents, and a contact person or small group who can give feedback and approve moving on to the next step.
What you have at the end: An evidence-based picture everyone can work from, and a set of ideas on a way forward.
How I use AI: To find and cross-check information across a large set of background documents, so I can spend more of my time thinking about what it means.
In practice: On a regional youth sector action plan, I spent January reading local research collected over the previous year, then wrote a report setting out where the sector stood and seven ideas worth testing.
AI training example: An organisation interested in AI training asked for my help. I met with two staff members to understand the problem, then developed a detailed proposal that combined my experience of using and teaching AI with what the organisation needed.
Related training: My report writing workshop shows you how to define issues, assess options, outline and draft a report and refine it, with ways to use AI at each step. The standard workshop focuses on committee reports, and can be customised for advisory reports and longer documents. Click here for details about the report writing workshop.
Step 2: Developing and testing the direction through informal engagement
What happens: I present the findings to stakeholders and test the ideas through interviews, meetings and surveys. In my experience, interviews are an excellent way to uncover unexpected ideas, and survey responses help to test assumptions and gauge support at an early stage, while it’s still easy to change the overall direction.
I reflect on all the feedback while summarising it and developing recommendations. That gives you (and any oversight group) a clear line of sight between what people said and how I arrived at the direction in the draft strategy, policy or plan. At this stage I keep the draft document short, so it’s easy to digest.
Your involvement: You advise on who to talk to and the best way to engage with them, based on your knowledge of your organisation, sector or audience.
Designing around consultation fatigue: consultation fatigue can be a problem for time-poor people, and it was a risk on the youth sector project I worked on in 2026. Where participation may be low, we plan engagement methods that are realistic and will still bring in useful insights. I also make it as easy as possible to give feedback, with clear, concise consultation documents.
What you have at the end: A feedback summary, a set of recommendations and a draft direction for you (and your oversight group) to review.
How I use AI: To help plan the engagement process, and to cut the time it takes to summarise and report on feedback. That leaves more time for meeting people, reflecting on what they said and making thoughtful recommendations.
In practice: Consultation on the ideas in the youth sector report ran for a month, with a survey, team meetings and individual interviews. Two of the initial ideas changed shape through this process, leading to easier and more practical actions than I had planned. A new idea also emerged on how to deliver the key actions in the plan. The plan is much stronger for these changes.
AI training example: I wrote questions for its staff survey and interviewed three staff members with different roles and levels of AI experience when revising an AI policy and providing training for an organisation. I reflected on staff feedback in a snapshot of how the organisation was using AI, revised my training plan, and gave feedback on its draft AI policy, ready for discussion during four one-hour training sessions spaced over a month.
Related training:
- My community engagement workshop helps you decide how to engage with your audience, based on their preferences and your natural communication style, with AI-supported processes for creating your engagement plan, surveys and consultation documents. Click here for details about the stakeholder engagement workshop.
- My feedback analysis workshop shows how AI can help with efficient, accurate summaries and deliberations reports, with human judgment at each step. Participants practise on sample text before applying it to their real-life examples, so they leave the workshop with a clear understanding of how to apply the framework to their situation. Click here for details about the feedback analysis workshop.
Step 3: Testing the plan through formal consultation
What happens: A second round of engagement tests the draft version of the plan, policy or strategy while it is still easy to change, and with more emphasis on implementation. This step can include interviews with key people. Then I write a deliberations report and the final document, with SMART goals and clear ways to measure progress towards them.
Why a second round: we all know that implementation is much harder than writing a plan, policy or strategy. It needs to be realistic, resourced and supported by the people who will deliver it, so this second round is part of my standard practice.
Your involvement: you advise on who to consult for this phase.
What you have at the end: a plan that has been tested on how it will be delivered, as well as on its direction.
How I use AI: for planning the engagement, and for summarising and reporting on feedback, as in Step 2.
In practice:
- The second round of engagement for the youth sector project also ran for a month. It included two surveys (one for youth sector organisations and one for young people) and in-depth interviews with central government agencies, councils and other key stakeholders. This feedback guided my recommendations on implementing the plan, and one of the draft actions from the first round dropped away.
- A council’s statement of proposal for a bylaw attracted over 650 submissions. I used an AI-supported process to summarise the submissions for the Policy Adviser, for use in the deliberations report.
- A council’s Residents Survey yielded lots of customer feedback on libraries, sports facilities, swimming pools and community centres. I used AI to present the findings in a digestible report to support decisions on future management of these facilities.
AI training example: I delivered customised AI training for an organisation, and used this process to help the team reach agreement on its AI policy and to generate real-life examples of repeatable AI prompts for an AI guidance library.
Step 4: Handover
What happens: I hand over every document from the development process, so the person responsible for implementing the strategy or plan has access to the full record of information that contributed to the final decisions.
Your involvement: You use the material to implement the completed strategy, plan or policy, and take ownership of the supporting information.
What you have at the end: All the background information which led to the final document stays in your organisation rather than leaving with me.
How I use AI: I can set up the final and background documents in an AI notebook, so you can ask specific questions and get answers based on the full set of source documents.
In practice:
- The youth sector action plan is four pages long, so the focus stays on delivering the actions. The thinking behind it is much more comprehensive, and is provided to the organisation as a resource library
- The council consulting on a bylaw received graphs showing the number of submitters in support and opposition for each of the 10 questions, plus summaries of the comments grouped into themes. It also received the source documents for each question, so any category or number in the analysis could be checked, reducing the risk of relying too heavily on AI.
AI training example: Staff now have a shared understanding of the opportunities and risks related to AI use and how to manage them. They also have a shared library of excellent examples of AI use in their work, for everyone to refer to and to help with onboarding new staff.
I can run the whole process, or just the aspect you need
The four steps are a map rather than a prescription. If you’ve already done the early thinking, or the project is straightforward, we can start further along or leave out a round of engagement.
Next step
The first question is whether you need more capacity or more capability.
Capacity: You have a document to develop and no staff member available to own the process. My strategic planning services are the right fit.
Capability: You have staff to take the project on, and want them to use AI well and consistently. My AI training is the better option.
If you’re not sure which fits, please get in touch and we can work it out together. Email debra.bradley@writingforcouncils.co.nz or phone 021 215 4698.
