As increasing numbers of younger people enter politics, we’re seeing leaders who are not only more media-savvy, but also more transparent and collaborative.
So I shouldn’t have been surprised when Amesbury’s new Mayor Kassandra Gove and her Communications Director Caitlin Thayer told me that story listening is at the heart of their strategic work.
Sure, they’re doing great things to engage residents, businesses and partners through channels like social media, email newsletters and a narrative-driven budget book. But they’re also devoting a lot of time and energy to finding, analyzing and using insights from stories people across the city tell them to inform their work.
By combining this intel with complementary activities to collect and dig into other data sources, they’ve been able to create a government that’s more responsive and connected than you’ll see in most other municipalities. As Mayor Gove tells us –
"My hope long-term is that we are able to make progress at a more rapid rate. What I was seeing was the municipality's governments and officials being left behind. That society was progressing around them. And we have a lot of wonderful people in our community that are experts with information and experience to offer. And if we can get them involved and engaged, I think that we can do great things and really move the city forward much more quickly if we have them as partners rather than driving a wedge between us, because we aren't able to speak the same language."
You can see samples of their work, and learn about their upcoming future story work to create their 10-year vision here.
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