Better Together is built on 6 principles that contribute to high quality engagement by bringing community voices into the decision-making process. They should all be considered in planning and implementing an engagement project.
The 6 Better Together principles
Define the purpose of your engagement and what you hope to achieve.
Be clear about how much influence your participants and stakeholders have on a decision or outcome.
This is not about knowing the final outcome of your engagement. What you hear from the communities and stakeholders you engage with will shape your outcome.
Determine who you need to engage with.
Consider whether more than one community group affected, and whether there are groups that are often under-represented or not immediately obvious.
Knowing who to engage with helps you choose the right engagement methods to reach people effectively.
During the engagement process, different voices may compete to be heard. It may be best to engage some groups at different times, or in different ways.
Research your topic and learn about what previous engagements have been done.
Engaging communities and stakeholders too much, too often, or not building on previous engagement activities, can be as bad as not engaging at all.
Engage early to get better outcomes for both the community and government.
Take time to build genuine relationships that are strong and based on trust.
Starting together means working with communities and stakeholders from the beginning to identify challenges and opportunities. Begin with no fixed solution and be open to ideas. Put in the early groundwork to support respectful, open-minded collaboration.
Authenticity is key to meaningful engagement.
Listen to understand and make your engagement accessible, and show people their input matters. Close the feedback loop by explaining how their contributions were used.
People notice when actions or words lack authenticity, or when engagement is done just to ‘tick a box’. Insincere engagement damages public trust and makes it harder for others that are engaging with the right intent.
Put people at the centre of your engagement.
Choose tools and approaches that people want to get involved with.
It is possible to run an engagement that isn’t engaging. Avoid this by taking time to understand your community and what motivates them.
Be creative and find ways to capture the community’s imagination and draw people into the process. Look beyond bureaucratic tools and think about what will feel most personal, relevant and enjoyable for those involved.
