Library: How-To Tips: Setting goals and expectations
- Ensuring that citizens are informed and connected;
- Resolving conflicts and bridging divisions in the community;
- Involving citizens in an important policy decision, or in the development of a plan;
- Generating innovative solutions to community problems, and encouraging citizens and citizen groups (including churches, businesses, nonprofits, and neighborhood associations) to help implement them;
- Providing skills and connections for new leaders; and
- Involving people who haven't been active in the community before.
Local leaders sometimes emphasize one of these goals more than the others, and they will adjust how they structure the project accordingly. For situations where the public is relatively uneducated about the issue, organizers will include informational sessions early on in the process. When conflicts seem particularly acute, they will allow more time for participants to talk about the root causes of the divisions, and how the community can re-establish trust and respect. In cases where a particular policy decision is on the table, organizers will typically devote one session to considering the major views and options relevant to the decision.
Leaders trying to formulate community plans may sometimes divide the project into two phases: one in which they gather input on basic priorities from a large number of people, and a second stage where a smaller set of participants participate in fleshing out the details of the plan. When generating citizen action is the main priority, organizers will devote more of their staff time, media outreach, and fundraising work to supporting the action teams that emerge from the discussions. If reaching people who haven't been politically active is a core goal, leaders will spend more time building a coalition that is capable of reaching into all sectors of the community On the other hand, democratic governance is complicated by the fact that citizens have their own objectives for getting involved. Organizers may feel a natural inclination to be very focused and specific about the goals of their programs, but if they don't correctly anticipate why ordinary citizens want to take part, the recruitment efforts will suffer.
- Ask everyone to take a few minutes to jot down their response(s) to the following question (please ask people to write their ideas on sticky notes writing one idea on each note. Please ask them to write clearly so everyone can see the ideas). The question is: What do you hope will be different for the community as a result of the project? 5 minutes
- Go around the group, asking everyone to share one idea at a time until all ideas are shared. As the group shares their ideas, collect the sticky notes and put them on the wall or easel. Put similar ideas together. 10 minutes
- Invite the group to comment on the ideas. Do any clear themes emerge? Should the notes be rearranged to reflect these themes? 5 minutes
- Next, ask everyone to take a few minutes to jot down their responses to the following question (using the same process as above): What are some of your concerns as we move forward? What barriers do you see? 5 minutes
- Go around the group, sharing one idea at a time until all ideas are shared. As the group shares their ideas, collect the sticky notes and put them on the wall or easel. Put similar ideas together. 10 minutes
- Revisit the "hopes" list. Convert the hope themes to goal statements. Ask the group to add any other goals that are not covered. 15 minutes
Post the "concerns" list at every organizing meeting as a reminder. Occasionally, ask the group, "How are we doing regarding our concerns? What are we doing to address any barriers?"
[Excerpted from Changing the Way We Govern: Building Democratic Governance in Your Community, National League of Cities Democratic Governance Panel, 2006.]