Case study: Overcoming mistrust in a retirement community
“Sarah’s charge was to help us create sufficient community trust that we could begin to define and develop goals for our future, regardless of how contentious they might be.
Did she ever succeed!
Overwhelmingly, residents are excited about the new way of talking to each other. Thrilled at having their ideas heard. Impressed by Sarah and her ability to bring disparate views to harmony. Even the Next-door naysayers are relatively quiet and many have joined the conversations, publicly commenting about how much they enjoyed the experience and how optimistic they are about the way Oakmont 2030 is being run.
She has given us the means to continue this new, transparent, healthy way of communicating about issues with the training of 50 volunteers who will form a long-term foundation for going forward. Would we hire her again? You bet!”
— Marlena Cannon, Oakmont 2030 Co-Chair
Client
Oakmont Village Association is a non-profit homeownership association governing a retirement community with 5,000 people. Built in 1964 with an ahead-of-its-time vision of an active senior living community, it has a shared auditorium and extensive recreation facilities.
Problem Summary
The governing board elected by the community struggled to win support on longer term community planning for infrastructure, safety, and matters important to residents. They initiated the Oakmont 2030 Committee to engage residents, noting that surveys and town hall meetings were not sufficient. Isolated committees with dedicated and able volunteers devised common sense plans that did not have enough involvement by residents to win support.
Result
The board and the Oakmont 2030 Committee now have 11 clear community priorities to sequence and choose from, supported by residents. They include resident-initiated opportunities for safety initiatives and board approval to revamp the central campus, and over 50 new volunteers trained in community engagement. There was a decrease in acrimony on social media and in town halls.
Problem Detail
The Oakmont 2030 Committee did not have the expertise to engage the hearts, minds, and energy of the community.
Long-term community planning processes for Oakmont were neglected. Lack of a process for inclusive decision making led to ongoing conflict over repairs and upgrades.
Formal meeting protocols, Town Halls, newspaper and email communications, stand-alone committee recommendations with little community engagement, and occasional surveys were not enough to create momentum for planning and financial investments. Inaction and paralysis abounded.
Fears and rumors posted on the NextDoor social media platform undermined community trust and accuracy of information.
The board did not have a process for engaging the community in shaping new initiatives. Levels of support for new initiatives were unclear, making the board hesitant to take action. When they did act, they did not have the data to know whether objections from very unhappy individuals on social media and town halls were representative or came from a vocal minority. This made the board role volatile and stressful.
Our Approach
Key Ring Consulting provided facilitation, leadership development and planning support to the 2030 Committee, design and facilitation of convenings with community conversations and training of 50 new volunteers, and support to develop proposals from the committee to the board that reflected resident input.
Readiness for community engagement
We worked with the Oakmont 2030 Committee to develop communication assets to help the community understand and respond to the call to action to get involved and to create a step-by-step community engagement and initiatives decision roadmap.
Readiness also included meeting design, promotion, and volunteer training for large convenings, which are described below.
Convening the community
The 2030 Committee then hosted two series of large convenings which featured a mix of presentations and questions about Oakmont priorities.
At the convenings, trained volunteer resident facilitators and themers hosted structured community conversations at tables of 8-10 people while documenting ideas electronically. A team of volunteer themers reviewed the electronic comments in real time and created community consensus statements that were the basis for influencing board and 2030 Committee initiatives and investment priorities.
There were two phases of convenings that engaged over 500 people over four months:
Oakmont Today Community Conversations
In this series, we posed these questions to participants:
What do you most value about Oakmont that should be retained for the future?
What are the biggest challenges that Oakmont faces as it plans for the future?
What are we missing in this community?
Oakmont Tomorrow Community Conversations
In this series, we guided residents in “time travel” visualization about the future of Oakmont, then asked participants:
As you imagined places in Oakmont, what did you see?
What activities and amenities are now available?
What is one word to describe the morale and spirit of Oakmont?
What is the level of community engagement and volunteerism?
Decisions and actions
Analysis & Reporting
From the convenings, the 2030 Committee identified 11 top-level priorities. We facilitated the 2030 Committee to define, prioritize, and summarize next steps and convene a facilitated, participatory forum for residents.
Next Steps Creation
From the 11 priorities, Key Ring Consulting supported the 2030 Committee to create concrete proposals for consideration by the board, including action on emergency planning, fire evacuation, and longer-term planning for facilities and infrastructure.
Results
The community conversations identified 11 priority areas for action. The board had community support to hire planning professionals to develop emergency evacuation plans and facilities upgrades. Board members felt greater confidence that they had a mandate to move forward.
