Building Community Licence in the Digital Domain MAV Rate Capping Forum Thursday 26 November 2015 Matthew Gordon – Founder/Director of OurSay (matthew.gordon@oursay.org)

OurSay Online community engagement company established 2011. Mission: Establish trust and meaningful engagement between government and communities. Product: A technology platform designed to go beyond “the usual suspects” and improve community satisfaction in the areas of engagement, advocacy, decision making and customer service. Today I want to talk about

Who we work with

Key message: there is a gulf between issues facing local government sector and the perceptions from the community

Engagement can be lacklustre at the strategic level

Or engagement looks more like crisis/outrage management.

Finding the connections I wonder what they are thinking out there? COUNCIL BUILDING I wonder what is going on in there? The problem: -community and local government are not close enough -low awareness of local government services and programs -unrealised expectation about the value of the local government cause -no effective feedback mechanisms for citizens or council officers

Time until a decision is made Innovating Leading Starting Lagging Government Capacity to Engage There’s a moment where the community becomes more engaged and the government is getting ready to close off consultation and make a decision. What is happening here? There’s an opportunity lost here. At this moment, there is an antennae we need to know when the community is ready to engage. Thinking about your staff, how do we hone that foresight/intelligence so they know when to engage? How do we best leverage this opportunity ----- Meeting Notes (4/03/2015 19:35) ----- Use examples for each level Laggard: Abbott and Health Innovator: Iceland constitution, Hepburn, Christchurch re-build. Community Time until a decision is made

Source: Collins Street this morning

Yellow Social Media Report 2015: Reasons Australians use social media

Reference: oursay.org/southgippsland “The OurSay approach secured community endorsement ...and helped both sides build a shared understanding of community priorities, the constraints, the initial and ongoing costs associated and the opportunities for finding creative solutions”  - Tim Tamlin, CEO South Gipplsand Shire helped manage community expectations for its 2015/16 budget. Leading a meaningful conversation around small budgets and increased services well before a rate capping environment. Over 750 people involved Reference: oursay.org/southgippsland

Reference: oursay.org/hepburn “…opting to give control of the process over to the people was one of the most daring but productive decisions council has made in my time. Almost all of the risk we initially perceived was dampened or totally dissolved by allowing the community to fully debate issues in a truly open forum.” Councilor Sebastian Klein Hepburn used the OurSay process to engage 10% of rate base for Council Plan. Lots of diversity and a critical mass to impact reputation. Project won an International Association for Public Participation, Project of the Year category Reference: oursay.org/hepburn

Increase in satisfaction by ~20% in 2 months of using OurSay Results: more than 10% of ratepayers involved in the development of a council plan, 21% increase in the community’s overall satisfaction with the direction of council & international award. Reputation is almost solely determined by quality of engagement. Remember: From Opinion  to understanding issues  to understanding options  to living with the decision ----- Meeting Notes (4/03/2015 19:35) ----- Can we show a graph with bump on Hepburn compared with other councils Show 2011 and show 2012 OurSay engagement in 2013 did X.

Today I want to tal

Opinion Ownership Options Decision

Opinion Voiced, Valid, Legitimate Limited, Narrow, Untested Not necessarily factual All care no responsibility Loopy

Opinion Ownership See themselves as part of the issue/problem Connection to the issue See themselves as part of the issue/problem Accept the need to act/take responsibility Contemplate behaviour change Can lead to powerlessness/cynicism

Opinion Ownership Options Accept the need to act Search for options, Considers variables Time, resources, money, public interest Seeks solutions

Opinion Ownership Options Decision Prepared to accept solutions Even if it’s someone else’s idea Even if it requires sacrifice Change is understood/accepted

Opinion Ownership Options Decision