• Community engagement in context
  • Community engagement - an overview
  • Community engagement in a representative democracy
  • Key challenges for the public sector
  • Implications for public sector managers
  • The context for engagement
  • Clues to good community engagement
• Planning CE
  • Community engagement and the policy/planning cycle
  • Project goals
  • When is engagement necessary?
  • Community engagement objectives
  • Community research
    • Media research
    • Community profiling
    • Community segmentation
    • Community and issues analysis
  • Key communication messages
  • Selection of engagement techniques
  • Managing risk
  • Evaluation planning
  • Planning transition and exit strategies
• Implementing CE
  • Working with communities
  • Organisational culture
  • Resourcing
  • Structures and processes
  • Continuity and follow up
  • Representation and control
  • Coordination
  • Other issues
  • Embedding good practice
• Methods
  • Overview of methods
  • Methods of information-sharing
  • Methods for consultation and deliberation
  • Methods for active participation
  • Advanced participative methodologies
  • Choosing an engagement method
• Event management
  • Event engagement processes
  • Choosing a facilitator
  • Structuring the event
• Evaluating CE
  • Introduction to evaluation
  • Principles of evaluation
  • Identifying outputs and outcomes
  • Purpose and approach to evaluation
  • Evaluation criteria and indicators
  • Methods of measuring community engagement
  • Steps in evaluating community engagement
• Risk management
  • Identifying risks
  • Assessing risk
  • Managing external risks
  • Managing internal risks
  • Risk assessment and management plan
• Skills
  • Community engagement skills profile
  • Options for skills development
  • Building the skills of your team

Organisational culture

There is a risk of agencies embracing community engagement, but attempting it with the assumptions and principles of service delivery. Community engagement and partnership require different assumptions, values and principles to a traditional delivery approach. Both government agencies and communities need to develop a culture that continues to support service delivery, but in combination with community interaction and interdependence.

Key questions	Tips for good management
What is the culture of your agency or work group with regard to community engagement? What are the benefits and barriers for staff in community engagement? What organisational support is there for community engagement?	Demonstrate good engagement practice: “show me, don’t just tell me”. Make engagement exercises simple – don’t overcomplicate the process. Acknowledge staff and community members who have engaged well. Reiterate the importance of engagement. Create space for experimentation and flexibility.

Some other key issues are:

• Managers have a strong role in fostering an organisational culture that supports appropriate engagement and accepts it as a key activity in agencies.
• Agencies need to balance the development of ongoing relationships and partnership with communities with the possibility of agency capture, either perceived or real. Agency capture means situations where an agency is too close to particular communities, compromising independent “public good” decisions.
• Government agencies must retain political and public accountability for their performance. This may be a challenge for some agencies, as engaging communities often involves experimentation, failure and flexibility, and new forms of accountability need to be developed in such situations.
• The attitudes and culture of communities often differ from the assumptions and norms of government institutions. Community engagement processes need to respect and accommodate the cultural rules and expectations of all partners.
• Community engagement often depends on the relationships between agency staff and community members. Agency staff need to be engaged themselves. Managers need to listen to staff, convey a clear understanding of the purpose and processes of engagement, and support staff during community engagement.