Pauline Webby is a Senior Water & Wastewater Planning Advisor who used the Community Engagement Planning tools to review her communications plan.
Overview
- Project: Review of a communications plan for developing new wastewater solutions for two Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) in the district in partnership with iwi.
- Challenge: To validate and strengthen an iwi partnership engagement approach that differs from traditional council processes.
- Outcome: I validated the proposed approach, clarified tensions with traditional ways of working, and built confidence to communicate the approach credibly.
- Finding: The Community Engagement Planning tools enabled reflective work on thinking styles and engagement design that wouldn’t have been undertaken otherwise
Introduction
Context: As a senior water and wastewater planning advisor, I was working on a communications plan for developing new wastewater solutions for two WWTPs in the district. The plan included an iwi partnership engagement approach that was different from the traditional engagement processes carried out by councils.
The Challenge: I needed to validate my proposed engagement approach and understand how to navigate the tension between traditional council ways of operating – which are very evidence-based and process-oriented – and the more fluid, relationship-focused approach required to build trust with iwi partners and consider innovative solutions.
The Approach: I used two AI tools over the course of two separate days – each took approximately an hour and some thinking time.
Tool 1 – What’s My Engagement Style
I used this tool to reflect on my thinking style profile in relation to the project. It identified that I have strong relationship-focused and innovation-focused strengths, which aligned well with implementing the iwi partnership engagement approach outlined in the communications plan, as well as the ability to translate creative partnership ideas into practical processes. This validated my proposed approach.
Tool 2 – Whole Brain Engagement Designer
I used this tool to think through how to meet the needs of people with different thinking styles during the engagement process. It confirmed the value of a process that starts with the ability to express individual feedback (that does not necessarily all align or agree with each other). This will help build team relationships and develop up the hui plan going forward. This allows everyone to clearly express their views, before we moved on to working as a group, considering the inputs provided and developing a workable plan.
It emphasised the value of engaging a consultant who had conducted a similar project at another council, who could confirm that taking this approach is worthwhile and leads to getting projects done on time and on budget. It also validated our approach of engaging an experienced facilitator comfortable with taking a less structured approach to the meetings to be held during Phase 1 of this long-term project.
The Outcome
The AI tools provided these key benefits:
- Reduced fear of failure by validating my approach and providing constructive feedback
- Built credibility by helping me communicate my thinking in ways that make sense to people with other thinking styles
- Clarified tensions between traditional council approaches and the proposed relationship-focused method
- Raised awareness of different thinking styles, helping me anticipate how people might want to bring meetings back to their preferred ways of working.
- It enabled work that wouldn’t have happened – I wouldn’t have undertaken this type of reflective review without access to these tools.
In summary, this review process provided insights that were both clarifying and confidence-building for moving forward with the project.
Find out More
Click here for more details: community engagement planning tools.
