Are people ever happy?

Lisa Smith

According to the media, the 2013 Melbourne F1 Grand Prix Report was mixed, attendees thought it was loud and loved it, local residents thought it was loud and hated it.

According to the media, the 2014 Melbourne F1 Grand Prix Report was still mixed, the attendees thought is wasn’t loud and hated it, local residents thought it wasn’t loud and loved it.

You just can’t win…

With such a diverse group of stakeholders with such different needs and drivers, is it ever possible for an organization to make their community happy?

Well if you do it well, you certainly increase your chances of having a happy community.

This is where community engagement strategies are so critical.  With the right strategies it is possible to please everyone a little without alienating any particular group.

Imagine if each stakeholder group was aware of the priorities of each other group

  • the residents knew that the attendees rated loudness over accessibility over food prices over late night parties
  • the attendees knew that the local residents rated minimal disruption over night time loudness over day time loudness

The stakeholder groups would then be able to have a discussion about what they were prepared to trade off.

Then we could have a productive discussion about how to create a Grand Prix that made everyone as happy as possible and removed as much irritation as possible.

That’s what smart community engagement looks like – you know, engaging the community in the decision making process.

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