The Importance of Community Engagement
Commit the time and resources to building community support.
In my last article on biosecurity, I think I made it fairly clear that I am no expert in fish health but through years of painful mistakes, developed a set of successful working principals. This article will look at the importance of community engagement in developing and protecting the social and regulatory license to operate farms. I’m taking a slightly different approach on this article – rather than commenting on how a non-fish farmer can evaluate the quality of a farming company, it focuses on steps I feel fish farmers should be taking to connect with important stakeholders in the communities where they operate.
From my work and travel experiences, I have come to believe that no other regions come close to the nightmarish situations on the west coast of North America. Most people are ambivalent or supportive of aquaculture but the anti-farming groups here are dominated by people who are utterly adrift from reality and facts. They are extreme in their views, inflexible in their beliefs, disbelieving of any science that doesn’t support their world view and absolutely convinced that the ends justify the means when it comes to spreading false information. Sadly, the news media loves their nonsense and are only too willing to put fish farming in the worst possible light.
Unprincipled opponents and a biased media are facts of life and while you can’t likely change their minds or win an argument with them, you also cannot afford to ignore them. How then does a farming company effectively combat this steady barrage of opposition to protect existing operations and set the stage for future growth?
There are key reasons why the political environment of the west coast of North America is so much worse than the rest of the world but I suspect there is a lot of commonality with other regions. A few key things to keep in mind:
1) By virtue of being a relatively new industry and one that is functioning mainly in a public space, neither political nor regulatory frameworks know how to cope with fish farming – they lack agreed metrics for monitoring and efficient systems for arriving at decisions where the public good is best served
2) Though oceans are vast and the footprint required for aquaculture is small, no one you meet will be eager to make space for you – if they have existing rights, they were generally hard won and will not be readily surrendered
3) For many people, particularly those who live on the coast, wild fish have a mythical quality – they are unseen and poorly understood for the majority of their lives until, miraculously, they appear at harvest time or on the spawning beds. This is one of the most powerful examples they will ever see of the beauty of nature. The combination of spectacular plenty and a lack of knowledge around how it develops makes for a broad fear of anything they feel will place this plenty in jeopardy
4) People who are wealthy enough to own waterfront property believe this ownership gives them the right to dictate what happens in front of their homes – even if a structure is miles away – this is a class of potential opponent with lots of time and resources to make your life difficult
As I have said in a previous article, in this kind of highly charged political and social environment, a solid scientific and technical argument may get you precisely nowhere if you haven’t created trust and confidence with the key decision-makers in the process. Building trust and confidence is not complicated but it takes time and effort.
Trust and Transparency
The central goal of community engagement is to build trusting relationships with key stakeholders in areas where you work or wish to work. The majority of community stakeholders lack the scientific training to fully understand the issues around fish farming and likely wouldn't have time to absorb the information even with the required training. A key objective in every interaction you have with stakeholders is to create a reputation for transparency and honesty so when they are inevitably presented with half-truths or outright lies, one of their first inclinations is to reach out to you for clarification.
These kinds of relationships only develop through hard work and persistence – which can be hard to do when you are also trying to run a business – but they are absolutely essential and should be a top strategic priority for fish farming companies.
Building your network
In my previous role, I would set myself targets for the number of meetings I wanted to complete each week – during quiet periods, I would aim for 5 – 6 meetings, in busy periods, I would aim for one or two. This may not seem like a lot but over the run of a year, an average of 3 meetings per week will translate into more than 100 meetings.
Ultimately, you need to connect with the right people but there is no directory to identify them. The good news is that even in a larger city, the number of people who are politically active or involved in regulatory matters is very small. I was engaged with a community of 18,000 people for a couple of years. In that time, I developed a list of no more than 100 people who were key opinion leaders, politicians or regulators. Of that 100 people only a handful were absolutely critical to my success. The challenge, at least in the initial stages, is to find out who is critical to your mission.
For many people, the idea of calling up and requesting a meeting is unfamiliar territory. It is, however, an uncomplicated task and becomes easier as you do it. If you are new to this kind of interaction, start with people you know will be supportive. This will help you develop your messaging and a sense of how conversations are likely to flow.
Let them do the talking – your job is to absorb information
Your primary objective in the initial series of meetings is to listen. You need to figure out what makes this person tick, what they worry about, how their group or organization operates, where they spend the majority of their time etc. It should very much be a “get to know you” meeting and if you achieve nothing else, you want to leave them with the understanding that you are concerned about their community and their role in it. If the conversation flows naturally to questions or concerns about what you do, by all means, have that conversation in a friendly manner. If they want specifics and you are concerned they are taking the conversation in a direction that makes you uncomfortable, offer to provide the information later when you have had a chance to do your research and craft your message. (This is also why it is a good idea to start with the easy meetings)
A second major objective is to build on your list of stakeholders. As the meeting seems to be drawing to a close, turn the discussion to “who else should I be talking to in your community?” Ask for both supporters and opponents, community groups, other similar industries who may have experiences you can draw on. Communities are living organisms with diverse and interconnected relationships and to really understand how they work, you need to know how they function on a day-to-day basis. Be persistent in trying to set up meetings and ask for introductions if you are struggling to have calls or emails answered. People generally want to be helpful and can be happy to make introductions if your objective is a learning one.
End the meeting with a request to do a follow-up meeting in a few months or to send a follow-up email with more questions as they occur to you. As I said above, most people genuinely want to be helpful and often feel good about helping someone who needs their expertise. Even if they don’t like fish farming or have other concerns about what you do, they may still provide useful feedback – their goal will be to convince you that you can’t win but the names and information they provide can be a goldmine in terms of understanding what you are up against.
Be sure to follow-up your meeting with a “thank you” note and an offer to be of similar service if they ever need it. In part this is just politeness but the offer of assistance sends the message that you are interested in them as a person and in having a reciprocal relationship. As you build your network, you will identify stakeholders with whom you should stay in regular contact. Make sure you leave the door open for future meetings.
The crazies
Oh, there will be crazies who grind on your every last nerve. I can almost guarantee at some point you will be across the table from a complete lunatic and the conversation will range from wild conspiracies to accusations of criminal intent. It will likely be among the hardest things you do in your working life but you need to have patience and resist the temptation to argue. You will never win an argument with this kind of person but it is vital to understand their positions and identify common concerns if there are any. In all likelihood, they are bombarding the key stakeholders in your community with their version of reality and it is helpful to know what they are saying so you can refute their positions in your communication.
Be organized in your networking
This is one of those areas where I failed miserably in my engagement efforts. In an ideal world, I would have made detailed notes, organized files and developed a mapping tool for how the community interacted. The reality is that I kept most of it in my head, email archive or in my daily notebook. Trying to synthesize a good stakeholder list was a frustrating exercise of going through notes and emails when it should have come from an intelligently managed filing system. Try to do better than me in this regard, it will pay off.
As you consolidate your network, start to use them as one of your primary vehicles for getting news out into the community. You should have a communication strategy focused on them - it doesn't need to be fancy but they should hear from you regularly and, if disaster strikes, the bad news should come from you first.
Conclusion
I originally got into fish farming as a way to have a career where I could live in a small coastal community, produce good fish and avoid politics. I guess the politics came and found me. Over the years, it has become clear to me that we, as leaders in the aquaculture industry, need to put tremendous effort into winning the hearts and minds of our communities. It is a long game that, at times, can seem like a distraction but a farmer ignores it at their peril.
If you are still reading, thank you. As always, I welcome your feedback.