Need to pass a ballot initiative? Trying to attract and retain families? Building a new service or program that you want your community to enjoy?
Public service is a tough job. It’s tougher when your team’s hard work draws criticism. How do you produce good fruit instead of becoming a target for the rotten kind?
You grew up in the community. Half your friends grew up there. You talk to people in the milk section of the grocery store. You have a swarm of kids at your door on Halloween. You think you know what’s important to your community. And you are mistaken.
You do know what’s important to segments of the community, but not to all segments, and not on a specific issue. On top of that, the segments that comprise a community are constantly shifting. About 15% of the U.S. population moves every year, and only about 30% of the movers forward their address at the Post Office. Your neighbor Sue has been there 30 years, but there may be fewer people like Sue in the community.
People anchor opinions on conversations they’ve had in the past several years. But the perspectives of people who shaped those opinions have evolved as they age and as social, political and economic changes happen. Our anchored opinions don’t evolve as rapidly as the experiences of the people who helped form them. So not only has the composition of the segments changed in the last few years, but the perspectives of the people in those segments have changed too. Unless you are very deliberate in updating what you know about community values, then you quickly become out of touch with the community as a whole. So does your staff. So does your Board.
That is why you fail.
If you need to pass that millage or keep 20-somethings from leaving town with their friends, then get serious about investing time and resources in understanding what segments care about, engaging them in decisions, connecting them to actions, and telling the story behind your initiative in a way that is compelling to them – based on their specific values.
The first step is to be clear about the decisions you need to make. List them out. Then identify the questions that will help you chose which decision to make.
For example, you need to decide which road improvements to make and how to fund them. Some questions could be:
There are many ways to answer these questions, but they boil down into three broad approaches: qualitative research, quantitative research, and ethnographic research.
Ethnographic research could be the easiest. It is simply observable evidence such as an objective rating of road conditions based on the number of fractures, pot holes, drainage, etc. Traffic accidents is another example, or the volume of gasoline sold by stations in different areas of the community in the past year, or the percentage of people in different consumer segments with their beliefs and buying patterns. Ethnographic information is often straightforward to project into the future based on economic activity, developments, lifecycle of roads, etc. While some of this data can be gathered by your staff, it often requires specialized experts or regional authorities to participate in providing this data.
Qualitative research is essentially talking to people, especially people outside your normal circle of acquaintances. This research shines in its ability to explore a range of opinions, understand values, identify worries, figure out why people do things, brainstorm, and test ideas to see what the reactions are. If done deliberately, this research can be done at Board meetings or in the milk section or on Facebook. Often, it is done through workgroups and focus groups to ensure there is time and focus to fully explore the issue. In qualitative research, you may discover that sidewalks are a bigger worry than side streets, and that expanding the road millage with bike trails linking neighborhoods and parks with downtown gets people more excited about supporting it than a millage that just paints the roads black.
Quantitative research is usually done with a survey to either everyone in the population you want to study (such as voters) or a scientifically drawn sample. Surveys allow you to understand exactly which options appeal to the most people along with the most important reasons they would support or oppose. Surveys also can help you understand which demographic groups are undecided and how to communicate with them. They also help you measure of different segments in your population respond to specific ideas so you can engage them based on what matters the most to them.
These three types of research – ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative – provide powerful insights and focus to move your work forward. But your understanding doesn’t mean that the entire community understands what you are trying to achieve. You need to communicate more effectively than you do today.
Here are some tips:
It takes significant effort to develop detailed understanding about how segments of your population think about an issue and to develop effective tactics to reach them. It is especially challenging if you do not have established systems and habits in place. But this effort improves the odds that your ballot initiative, place making efforts, and program offerings are successful. And the effort gets easier the more often you use it.
Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations affordably engage communities through high-quality surveys, dynamic population segmentation, focus groups and work groups that use instant audience feedback technology. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help you thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. For more information, email us at [email protected], or call 877.888.0209.
Public service is a tough job. It’s tougher when your team’s hard work draws criticism. How do you produce good fruit instead of becoming a target for the rotten kind?
You grew up in the community. Half your friends grew up there. You talk to people in the milk section of the grocery store. You have a swarm of kids at your door on Halloween. You think you know what’s important to your community. And you are mistaken.
You do know what’s important to segments of the community, but not to all segments, and not on a specific issue. On top of that, the segments that comprise a community are constantly shifting. About 15% of the U.S. population moves every year, and only about 30% of the movers forward their address at the Post Office. Your neighbor Sue has been there 30 years, but there may be fewer people like Sue in the community.
People anchor opinions on conversations they’ve had in the past several years. But the perspectives of people who shaped those opinions have evolved as they age and as social, political and economic changes happen. Our anchored opinions don’t evolve as rapidly as the experiences of the people who helped form them. So not only has the composition of the segments changed in the last few years, but the perspectives of the people in those segments have changed too. Unless you are very deliberate in updating what you know about community values, then you quickly become out of touch with the community as a whole. So does your staff. So does your Board.
That is why you fail.
If you need to pass that millage or keep 20-somethings from leaving town with their friends, then get serious about investing time and resources in understanding what segments care about, engaging them in decisions, connecting them to actions, and telling the story behind your initiative in a way that is compelling to them – based on their specific values.
The first step is to be clear about the decisions you need to make. List them out. Then identify the questions that will help you chose which decision to make.
For example, you need to decide which road improvements to make and how to fund them. Some questions could be:
- Which roads are in worst condition?
- Which roads will have the most traffic in the next 5 years?
- What are the traffic issues that cause the most frustration?
- How do people want to get around town?
- Why do people want to get around town?
- What are people willing to pay for?
- How do people want to pay for them?
- Are there other ways to pay for them?
There are many ways to answer these questions, but they boil down into three broad approaches: qualitative research, quantitative research, and ethnographic research.
Ethnographic research could be the easiest. It is simply observable evidence such as an objective rating of road conditions based on the number of fractures, pot holes, drainage, etc. Traffic accidents is another example, or the volume of gasoline sold by stations in different areas of the community in the past year, or the percentage of people in different consumer segments with their beliefs and buying patterns. Ethnographic information is often straightforward to project into the future based on economic activity, developments, lifecycle of roads, etc. While some of this data can be gathered by your staff, it often requires specialized experts or regional authorities to participate in providing this data.
Qualitative research is essentially talking to people, especially people outside your normal circle of acquaintances. This research shines in its ability to explore a range of opinions, understand values, identify worries, figure out why people do things, brainstorm, and test ideas to see what the reactions are. If done deliberately, this research can be done at Board meetings or in the milk section or on Facebook. Often, it is done through workgroups and focus groups to ensure there is time and focus to fully explore the issue. In qualitative research, you may discover that sidewalks are a bigger worry than side streets, and that expanding the road millage with bike trails linking neighborhoods and parks with downtown gets people more excited about supporting it than a millage that just paints the roads black.
Quantitative research is usually done with a survey to either everyone in the population you want to study (such as voters) or a scientifically drawn sample. Surveys allow you to understand exactly which options appeal to the most people along with the most important reasons they would support or oppose. Surveys also can help you understand which demographic groups are undecided and how to communicate with them. They also help you measure of different segments in your population respond to specific ideas so you can engage them based on what matters the most to them.
These three types of research – ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative – provide powerful insights and focus to move your work forward. But your understanding doesn’t mean that the entire community understands what you are trying to achieve. You need to communicate more effectively than you do today.
Here are some tips:
- People use a wide variety of sources to get information: local TV, radio, friends, newsletters, social media, email, etc. To reach them, you need to communicate across many of these different communication channels if you hope to get their attention.
- People are busy, so helping them understand an issue is a challenge even if it lands in the communication channel that they use. There are 1,000 other messages competing with yours. To break through, it’s important to communicate over and over again across all those channels. About the time you are sick of communicating an issue is the time people are starting to realize that you might be saying something.
- People may not care about what you have to say. This is where understanding their values is especially helpful, as you can frame the problem as something that endangers something they care about, and the solution as being something that will help what they care about thrive.
- People may not believe you. Developing relationships and buy-in with other groups in the community can provide major benefits in this area. Ask them to repeat your message across communication channels as well. Community members may not be ready to believe you, but if they are hearing the same message from other organizations that they trust, then they will find your message more credible.
It takes significant effort to develop detailed understanding about how segments of your population think about an issue and to develop effective tactics to reach them. It is especially challenging if you do not have established systems and habits in place. But this effort improves the odds that your ballot initiative, place making efforts, and program offerings are successful. And the effort gets easier the more often you use it.
Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations affordably engage communities through high-quality surveys, dynamic population segmentation, focus groups and work groups that use instant audience feedback technology. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help you thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. For more information, email us at [email protected], or call 877.888.0209.
