Questions change everything in community engagement | Max Hardy | TEDxStKilda

Summary

In this insightful talk, the speaker humorously recounts his experience as a community engagement practitioner, a role often misunderstood. He emphasizes the importance of asking the right questions in community engagement to foster meaningful dialogue and innovative solutions. Through engaging stories, he illustrates how poorly thought-out questions can polarize, while well-crafted ones can unite communities and lead to effective outcomes, highlighting the transformative power of genuine curiosity and high expectations in public consultations.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker has worked for 20 years as a community engagement practitioner, a role that many people are unfamiliar with.
• 🗣️ Community engagement is often misunderstood and can be referred to by various terms such as community consultation, public participation, and citizen engagement.
• 🏛️ It is generally initiated by governments and is seen as a process for involving communities in decisions that affect them.
• 🌐 The speaker believes community engagement has the potential to strengthen democracy and build community connections beyond just influencing decisions.
• 🚫 A concern raised is that the practice of community engagement has not reached its full potential due to government entities asking ordinary questions and expecting little from communities.
• 🔍 The story of a pipeline in Glen Davis illustrates the importance of genuine community engagement and the risks of making assumptions without proper investigation.
• 🌳 A Victorian council's approach to dealing with large trees and pavers highlights the negative impact of poorly thought-out questions and the benefits of involving the community in creative problem-solving.
• 🤝 The importance of asking better questions in community engagement is emphasized, as they can lead to smarter, more enduring solutions.
• 💡 Einstein's quote about spending time generating the right question before finding the solution is used to stress the importance of questioning in community engagement.
• 🌟 The speaker suggests a formula for successful community engagement involving a great question, genuine curiosity, high expectations, and a diverse community.
• 🤔 The script concludes with a call to action, prompting the audience to consider the thoughtful questions they could ask and the world they are creating with their current questions.

Q & A

What is a community engagement practitioner?

A community engagement practitioner is a professional who facilitates conversations between communities and decision-makers, often initiated by governments, to involve the community in decisions that affect them. It may also be known as community consultation, public participation, citizen engagement, or public involvement.

Why did the parent call Mr. Hardy?

The parent called Mr. Hardy because she was worried that her daughter, who attended a birthday party at Mr. Hardy's daughter's house, didn't know what her father did for a living, unlike the other children at the party.

What did Mr. Hardy learn from the phone call with the concerned parent?

Mr. Hardy learned that his daughter was unable to explain his job as a community engagement practitioner, which led to the realization that even he struggled to succinctly describe what he did for a living.

What is the potential impact of community engagement beyond influencing decisions?

Beyond influencing decisions, community engagement has the potential to strengthen democracy, build community connections, and contribute to a range of positive outcomes beyond just providing input to decisions.

Why were government entities asking ordinary questions of their community?

Government entities often ask ordinary questions because they expect very little of their community, which may be due to a lack of belief in the community's ability to contribute meaningfully to decision-making.

What was the issue with the pipeline in the Cape Verde Valley?

The issue with the pipeline was that thousands of liters of water were being lost, which was financially unviable to replace, especially considering the small population of the town it served.

Why did the government plan to disconnect the water supply in Glen Davis?

The government planned to disconnect the water supply in Glen Davis due to the high cost of replacing the pipeline and the belief that it was not financially viable for such a small community.

What was the outcome of the community engagement in Glen Davis regarding the water pipeline?

The outcome was that the community and government officials discovered that the pipeline was in better condition than expected, and the actual issue was an illegal tap being used for growing crops to make whiskey. A memorandum of understanding was developed, and the problem was resolved without replacing the pipeline.

What did the speaker learn from the experience in Glen Davis about the importance of asking the right questions?

The speaker learned that asking the right questions is crucial for identifying the actual problem and avoiding unnecessary solutions. It also highlighted the importance of genuinely engaging with the community and expecting more from them.

What advice does the speaker give about the questions we ask in community engagement?

The speaker advises that we should ask thoughtful questions that expect more of people, show genuine curiosity, and have high expectations for the community's ability to come together and find solutions.

What impact can the questions we ask have on the world we create?

The questions we ask can shape the world we create by influencing the perspectives, actions, and outcomes of community engagement. Thoughtful questions can lead to more positive and transformative results.

Outlines

00:00

😀 The Misunderstandings of Community Engagement

The speaker begins by humorously highlighting the obscurity of the term 'community engagement practitioner' and shares an anecdote about a parent's confusion regarding their profession. They explain community engagement as a process involving the community in decisions that affect them, often initiated by governments. The speaker expresses concern about the underutilization of community engagement's potential to strengthen democracy and build connections. They recount a story from 1996 involving a pipeline issue in a small town, where government officials were reluctant to engage with the community due to fear of backlash, leading to a four-year delay in addressing the problem.

05:02

🤔 The Power of Questions in Community Engagement

This paragraph delves into the importance of asking the right questions in community engagement. The speaker criticizes the tendency to ask ordinary questions that lead to ineffective engagement processes. They reference David Cooper Oda's view that the world we live in is shaped by our questions, which can either damage or transform communities. The speaker shares examples of how poorly thought-out questions led to negative outcomes, such as a council's plan to remove old trees causing public outrage and a divisive question about the primary purpose of national parks. They emphasize the need for better questions that invite community participation in creative problem-solving, as demonstrated by a successful case where a community collaboratively found a cost-effective solution to street accessibility.

10:04

💡 The Formula for Effective Community Engagement

The speaker concludes by discussing the formula for effective community engagement, which includes a great question, genuine curiosity, high expectations, and a diverse community. They argue that these elements lead to healthier conversations and smarter, more enduring solutions. The speaker uses Einstein's quote about the importance of asking the right question as a metaphor for the significance of questioning in community engagement. They also reflect on the story of Glenn Davis, where initial assumptions about a failing pipeline were proven wrong through community engagement, leading to a more accurate understanding of the issue and a successful resolution. The speaker encourages the audience to consider the thoughtful questions they could ask and the world they are creating with their current questions.

Keywords

💡Community Engagement

Community Engagement refers to the process of involving the community in conversations about decisions that affect them. It is central to the video's theme as it discusses the importance of this process in strengthening democracy and building community connections. In the script, the speaker shares anecdotes about how community engagement has been initiated by government and the potential it has beyond just influencing decisions.

💡Citizen Participation

Citizen Participation is a key aspect of community engagement, emphasizing the active involvement of citizens in decision-making processes. The video highlights the potential of citizen participation to not only provide input to decisions but also to transform and connect communities. It is exemplified in the script through the story of the pipeline issue, where community members were involved in identifying the real problem.

💡Public Involvement

Public Involvement is similar to community engagement and citizen participation, focusing on the inclusion of the public in discussions and decisions that impact them. The script uses this term to describe the various ways in which community members can be involved, such as through consultation or public participation, and how this involvement can lead to better outcomes.

💡Government Initiatives

Government Initiatives are programs or actions taken by the government to address issues or improve conditions for the public. In the context of the video, government initiatives are often the starting point for community engagement, as seen in the example of the water pipeline problem where the government sought to engage the community in finding a solution.

💡Community Consultation

Community Consultation is the process of seeking the views and opinions of the community on specific issues. The script mentions this term as one of the various terms used to describe the practice of involving communities in decision-making, emphasizing the need for genuine dialogue and not just selling preconceived solutions.

💡Questions

Questions play a pivotal role in the video, serving as a tool for initiating community engagement and shaping the outcomes. The speaker argues that the questions we ask are formative, having the power to polarize or transform. The script provides examples of how poorly thought-out questions can lead to conflict, while well-crafted questions can foster creative solutions.

💡Polarization

Polarization refers to the division of a group into opposing sides, often with strong disagreement. In the video, polarization is discussed as a potential negative outcome of asking the wrong questions in community engagement, leading to conflict rather than collaboration. The example of the national parks question illustrates how certain questions can polarize a community.

💡Creative Solutions

Creative Solutions are innovative approaches to problem-solving that often emerge from collaborative efforts. The video emphasizes the importance of expecting more from community members and fostering an environment where creative solutions can be generated. The story about the Victorian council and the large trees is a prime example of how a community came together to find a creative and cost-effective solution.

💡Genuine Curiosity

Genuine Curiosity is an attitude of open-mindedness and interest in learning from others. The speaker in the video suggests that asking questions with genuine curiosity can lead to healthier conversations and smarter solutions. It is a key component of the formula for effective community engagement presented in the script.

💡High Expectations

High Expectations involve believing in the capacity of people to rise to the occasion and contribute meaningfully to a process. The video argues that having high expectations of community members can lead to better engagement and outcomes. The script contrasts this with the negative impact of assuming people are selfish or incapable.

💡Diverse Community

A Diverse Community encompasses a range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. The video stresses the importance of including a diverse community in the engagement process to ensure a variety of viewpoints are considered. The formula presented by the speaker includes a diverse community as a key element for achieving enduring solutions.

Highlights

Community engagement is often misunderstood and can be defined in various ways such as community consultation, public participation, and citizen engagement.

The potential of community engagement extends beyond decision-making to strengthening democracy and building community connections.

Government entities typically ask ordinary questions of communities and expect little in return, which may limit the effectiveness of community engagement.

A story about a parent's concern over a child's inability to explain their father's job highlights the complexity and importance of community engagement.

In a case study from 1996, community engagement was used to address water loss in a pipeline, revealing the importance of genuine dialogue with community members.

The fear of engaging communities due to potential backlash or misunderstanding can lead to delays in decision-making and missed opportunities for collaboration.

The importance of asking the right questions in community engagement was emphasized, as they can either damage or transform and connect communities.

An example of a poorly asked question leading to public outrage and hate mail towards a disability access committee illustrates the power of questions in community engagement.

A better approach to community engagement involves inviting the community to be part of a creative process to solve problems, as demonstrated by a Victorian council's solution to tree roots damaging pavers.

The process of finding the right question is crucial and can lead to smarter and more enduring solutions, as suggested by Einstein's quote about the importance of question formulation.

A formula for effective community engagement includes a great question, genuine curiosity, high expectations, and a diverse community.

The story of Glen Davis and the pipeline issue shows how community mistrust and incorrect assumptions can lead to proposed solutions for non-existent problems.

The discovery of an illegal tap on the pipeline in Glen Davis demonstrates the importance of accurate problem identification before proposing solutions.

The Glen Davis case study also highlights the value of community knowledge and the potential for community members to be assets rather than problems.

The presentation concludes with a call to action for attendees to consider the thoughtful questions they ask and the world they are creating with those questions.

The importance of believing in people's ability to rise to the occasion and contribute to solutions is emphasized as a key aspect of successful community engagement.

Transcripts

the last 20 years I've worked as a

community engagement practitioner you

probably don't know what that is most of

you don't don't worry you're not alone I

remember many years ago getting a phone

call a very worried parent and I

answered the phone she said mr. Hardy I

said yes she said your Lenore's father I

said yes

she said I'm very worried your daughter

came to our place she came to my

daughter's birthday party yesterday and

all the kids knew what their parents did

except your daughter struggled so at

this point I was thinking that she

reckoned I was a drug dealer so I said

would you like me to try and explain

what I do she said yes I said right okay

doesn't notice so the next five minutes

or so it really did my best to explain

what I did for a living and there was

just silence on the other end of the

phone and I said has that helped at all

she said yes it has helped a great deal

thank you I said great so you know what

I'm doing she said no but now I know why

your daughter couldn't explain it so

community engagement is known by a

number of terms that may be familiar or

not familiar to like community

consultation public participation

citizen engagement public involvement

any of those terms and generally it's

understood or defined as the process for

involving the community in conversations

about decisions that interest them or

affect them often community engagement

is initiated by government I believe the

community engagement can do a lot more

than just influence decisions it has the

potential to strengthen democracy it has

the ability to also build community

build connections and do a whole lot

more than just provide some input to

decisions and one of the things that's

really concerned me for many years about

the practice is that hasn't for fear

that promise and one of the reasons for

that is that government entities usually

ask really ordinary questions of their

community and they expect very little of

their community

I do remember on one occasion 1996 this

is a long time ago now but engineers

were really concerned about a problem

with the pipeline it was a pipeline that

ran a hundred kilometres from over on

them near the Blue Mountains all the way

to a reservoir in Glen Davis it's sort

of a long way from anywhere but it's in

the middle of the Cape Verde Valley

which is just about as big as the Grand

Canyon anyway in the 1930s they built a

shale oil refinery there and in order to

have that shale oil refinery operate

they need a border so they'd built this

massive pipeline from oberon Dam to Glen

Davis it was decommissioned in the 1950s

because it wasn't financially viable so

the town then that was quite vibrant

shrunk and become a ghost town but

unusual for a ghost town it had running

town water but I very concerned when

when they measured the water flowing

from the top of the escarpment down to

the bottom that thousands and thousands

of litres of water were being lost it

was going to cost about five million

dollars to replace that pipeline and

that didn't stack up commercially when

you only had 40 permanent residents in

the town so government came up with a

plan and the plan was to disconnect the

water supply the pipeline and to give

people water tanks they knew they had to

engage the community in a conversation

about it but engage them about what the

officers of this government authority

was so nervous about going there they

would find a way of delaying taking any

action in the hope that they could get

transferred into another job and this

happened for about four years until

someone had this great idea of getting a

consultant to do the job for them

anyway they found luckily for them they

found a naive young consultant who was

pretty desperate to get some work done

luckily for me I was that consultant so

that was that was interesting and I

thought well okay the first thing I need

to do is I need to I need to approach

the progress Association and ask them

whether it'd be okay if we use their

halt for a few meetings so I'm going to

rang up and ask him he said it might be

possible but he asked me a much more

powerful question and the question he

asked me was will you be bringing your

bulletproof vests at that point I knew

why they delayed so long to actually go

and talk to this community and also why

they referred to it as deliverance

country and I want to return to a story

a bit later on to tell you what actually

happened there

our questions for community engagement

are often very very ordinary and for

that reason the processes are fairly

bumpy and communities are often marketed

to solutions are marketed and I was

really impressed by the work of David

Cooper Oda and some things that he said

and he said our questions are faithful

we live in the world that our questions

create and I think that's quite

significant and quite profound because

in my experience the questions we ask

around community engagement are faithful

they have the power to damage and

polarize and I also have the ability

potentially to transform and connect and

deliver really smart outcomes one was

there was actually a Victorian council

had an issue with large trees that were

jacking up pavers in the main street and

a lot of people had difficulty getting

around in that street but especially

people in wheelchairs and who had

mobility challenges so the disability

access committee had been lobbying

council for years to get this fixed

in their wisdom counsel flicked it to

their public work section and asked them

to come with a solution which they did

they're going to pull out these trees

that were over a hundred years old they

were going to relay the pavers flatten

them out beautifully and replace those

trees with other trees with less

aggressive rootstocks and the question

they went to the community was do you

reckon this will help you get around the

street okay so not only was there public

reaction and outrage most troubling of

all is that people with disabilities on

that access committee started getting

hate mail and people were blaming them

for wanting to pull the trees out it

took them a while to take stock and to

realize that this wasn't going to work

terribly well it was actually doing

damage eventually they came up with a

much better question with a bit of help

and that was how can everybody get

around and enjoy this street how simple

instead of trying to sell a solution

they invited the community to be part of

a creative process to solve the puzzle

how can we do this and they did it they

work together beautifully they come up

with a solution with the help of some

technical experts and they sort of had a

nice pathway on the other side of the

road they kept the trees actually made

beautiful gardens there they had these

access crossings they turned up two-way

street into a one-way street and guess

what the solution was less than half the

price of council's original solution so

I've got another question that I thought

was pretty ordinary one when we were

pulled in to work with a national parks

and Wildlife Service and they wanted to

go to the community with a question

because they were being lobbied by

conservationists and by recreation

enthusiasts and what they said to this

National Parks and Wildlife Service is

you need to resolve this what our

national parks are primarily for and

they wanted to go with the question of

what our national parks meant for

primarily is it for conservation or for

recreation that is an excellent question

if you want to start a brawl that is how

you polarize a community

and so fortunately it was intercepted

before it went public and they had had a

go and come up with a better question

the next one was slightly better it was

how do we balance the needs of

recreation and conservation in our

national parks that was a bit better the

problem being that it assumes that the

more you have of one the less you have

of the other which also makes it a

stupid question and so in the end a much

better question was arrived at how do we

maximize enjoyment of national parks and

improve its environmental value or

improve conservation how do we get both

now that was a question worth asking and

you'll know from a number of solutions

in national parks that boardwalks mean

you can actually enjoy the national park

much more and you do less damage to the

to the environment because you're not

walking on the earth so ask about a

question a community comes together

questions that we ask are often not

terribly well thought through and so

I've got this formula that I use and I

had this in the back of my head all the

time about what we need is a great

question genuine curiosity high

expectations and a diverse community and

that will lead to healthier

conversations and smarter more enduring

solutions for me that's what it's about

so we need to put more thought into

questions

Einstein said something that was

actually quite useful about questions

and that was he said if I had 60 minutes

to save the planet

I'd take 55 minutes trying to generate

the right question because once I worked

out the question I could find the

solution in five minutes

there's something about community

engagement that we kind of don't spend a

real lot of time wondering what is the

question we are asking people to resolve

this affects community engagement a

great deal but it also affects us in

every realm of life what are the

questions we're asking of people and

what impact will those questions have

and I think that if we don't believe

that people can rise to the occasion we

think that

people are so stuck in their point of

view that they're incredibly selfish

that they're opinionated that they're

stupid then why would you engage a

community you wouldn't the best you can

do is try and actually tell them what's

good for them and persuade them that you

know what's good for them it doesn't

work but if that's the attitude then

that's likely to be what happens that we

market the solution and of course that

is what happened at Glenn Davis so let's

return to the story of Glenn Davis

because people didn't believe that the

pipeline was falling to bits actually

said you know what we just think

government doesn't care about us anymore

hearing Glenn Davis and so they were so

mistrustful of the engineers report

about the loss of water that we had a

tour of the pipeline and we piled into

two Land Rovers Land Cruisers and that

group consisted of some community

members and some engineers and public

servants and me and the maintenance

fellow who actually looked after the

pipeline so we did the trip over the

terrain we checked out a number of

points along the pipeline and lo and

behold they said they discovered that

the pipeline was in pretty good

condition and they'll kind of really

confuse us in the pipeline seems to be

fine it seems like all this stuff the

community was saying about the pipeline

being okay was true but there was a

problem what was happening with all this

water loss and a woman looked at me and

she said whiskey I said what whiskey I

heard a rumor of a fellow who was

illegally tapping into the pipeline to

grow crops from which he made whiskey

and it was investigated and it was

absolutely true so here we were trying

to sell a solution to a problem that

didn't exist because we're trying to

work on the wrong problem so after a bit

of investigation we found out that was

true the government authority had

developed a memorandum of understanding

with the community the problem was

solved water is still running which is

kind of cool and at the end of that

field trip we ended up back in the

community hall where

we felt that our lives were under some

sort of threat and the president of the

association opened the fridge and

invited us to drink beer with him so

here's a picture of us at the end of our

trip feeling a lot happier then and it

was kind of a happy ending but of course

every time I share this story someone

will say oh yeah but what would happen

if the pipeline was falling to bits

wouldn't have been any happy ending then

true but I find that people are able to

move on and think creatively about

things or much it will easily accept

hard decisions if they know why they're

being made the other thing that happened

is when we had those meetings in the

hall is a heathered gentleman who's

about 85 who said do you know what I

might be the oldest person here in the

room and I was here before that shale

oil refinery was built and we used to

walk up into the foothills and we used

to get some spring water out of from the

foothills and there was enough water

there for our population of 30 or 40

roughly what we are now he said but I

bet your engineers check that out and

it's not viable for some reason the

engineers went bright-red didn't know

anything about it

so is it amazing we sort of think our

community sometimes is a problem to be

solved rather than an asset to utilize

so I want to leave you with some

questions one question is what would

happen if you asked questions that were

really thoughtful questions where you

expected more of people where you were

genuinely curious where you actually had

high expectations of the ability to

people to come together to arrive at a

solution and the last question for you

is what world are you creating with the

questions that you're currently asking

thank you

[Applause]

[Music]