I call my confidence building workshop "The Importance of Being Heard".
Unlike The Importance of Being Earnest, where confusion and misdirection lead to comedic drama, community engagement needs to minimise misunderstandings, increase trust and provide clear outcomes.
This interactive session focuses on how councillors and officers can move beyond familiar voices and partial pictures to build a more complete understanding of their communities. It looks at information and data available, identifying key stakeholders, how participation can be structured, building trust and using your influence effectively.
Participants can come with a particular issue or project in mind to work on through the session or learn the principles for better community engagement.
It covers:
Agenda for a typical half day in person workshop:
This session works best in person for half a day, with groups of up to 20 people, but can be delivered online to a larger group without the practical mapping/layering elements.
Depending upon the participants, the session can focus more on officer roles or member roles and add/exclude different elements to suit the council's needs and time constraints.
Delivered by Liz Green, an experienced councillor, former council leader and facilitator with over 20 years in local government. Liz combines practical political experience with training and facilitation skills, focusing on what works in real council environments.
This session is designed for councillors and officers who work on front line universal services. It can be run for just councillors or just officers or a combination of both.
It is suitable for both experienced councillors / officers and those new to their roles. Whilst senior management / heads of service / comms teams are welcome to attend, the focus is more on officers who are directly involved in delivering highly visible projects in the community. For councillors, the focus is mostly at ward / division level, although most of the principles hold for borough wide community engagement.
The cost varies depending delivery such as online, in person or hybrid and level of adaptation required. We always offer value for money as we know council's have tight budgets.
It is difficult to give an indication of price as this session is highly adaptable to meet the needs of the participants and council.
"After a while you forget you are in a training session because you are enjoying yourself so much, but at the end of the session you realise you have learnt an awful lot, even if you thought you knew it all!"
Bespoke training sessions for cabinet members
"Liz combines expertise with an engaging style that makes her training sessions practical and enjoyable."
Training session
"I'll be confident to build up the case to communicate to people and take them with us"
Numbers and storytelling webinar
In the play, characters say what is expected, conceal what matters, and misunderstand one another with confidence. The result is confusion, misplaced trust and unintended consequences.
Community engagement can fall into the same trap. When intentions are unclear, when language obscures rather than explains, or when people are asked for views without clarity on influence, misunderstanding follows.
This session is about avoiding that. Being clear about purpose, honest about constraints, and focused on ensuring that when people contribute, it genuinely counts.