{"id":40694,"date":"2022-01-27T21:10:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T02:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/blog\/is-it-really-a-hostile-community-or-is-it-a-community-reacting-with-hostility\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T09:07:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:07:48","slug":"is-it-really-a-hostile-community-or-is-it-a-community-reacting-with-hostility","status":"publish","type":"blog_posts","link":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/blog\/is-it-really-a-hostile-community-or-is-it-a-community-reacting-with-hostility\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it really a hostile community or is it a community reacting with hostility?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":40695,"template":"","resource_tax_market":[186,187,188,189,190],"resource_tax_dept":[198],"resource_tax_type":[164],"resource_tax_region":[],"resource_tax_outcomes":[205],"resource_tax_topic":[],"resource_tax_products":[191],"resource_tax_solutions":[214],"resource_tax_services":[],"class_list":["post-40694","blog_posts","type-blog_posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_tax_market-local-government-uk","resource_tax_market-central-government-uk","resource_tax_market-healthcare-uk","resource_tax_market-emergency-services-uk","resource_tax_market-housing-uk","resource_tax_dept-engagement-community-outreach-uk","resource_tax_type-blogs-uk","resource_tax_outcomes-foster-community-engagement-uk","resource_tax_products-engagementhq-uk","resource_tax_solutions-engagement-uk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is it really a hostile community or is it a community reacting with hostility? | Granicus UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to deal with hostile communities? It\u2019s unlikely that the community was hostile before the issue was imposed on them. Rather, the community \u2013 or at least some members of it \u2013 are reacting with hostility.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/blog\/is-it-really-a-hostile-community-or-is-it-a-community-reacting-with-hostility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is it really a hostile community or is it a community reacting with hostility? | Granicus UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How to deal with hostile communities? It\u2019s unlikely that the community was hostile before the issue was imposed on them. 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As with so many things, prevention is better than cure: it\u2019s unlikely that the community was hostile before the issue was imposed on them. Rather, the community \u2013 or at least some members of it \u2013 are reacting with hostility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what do we mean by hostility, and are communities becoming more likely to react hostilely?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elsevier.com\/books\/encyclopedia-of-stress\/fink\/978-0-12-373947-6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">common components of hostility are cynicism and mistrust<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Reciprocity is also a feature of hostility, which can result in escalating conflict, both in how people communicate and how we behave. Hostility is cognitive; that is, it\u2019s about what we think rather than what we feel (angry) or how we behave (negatively). Of course, it\u2019s behaviour that is most visible and has the most impact on other people. Hostility can be contagious across a community when people share information infused with cynicism and mistrust, resulting in escalating anger and negative behaviours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even before the pandemic, a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/249098\/americans-stress-worry-anger-intensified-2018.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gallup poll found<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that people in the US were experiencing increasing levels of stress, worry and anger.\u00a0 Anger can also be contagious, in what psychotherapist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/The-Psychodynamics-of-Social-Networking-Connected-up-Instantaneous-Culture\/Balick\/p\/book\/9781780490922\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aaron Balick calls<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2018an anger-bandwagon effect: someone expresses it and this drives someone else to express it as well.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can\u2019t leave social media out of this discussion as it is such an easy and instantaneous way to share both information and anger. Anger is a stimulant, and like any stimulant can be addictive so people look for reasons to be angry. We go online and down rabbit holes, getting angry about things happening in places we\u2019ve never heard of, to people we\u2019ve never met.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As community engagement professionals with the analytical tools, we have access to, we can see that the reach of project information often goes far beyond our target audience. I once worked on a project in Australia where we received formal submissions from as far afield as Canada. This wasn\u2019t because people in Canada were impacted, but because local residents shared the project through social networks along with a call to action, to object.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So how do we handle anger and hostility? At best, we can apologise and start again, attempting to rebuild trust and reach the planned outcomes of our project. At worst, the community becomes divided, hostility overcoming basic neighbourhood decency and destroying relationships within the community as well as with us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s look at prevention first and then response.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Components of Outrage<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ll be familiar with the importance of thorough stakeholder analysis and may already undertake risk and opportunity assessments as part of your engagement planning. Typically, a community engagement risk assessment should follow the organisation\u2019s overarching approach to risk assessment. This is likely to include elements such as danger to people and property, financial and reputational risks, and traditional time and budget project delivery risks. There is also the option of taking a positive slant looking not just at risks but also identifying opportunities for the project and engagement. You can then develop strategies to leverage those opportunities to maximise positive outcomes of the project while simultaneously mitigating risk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two further steps you could take to bolster traditional engagement planning to reduce the risk of a hostile reception: social impact analysis (SIA) and outrage assessment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using a participatory social research approach often employed in development contexts, SIA can identify deeper, richer information about the community than a traditional stakeholder analysis. SIA includes the understanding that \u2018<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iaia.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">social, economic and biophysical impacts are inherently and inextricably interconnected<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019. This lens helps us to view the community multi-dimensionally and to consider impacts that are:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">intended and unintended<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">positive and negative<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">short term and residual.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extending from and dovetailing with thorough stakeholder and risk analysis, a rigorous SIA will open up more, and more meaningful, opportunities to mitigate potential negative impacts and leverage potential positive impacts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Undertaking an outrage assessment will inform each of the above elements of strategic engagement planning. Peter Sandman is best known in community engagement circles for his expertise in responding to outrage (more on that later) but his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psandman.com\/book.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12 components of outrage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are also an excellent tool for assessing the potential for outrage. Where that potential is found to be high, invest more in engaging early and sensitively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those components of outrage (you could assess them on a sliding scale between each of these absolutes) are:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">voluntary \/ coerced<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">natural \/ industrial<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">familiar \/ exotic<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">memorable \/ not memorable<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not dreaded \/ dreaded<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chronic (ie slow-moving) \/ catastrophic (ie sudden)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">knowable \/ not knowable<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">controlled by self \/ controlled by others<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fair \/ unfair<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">morally irrelevant \/ morally relevant<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">coming from a trustworthy source or proponent \/ untrustworthy source or proponent<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">responsive process \/ unresponsive process.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Outrage assessment<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can you remember the first time you used the term \u2018outrage\u2019 with a project manager or other non-engagement professional? Did they think you were kidding? I clearly remember sitting down to discuss potential engagement strategies around changing the source of a community\u2019s drinking water. The project manager laughed when I suggested we do an outrage assessment, he thought I was exaggerating. We were talking about the water coming from a different catchment \u2013 it would taste and smell different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we went through Sandman\u2019s components of outrage in the context of a parent running a bath for a baby, or an elderly person filling the jug for a cuppa, my colleague stopped laughing and agreed to invest some time and effort into upfront engagement. This investment would easily offset costs to the customer service and media teams in dealing with the fallout if people had been left to notice the difference for themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In spite of our best laid plans, we can still find ourselves engaging with a hostile community. Or possibly because of poorly made or executed plans we\u2019re asked to enter a project when a community is already hostile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The outrage may look like:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the phones are ringing hot with complaints \u2013 they are also coming in by letter, email and at the front door; there\u2019s a protest picketing outside the building or a sit-in starting inside the building<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the media is calling for resignations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your online engagement platform is being swamped with what appear to be automated submissions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your scientific report is being held up next to photographs of something you\u2019ve said isn\u2019t happening<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">community members have started their own website, taking petitions door to door, leafleting the neighbourhood and holding meetings in the park<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">another set of community members have done the same things but they are seeking the complete opposite outcome.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I could go on, but I expect most engagement professionals are already adding to the list and perhaps feeling triggered!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Empathy and minimising hostility<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s time to talk about response.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, opt for maximum empathy. Chances are that if a project has resulted in outrage it\u2019s because decision-makers at some level have forgotten that the community is made up of human beings. It\u2019s essential to remember and acknowledge this, both to ourselves and to our community. This should come from leaders in the organisation as well as officers; it should come directly and personally, as well as through official statements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Empathy is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3021497\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018implicated in many aspects of social cognition, notably prosocial behaviour, morality and the regulation of aggression\u2019<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, it\u2019s an almost direct antidote to the cognitive trait of hostility and associated feelings of anger and antisocial behaviours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Empathy isn\u2019t just a useful response, it\u2019s an appropriate one. The community really is human and there is no point undertaking whatever the project is if it does not ultimately serve humanity (including benefits to the environment as it is critical to the survival of humanity).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s now generally accepted that community outrage arising from organisational failures should be met with public acknowledgement of and apology for mistakes. This can be difficult to implement, however, where political careers are at stake or there is a perception that an apology equates to legal liability for all associated impacts. If this is an issue for you, go back to Sandman for further advice, including the observation that pretending something hasn\u2019t happened isn\u2019t a great defence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a simply practical level, consider the following actions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up an internal working group; include representatives from, for example, the project team, your customer service people and media team. Share any new information with the group, problem-solve with them and run planned actions past them before implementing.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seek delegation of authority for decision-making to one executive and\/or one elected member or board member. This will telescope approval processes to maximise agility.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a single spokesperson who can be the face of the organisation with empathy and humility. In time, this person\u2019s integrity and credibility will become established but empathy and humility must come first.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide daily updates to other internal stakeholders to reassure them, provide them with accurate information and leverage their knowledge of the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a single point of contact in your team or working group for all questions or ideas from the rest of the organisation so that they can be triaged and appropriately responded to without slowing you down.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Establish a \u2018single point of truth\u2019 on your engagement project page. Keep this constantly updated and point everything else towards it (ie media, social media etc).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Work with your engagement platform provider\/website hosting service to mitigate any risk of denial-of-service attacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Invite people in (in small groups &#8211; perhaps family groups, households \u2013 I\u2019m not suggesting a town hall). Sit down and listen to them. Let them air their grievances without interrupting or judging.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t even judge them amongst yourselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider your options for discontinuing the engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start thinking about how you\u2019re going to interpret and report on the feedback you\u2019re getting from photocopied submissions to flaming Facebook posts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A further and ongoing element of response is the long-term undertaking to repair trust and rebuild relationships, both between the proponent and the community and within the community. This will take time and can only happen in an atmosphere of demonstrated integrity \u2013 follow through, close the loop, be present. Take a community development approach to communities where neighbourly relationships have been damaged.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hostility is unhealthy \u2013 for individuals and for communities. Evidence links hostility and trait anger to increased risk of cardiac disease morbidity and mortality.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> US non-profit organisation <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/borgenproject.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Borgen Project<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> lists social hostility as one of the five critical global issues that are affecting the world in a catastrophic way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever our role or sector \u2013 engagement professionals, project managers, decision makers \u2013 we have a responsibility to minimise our impact and our potential to cause hostility. Let\u2019s aim for prevention instead of response.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marion Lawie is a facilitator of learning and engagement and has worked in diverse communities in Australia and internationally. She is the founder\/director of Vocatif, a sessional academic at Queensland University of Technology, a Global Fellowship Councillor for the Royal Society for the Arts, and an Associate Director with Dream Big Australia. Marion\u2019s favourite concept is \u2018agency\u2019<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","button":""}}]},"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]},"centered_layout_builder_clone":{"flexible_page_builder_group":{"flexible_page_builder_fields":[{"acf_fc_layout":"wysiwyg","add_menu_anchor":false,"anchor_menu_text":"","wysiwyg_group":{"show_section":true,"alignment":"left","subhead":"","headline":"","wysiwyg":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the context of community engagement, we\u2019re sometimes asked how to deal with hostile communities. As with so many things, prevention is better than cure: it\u2019s unlikely that the community was hostile before the issue was imposed on them. Rather, the community \u2013 or at least some members of it \u2013 are reacting with hostility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what do we mean by hostility, and are communities becoming more likely to react hostilely?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elsevier.com\/books\/encyclopedia-of-stress\/fink\/978-0-12-373947-6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">common components of hostility are cynicism and mistrust<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Reciprocity is also a feature of hostility, which can result in escalating conflict, both in how people communicate and how we behave. Hostility is cognitive; that is, it\u2019s about what we think rather than what we feel (angry) or how we behave (negatively). Of course, it\u2019s behaviour that is most visible and has the most impact on other people. Hostility can be contagious across a community when people share information infused with cynicism and mistrust, resulting in escalating anger and negative behaviours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even before the pandemic, a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/249098\/americans-stress-worry-anger-intensified-2018.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gallup poll found<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that people in the US were experiencing increasing levels of stress, worry and anger.\u00a0 Anger can also be contagious, in what psychotherapist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/The-Psychodynamics-of-Social-Networking-Connected-up-Instantaneous-Culture\/Balick\/p\/book\/9781780490922\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aaron Balick calls<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2018an anger-bandwagon effect: someone expresses it and this drives someone else to express it as well.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can\u2019t leave social media out of this discussion as it is such an easy and instantaneous way to share both information and anger. Anger is a stimulant, and like any stimulant can be addictive so people look for reasons to be angry. We go online and down rabbit holes, getting angry about things happening in places we\u2019ve never heard of, to people we\u2019ve never met.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As community engagement professionals with the analytical tools, we have access to, we can see that the reach of project information often goes far beyond our target audience. I once worked on a project in Australia where we received formal submissions from as far afield as Canada. This wasn\u2019t because people in Canada were impacted, but because local residents shared the project through social networks along with a call to action, to object.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So how do we handle anger and hostility? At best, we can apologise and start again, attempting to rebuild trust and reach the planned outcomes of our project. At worst, the community becomes divided, hostility overcoming basic neighbourhood decency and destroying relationships within the community as well as with us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s look at prevention first and then response.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Components of Outrage<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ll be familiar with the importance of thorough stakeholder analysis and may already undertake risk and opportunity assessments as part of your engagement planning. Typically, a community engagement risk assessment should follow the organisation\u2019s overarching approach to risk assessment. This is likely to include elements such as danger to people and property, financial and reputational risks, and traditional time and budget project delivery risks. There is also the option of taking a positive slant looking not just at risks but also identifying opportunities for the project and engagement. You can then develop strategies to leverage those opportunities to maximise positive outcomes of the project while simultaneously mitigating risk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two further steps you could take to bolster traditional engagement planning to reduce the risk of a hostile reception: social impact analysis (SIA) and outrage assessment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using a participatory social research approach often employed in development contexts, SIA can identify deeper, richer information about the community than a traditional stakeholder analysis. SIA includes the understanding that \u2018<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iaia.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">social, economic and biophysical impacts are inherently and inextricably interconnected<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019. This lens helps us to view the community multi-dimensionally and to consider impacts that are:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">intended and unintended<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">positive and negative<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">short term and residual.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extending from and dovetailing with thorough stakeholder and risk analysis, a rigorous SIA will open up more, and more meaningful, opportunities to mitigate potential negative impacts and leverage potential positive impacts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Undertaking an outrage assessment will inform each of the above elements of strategic engagement planning. Peter Sandman is best known in community engagement circles for his expertise in responding to outrage (more on that later) but his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psandman.com\/book.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12 components of outrage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are also an excellent tool for assessing the potential for outrage. Where that potential is found to be high, invest more in engaging early and sensitively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those components of outrage (you could assess them on a sliding scale between each of these absolutes) are:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">voluntary \/ coerced<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">natural \/ industrial<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">familiar \/ exotic<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">memorable \/ not memorable<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not dreaded \/ dreaded<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">chronic (ie slow-moving) \/ catastrophic (ie sudden)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">knowable \/ not knowable<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">controlled by self \/ controlled by others<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fair \/ unfair<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">morally irrelevant \/ morally relevant<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">coming from a trustworthy source or proponent \/ untrustworthy source or proponent<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">responsive process \/ unresponsive process.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Outrage assessment<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can you remember the first time you used the term \u2018outrage\u2019 with a project manager or other non-engagement professional? Did they think you were kidding? I clearly remember sitting down to discuss potential engagement strategies around changing the source of a community\u2019s drinking water. The project manager laughed when I suggested we do an outrage assessment, he thought I was exaggerating. We were talking about the water coming from a different catchment \u2013 it would taste and smell different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we went through Sandman\u2019s components of outrage in the context of a parent running a bath for a baby, or an elderly person filling the jug for a cuppa, my colleague stopped laughing and agreed to invest some time and effort into upfront engagement. This investment would easily offset costs to the customer service and media teams in dealing with the fallout if people had been left to notice the difference for themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In spite of our best laid plans, we can still find ourselves engaging with a hostile community. Or possibly because of poorly made or executed plans we\u2019re asked to enter a project when a community is already hostile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The outrage may look like:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the phones are ringing hot with complaints \u2013 they are also coming in by letter, email and at the front door; there\u2019s a protest picketing outside the building or a sit-in starting inside the building<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the media is calling for resignations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your online engagement platform is being swamped with what appear to be automated submissions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your scientific report is being held up next to photographs of something you\u2019ve said isn\u2019t happening<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">community members have started their own website, taking petitions door to door, leafleting the neighbourhood and holding meetings in the park<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">another set of community members have done the same things but they are seeking the complete opposite outcome.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I could go on, but I expect most engagement professionals are already adding to the list and perhaps feeling triggered!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Empathy and minimising hostility<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s time to talk about response.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, opt for maximum empathy. Chances are that if a project has resulted in outrage it\u2019s because decision-makers at some level have forgotten that the community is made up of human beings. It\u2019s essential to remember and acknowledge this, both to ourselves and to our community. This should come from leaders in the organisation as well as officers; it should come directly and personally, as well as through official statements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Empathy is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3021497\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018implicated in many aspects of social cognition, notably prosocial behaviour, morality and the regulation of aggression\u2019<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, it\u2019s an almost direct antidote to the cognitive trait of hostility and associated feelings of anger and antisocial behaviours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Empathy isn\u2019t just a useful response, it\u2019s an appropriate one. The community really is human and there is no point undertaking whatever the project is if it does not ultimately serve humanity (including benefits to the environment as it is critical to the survival of humanity).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s now generally accepted that community outrage arising from organisational failures should be met with public acknowledgement of and apology for mistakes. This can be difficult to implement, however, where political careers are at stake or there is a perception that an apology equates to legal liability for all associated impacts. If this is an issue for you, go back to Sandman for further advice, including the observation that pretending something hasn\u2019t happened isn\u2019t a great defence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a simply practical level, consider the following actions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up an internal working group; include representatives from, for example, the project team, your customer service people and media team. Share any new information with the group, problem-solve with them and run planned actions past them before implementing.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seek delegation of authority for decision-making to one executive and\/or one elected member or board member. This will telescope approval processes to maximise agility.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a single spokesperson who can be the face of the organisation with empathy and humility. In time, this person\u2019s integrity and credibility will become established but empathy and humility must come first.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide daily updates to other internal stakeholders to reassure them, provide them with accurate information and leverage their knowledge of the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a single point of contact in your team or working group for all questions or ideas from the rest of the organisation so that they can be triaged and appropriately responded to without slowing you down.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Establish a \u2018single point of truth\u2019 on your engagement project page. Keep this constantly updated and point everything else towards it (ie media, social media etc).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Work with your engagement platform provider\/website hosting service to mitigate any risk of denial-of-service attacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Invite people in (in small groups &#8211; perhaps family groups, households \u2013 I\u2019m not suggesting a town hall). Sit down and listen to them. Let them air their grievances without interrupting or judging.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t even judge them amongst yourselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider your options for discontinuing the engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start thinking about how you\u2019re going to interpret and report on the feedback you\u2019re getting from photocopied submissions to flaming Facebook posts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A further and ongoing element of response is the long-term undertaking to repair trust and rebuild relationships, both between the proponent and the community and within the community. This will take time and can only happen in an atmosphere of demonstrated integrity \u2013 follow through, close the loop, be present. Take a community development approach to communities where neighbourly relationships have been damaged.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hostility is unhealthy \u2013 for individuals and for communities. Evidence links hostility and trait anger to increased risk of cardiac disease morbidity and mortality.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> US non-profit organisation <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/borgenproject.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Borgen Project<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> lists social hostility as one of the five critical global issues that are affecting the world in a catastrophic way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever our role or sector \u2013 engagement professionals, project managers, decision makers \u2013 we have a responsibility to minimise our impact and our potential to cause hostility. Let\u2019s aim for prevention instead of response.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marion Lawie is a facilitator of learning and engagement and has worked in diverse communities in Australia and internationally. She is the founder\/director of Vocatif, a sessional academic at Queensland University of Technology, a Global Fellowship Councillor for the Royal Society for the Arts, and an Associate Director with Dream Big Australia. Marion\u2019s favourite concept is \u2018agency\u2019<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","button":""}}]}},"post_slider_clone":{"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]}},"call_to_action":{"hide_call_to_action":false,"color":"red","custom_cta":false,"custom_subhead":"","custom_headline":"","custom_description":"","custom_link":null,"custom_image":false}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts\/40694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog_posts"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_market","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_market?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_dept","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_dept?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_type?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_region?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_outcomes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_outcomes?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_topic?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_products","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_products?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_solutions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_solutions?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_services?post=40694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}