Off the Map, On the Path

Not that long ago, I did some engagement work that earned me a bit of flak. Nothing dramatic. Just a quiet WTF vibe from a few corners. Which, to be fair, was probably inevitable when the usual playbook wasn’t hauled out.

It was a multi-faceted issue. Several players in the mix, a few competing agendas, and a healthy sprinkling of emotion. It felt a bit like one of those backyard cricket games from childhood. Everyone thinks it’s their turn to bat, but they all want to bowl the ball too.

There’d already been some initial community exploration, but it was clear that some had been “pre-primed”, not untowardly, but unhelpfully. Some of the players had already tapped their go-to voices, the usual suspects who’d “represent the community.” Those people can be damn useful if they’re untainted and untamed. Normally, you’d use existing channels to open some doors and then branch out from there. But sometimes, if you want to avoid getting the same answers, you need to look in different spaces.

So I turned the model on its head. I went into the community informally with just three questions:

- Who in this district is most passionate about their community and its success?

- Who are the people here that don’t normally stand at the front of the room, but have fantastic opinions and people listen when they speak?

- Who best personifies what it means to be part of this community?

I asked those questions over and over. Sometimes to people who might have ticked one of those boxes themselves, but who could unknowingly help me find others wo could tick all three. The same names kept coming up. None of the usual suspects, instead, I found people who carried trust, respect, and local echo. People who could speak freely, and in doing so, they represented far more.

Representation isn’t always about who’s most visible, sometimes it’s about who the community would choose informally, if given the chance. Yes, I caught some flak for not going through the “proper channels.” But it also sparked unexpected interest. People paid attention, not just to what was being said, but to who was saying it. The factions were still represented, just differently. I wasn’t trying to be clever, I was trying to be real, because sometimes the most powerful voices are the ones we’ve never thought to ask.

When was the last time you asked a community who they trust to speak for them outside of the normal channels?