A positive hook
Engaging positive dialogue in a bad news climate
How do you engage positive dialogue in an environment that feeds on bad news?
While the Ready Communities engagement formally lasts for two years chances are it’s ripples will continue for the full decade or more. Still, we knew from the outset there were two clear pathways to take when choosing how to engage the audience:
- Find the biggest, most dramatic issue in the community, seek out the online trolls and keep feeding them as community members engaged in what they thought was a process to solve their pointy issue or
- Choose things that people care enough about and could see a positive and future focused pathway for
Obviously we chose the second pathway. And while the community raged around rate rises and crime spikes we set a more steady course generating positive conversations on agricultural communities, youth futures, creative industries, housing and CBD activation.
Of course frustrated people can find the negative side of anything and as I walked around the CBD noting the 33 empty shops I spoke with shop owners who raged about greedy landlords, rising rates (popular topic), online shopping and how Covid made people do that and they would never come back.
I remembered that retail is difficult, and my approach also played a role in how this conversation shaped up. I remembered that my questions are as important as my energy.
It’s not about me.
I walked into a shop and the woman nearly jumped over the counter with excitement “people don’t come to this side of the street” she told me.
“This looks great, it’s exactly what we need”
I noted my new best friend’s business and she assured me she’d be at our upcoming public meeting.
I remembered that if I was stuck in my head I wouldn’t have had that conversation.
Keep it positive.
I spoke with another retailer whose weekly takings rose from $11.5K per week to $19K per week during Covid. I noted that’s a lot of sandwiches and next to that a note about facts versus good stories.
Know the facts.
Later that day I participated in my first radio interview on the project with the local community radio station. I noted the distinct tone of a weary community volunteer whose passion for her under-funded station raged over the trail of over-paid consultants who are constantly extracting from the local community. She kept spitting the word ‘consulted’ at me probing for the results that would come through the communities efforts.
I know this song well. It’s an earworm that drives me nuts too.
“We aren’t here to talk” I told her “we are here to assist the community to do”
She called later to tell me that she booked in.
Keep it positive
In a few weeks we’ll deliver our first Community Conversations and further test the chosen themes and their ability to maintain a positive dialogue.
For further information on the Ready Communities project founded by Kerry Grace and Dr. Chad Renando in 2023, visit this link
