Engaging the Community in Strategic Visioning

Local government leaders seek to engage residents and stakeholders as they plan for the future. However, these leaders often struggle to find ways to elicit positive and helpful information from community members. Oftentimes, they fear that open meetings will become a venue for negative-minded people to voice their unhappy feelings. This article describes a way to engage the community in helping to develop a strategic vision for the future which guards against this kind of negativity. This approach opens the ways for stakeholders to have civil discussions about strategic decisions that a municipality faces. While allowing for large numbers of people to offer input, the process provides a governing body with “ingredients” they can use in crafting a shared vision.