How should a modern city communicate?
Discovering a new approach to community engagement
In 2022, Salem, the capital city of Oregon, faced a challenging realization: they needed a new approach to community engagement. The leadership team sought a partner to help develop a comprehensive strategic engagement and communications plan to drive awareness, increase and diversify civic participation, expand their volunteer base, and attract talented staff. After careful consideration and interviews, The City of Salem chose Territory to tackle the known and undiscovered challenges and opportunities.
Start with understanding
Crafting a communications strategy may seem straightforward, but delivering an effective and achievable one requires a profound understanding of both the desired outcomes and the current situation. The Territory team began by creating alignment, which is central to our approach. The first critical step in any journey is ensuring everyone shares the same goals. Through facilitated discussions and workshops with city leaders and key staff, the Territory team sought to validate and refine the City’s initial objectives.
Budget constraints and shortfalls are common in public sector organizations. In Salem, these challenges led to a fragmented communications team dispersed across various city departments. This revealed that, while the City was striving to maximize its resources, there was significant potential for improvement at every organizational level. A notable issue was the split responsibilities of several team members, who juggled communications duties with other roles.
Work smarter, not harder
After a productive discovery phase, the Territory team expanded their focus to a national scope, researching and analyzing 12 peer cities to gain insights into their operational models.
This analysis led to a pivotal insight: despite structural differences, all twelve cities shared a central hub of excellence within their teams. This insight was crucial for Salem, suggesting that transitioning from a scattered public relations model to a centralized news organization structure would more effectively shape impactful stories. Adopting a hub-and-spoke organizational design became a key strategic anchor.
In times of dwindling resources, the challenge is transforming the pressure into an opportunity. Agile and innovative organizations adapt their strategies and processes to align with their current circumstances.
Develop a tailored communication plan
In collaboration with client partners, Territory developed a strategic engagement and communications plan highlighting key opportunities and proposing specific, coordinated actions in several critical areas:
Structure: An optimized, modern organizational framework to support, develop, and recruit staff.
Best Practices: Reflective practices to engage communities and guide operational methods.
Toolsets: A centralized, professional-grade toolkit for consistent execution.
Strategies: Comprehensive strategy recommendations to organize and guide future work.
OKRs: Clear Objectives and Key Results serving as goals and metrics.
Timelines: Coordinated efforts to ensure understanding, adoption, and excellence.
A well-conceived plan is only the beginning. Its success depends on skillful execution, activating both the plan’s components and the people responsible for bringing it to life. Territory is renowned for helping diverse organizations assess and evolve their operational methods through a co-creative and collaborative approach. Therefore, we feel confident that the City of Salem has the resources they need in order to capitalize on their potential and maximize community engagement.
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