+ Building the Mindset

Building a mindset including the following key components is essential for strong engagement practices. Mindsets should be top of mind throughout the full engagement process.

• Be genuinely curious. It’s important to lean in from the perspective of curiosity. Being deeply curious about people’s lives and understanding their experience will directly impact the ability to improve programs and services. Think about in ways participants are impacted by problems that you are not affected by and be sensitive to this.
• Be present. Focus on coming to the present moment without distraction when starting each interaction. It may be helpful to take a moment beforehand to centre yourself and focus on your breath. We sometimes find ourselves doing engagement in some pretty tough situations, and these challenging and emotional conversations can take their toll.
• Listen deeply. This means going beyond just surface level and trying to connect with what participants are trying to communicate beyond their word.If you listen deeply enough, you can better understand people’s unique perspective on the world as they talk about things like identity and values.
• Answers lie within our stakeholders. No one individual knows everything, together we know a lot. We have to believe in people’s resourcefulness and ask them directly what better looks like. People are experts in their own life, which is why we put such a value on conversations with people with lived experience.
• Embrace all responses. Try not filter what you write down or take away from an interaction using your personal lens. Or, at the very least, notice when it is happening and mitigate—for example, by taking word for word notes. Remember that even a one-word response can say volumes. If you can’t overcome the need to correct an assumption or misunderstanding a participant has, wait until the end of the interaction to offer them resources.

+ Tools for building your engagement plan

The following outlines the most appropriate scenarios for using specific engagement tools. All tools provided in this toolkit will be available in a digital and hard copy format.

• In-depth one-on-one interviews: Conducting one-on-one interviews with key informants garners deep insights from those who are well-informed in the areas in which we want to learn. In-depth interviews are usually 30-45 minutes in length and are often conducted by telephone.
• Street teams surveys/interviews: These 5-10 minute interviews are appropriate if you want to talk to a larger number of people for a short period of time. Generally, you don’t get the level of detailed information as you would with in-depth interviews and the sample is determined by who is in the space and willing to engage in an interview at the time.
• Online workshops/stakeholder labs: These are typically 90-minute engagement sessions that mine for specific insights from identified target groups. These groups will include between 12 to 25 participants. Participants can be guided through a sequence of information-seeking activities. Online platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams as used to host digital workshops.
• Diary Studies: One approach to in-depth engagement are diary studies. These take place over time and offer insight into people’s day-to-day lives. Participants follow the question prompts and show you their experience in their own words. Diary studies can be administered in a variety of ways, including mobile apps, paper diary/journal, or email and text messages.

+ The focused conversation method

The focused conversation method (ORID) is a versatile four-stage framework that can be used for structuring questions and tools. The order of questions below matters, we always ask at least one question for each of the four levels.

O—Objective level questions. Draw out the relevant facts first, uncoloured by interpretation or opinion. Here you might ask:

• What happened?
• What are we trying to accomplish?

R—Reflective level questions. The relevant human aspects of the topic come next. Here you might ask:

• What caught you by surprise about the situation?
• What are you hopeful about?

I—Interpretive level questions. Look for patterns and insights. Here you might ask:

• What patterns or connections do you see?
• How might you explain what’s happening?

D—Decisional-level questions. Draw conclusions, craft advice, and make decisions about how to put insights into action. Here you might ask:

• How would you advise the organization to respond?
• What would you like your organization to do differently?

This framework can be used for designing conversations, surveys, and entire workshops. It is meant to adapt to different contexts small to big.