Entries by Jessica Delaney

The Luck of the Engaging Irish

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Always a day of celebration in our family. How could we not celebrate with a name like Delaney, a family March 17 birthday, and a history that, at least on one side of the family, dates back almost 200 years to County Cork?

On a day of green beer and dancing to Great Big Sea and other great bands, it’s important to recognize that great engagement has little to do with luck. Our team of leprechauns has come up with our top seven ways to find “luck” in engagement:

“Luck”
Reality
1
The right people showed up.
You did pre-engagement and understood where and how to promote your engagement opportunity.
2
There was no conflict.
You had a plan to create and hold a safe space. You ensured that attendees were not strangers and that all felt welcome.
3
People totally get what you were talking about.
You had a communications plan and implemented your communications objectives thoughtfully.
4
People connected and felt safe.
You had a physical and psychological safety plan and implemented it with the help of Elders, knowledge keepers, peers, and mental health professionals.

You had a strong facilitation practice and created some shared operating values about how the group was going to “be” together.

5
Staff are more confident in facilitating engagement.
You did a staff orientation, so people knew what to expect. You had clear roles and responsibilities. As a group, you debriefed and celebrated your wins and identified opportunities to further develop.
6
The decision maker wants to fully consider what was learned in the engagement.
You did internal engagement that included the decision maker.
Your engagement work was not a secret. The decision maker was onboard from the get-go and felt they were truly part of the process.
7
You received valuable feedback that relates to your project.
You had engagement objectives and ensured the questions you asked and topics you explored related to your objectives.

There’s nothing wrong with luck, but you can’t always be lucky. You can always have a plan, so let’s plan on being “lucky”.

Designing Engagement Surveys

Surveys and engagement – like peanut butter and jam – just go together. Unlike public opinion research and informed by objectives, this course is for anyone who designs, implements, or reports on engagement surveys. In this 16-hour course (delivered virtually over four 4-hour sessions), participants can expect to: Discuss when to use surveys and when […]

Things We Love in Engagement

Happy Valentine’s day. For me, Valentine’s was always a party with grandma’s white cake, so many cinnamon hearts my tongue was red for days, and decorating my shoe box to collect all the Valentine’s day cards from my classmates. While I am working to recreate that magic with my own family (the cake is chocolate, […]

Your Training Questions Answered!

What a start to the year with new courses and new information coming fast and furious. Our training team is working hard to answer your training questions and support you on your learning journey. Here are the top five questions we have received so far! If after checking out these you have more questions, please […]

The New IAP2 Courses: Explained

IAP2 Canada has launched four new courses which have replaced the Planning and Techniques course. Delaney is offering three of the four courses, as we see duplication and overlap in two of the courses. The new courses are: Fundamentals in P2 and Engagement (no prerequisite): This is a six-hour, trainer-led Delaney Virtual Academy. Zoom and […]

Communications and Engagement Coordinator Position Available

The Delaney team is looking for its next team member We are a small, nimble team of communications and engagement professionals looking for a new communications and engagement coordinator. This person will primarily work remotely but with some in-person engagement opportunities in the Lower Mainland. We are looking for someone who can support both the […]