Meaningful Engagement from Afar

Abstract:

In the spring of 2020, most of us catapulted from a ‘normal’ work routine to interacting ‘from afar’. Out of necessity and without much warning, we had to figure out how to only work remotely and engage virtually. A critical aspect of the work of NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management is engaging with coastal decision-makers, from supporting conversations about common interests, to providing technical assistance and training. We’d like to share some insights about how our service delivery was impacted by COVID-19: what’s different about engaging remotely; what were some of the challenges we encountered; and, how we overcame them. We had to adapt some of our basic approaches to partner and stakeholder engagement when working exclusively in a virtual environment. Each of us can easily identify things that are different about engaging virtually -- from reliance on uncooperative or unfamiliar technology; to users being unfamiliar with the technology, to engaging in discussions and collaborative decision-making while some folks are on a telephone line and others are on video. There are specific things that are particularly tricky in a virtual setting, including: obtaining broad public input and participation, especially for those community members that have limited internet access; building and sustaining interpersonal relationships; brainstorming and problem-solving; focusing on longer-term challenges (e.g., climate adaption, land use) in the midst of an economic and public health crisis; and uncertainty over future engagement options. We discovered a few things on the virtual engagement path over the past couple of months, including: the importance of developing expertise and practice in using your technology; paying attention to the fundamentals tenets of service delivery and engagement; the amount of time required to organize virtual engagements; and breaking engagements up into short, digestible bites. Virtual engagement and service delivery is where we are now -- and where we’ll probably be for the foreseeable future -- and our engagement efforts will continue to evolve in the months ahead to meet those needs.