{"id":4903,"date":"2017-04-26T02:00:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T06:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4903"},"modified":"2017-04-24T14:32:39","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T18:32:39","slug":"voice-of-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/04\/voice-of-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice of the Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"My son is an IT consultant and over the years we have often discovered commonalities between our work. He was the one who first put me on to the concept of UX Design<\/a> (UX = User Experience). The fact that we kept finding themes relevant to both our professions used to surprise me. Now I realize that he works with professionals in a complicated specialty who have to work with\/communicate with end users who have no understanding of the vocabulary or practice of the discipline. Sounds familiar.<\/p>\n

I recently was lamenting to my son an epic fail of customer relations on the part of the company that provides my business’s CRM database. (They implemented a change, with no warning, that moved significant quantities of data to a big pile of “Additional Information.”) The reasons for doing so made some sense from their point of view but the lack of consideration of what it would mean to the customer and the utter lack of communication in advance was stunning. [While no physical injury was involved, I am reminded of the tweet from Ron Evans, an arts marketing consultant, about the United Airlines “Doc off a plane” fiasco: “So nobody @ #united ever mapped out the user experience for passengers who refuse involuntary bump and said ‘yeah, that’s not a good idea.'”?]<\/p>\n

John told me about a concept in IT development called Voice of the Customer<\/a>. The idea is sometimes limited to what one might call in-depth market research, but he said it is also sometimes taken literally in product development meetings: someone is designated to represent the customer’s point of view as ideas are considered.<\/p>\n

The implications for community engagement could be huge. Imagine, at a minimum, someone who is charged with keeping at the front of their minds “How would the people we are trying to reach respond to this?” The first, and obvious, objection should be “How would you know?” And that leads to the teachable moment. At the very least you need to talk with them; at best, include them in the conversation.<\/p>\n

Regular readers of this blog know that I am uncomfortable with the distancing that is created by words like audience and customer. We need to build personal relationships and those words do not help that. So, I would advocate for a dedicated “Voice of the Community”\u2013however the role is defined in an organization\u2013to be included in all discussions of programming, from design to implementation.<\/p>\n

And even if you don’t implement this, thinking that it might be a good idea could improve decision making processes.<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0\"\" Some rights reserved<\/a> by oatsy40<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voice of the Community: Someone who is designated to represent the community’s point of view in organizational planning and decision making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Voice of the Community: Representing the perspective of the community in organizational planning.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[12,13,51,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-4903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-principles","7":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-implementation","11":"tag-terminology","12":"entry","13":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1h5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3426,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/02\/ux-design\/","url_meta":{"origin":4903,"position":0},"title":"UX Design","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"February 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"UX Design: How can the experience of the end user be enhanced? An IT industry innovation applicable to the arts.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DosMacLogin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DosMacLogin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DosMacLogin.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DosMacLogin.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DosMacLogin.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2032,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/10\/engagement-demands-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":4903,"position":1},"title":"Engagement Demands Change","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've recently returned from presenting two workshops dealing with the arts and community engagement. Both in Grand Rapids, MI, one was part of the Midwest Arts Conference sponsored by ArtsMidwest and the Mid-American Arts Alliance. The other was at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/AnnLanders.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5452,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/11\/understanding-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4903,"position":2},"title":"Understanding Engagement","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"November 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Announcing the availability of a new resource presenting basic concepts essential to understanding the potential that community engagement represents for arts organizations.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/CommunityEngagementLogos-V-2017-Final-2.44.07-PM-212x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1861,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/07\/civic-practice\/","url_meta":{"origin":4903,"position":3},"title":"Civic Practice","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Rohd, the Founding Director of Portland (OR)'s Sojourn Theatre has recently posted an extremely thoughtful reflection on community engagement and theatre: The New Work of Building Civic Practice. 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