Why Your Messaging Isn't Working
If trust is low, the problem might not be what you’re saying; it’s what you’re not hearing
Welcome to Part 3 of the 5 Elements of High Performance Communications series. So far, we’ve covered Strategic Priorities and Organizational Leadership, foundational elements that anchor what you say and who supports it.
But this week, we arrive at the keystone: Citizen Participation & Listening.
If your government isn’t listening, it’s not communicating. It’s broadcasting. And in this era of skepticism, outrage, and institutional distrust, that’s a dangerous posture to take.
Done well, listening earns something that every government needs and few truly have: respect. Not just for what you say, but for how you show up. A community may not always agree with your decisions, but when they know you’ve listened—and listened seriously—that respect builds over time.
And that takes courage. Listening isn’t just about gathering feedback. It’s about being willing to move forward, even when the opposition is loud, because the project is right, the process was fair, and the need is real.
Listening isn’t communication; It’s credibility in the making
Most governments create content. Fewer create space.
True listening isn’t reactive or performative. It’s strategic, intentional, and foundational to how your community perceives you, not just in the moment, but over time.
Two TCU communications professors call listening a “keystone practice,” essential to the whole system. Borrowing from biology, Dr. Ashley English and Dr. Jacque Lambiase explain a keystone species is an organism that defines an entire ecosystem. Remove it, and the system collapses. What makes it essential is what they call low functional redundancy: There’s nothing else that can do the job.
Here’s a graphic to help explain it.
Listening, they argue, works the same way. It doesn’t just support public trust, it enables it. Without it, good governance falls apart.
Extending the biology metaphor, they outline five ways listening strengthens the governing ecosystem:
It consumes tough problems, the kind that fester if left unaddressed.
It produces fertilizer for trust, because being heard matters.
It nourishes cooperation, turning frustration into shared ownership.
It prevents overpopulation, cutting down on noise and performative messaging.
It focuses on impact, not just output, because communication isn’t measured in volume.
If your agency is struggling with public trust, you may not have a messaging problem.
You may have a listening problem.
Respect starts with how you listen
You don’t earn respect by being the smartest person at the front of the room. You earn it by sitting in the back and taking notes.
Plano’s Listening Tour showed how powerful that posture can be. Over 20 community meetings, elected officials and city staff didn’t speak during discussions. They listened. Small groups of residents responded to thoughtful prompts. Flip charts captured their ideas in real time. Constituents could literally see they’d been heard.
That single decision—don’t talk, just listen—sent a clear message: your input matters more than our rebuttal. And it worked. One of the most common responses to the question, “What can we do to bring people together?” was this: do more listening.
Shannah Hayley, Plano’s director of communications and community outreach, said it plainly:
“This didn’t necessarily mean just open-ended listening. It meant talking about things at a deeper level and having more information, more understanding, more context.”
That kind of listening isn’t a one-time gesture. It’s a posture of humility, and it’s the foundation of trust.
Don’t mistake participation for progress
Engagement is not about checking a box or collecting applause. As I learned from Bleiker Training years ago, the goal isn’t public outreach, it’s implementing contentious but necessary projects. Because what good is a beautiful plan if it never gets built?
The Bleiker’s Systematic Development of Informed Consent (SDIC) model flips the traditional public engagement script. It’s not about volume of input. It’s about clarity of process, respect for potential opponents, and the courage to share the full picture, not just the upside.
You don’t build informed consent by selling people on the positives. You build it by openly discussing the tradeoffs and still earning the public’s trust that it’s the right move.
Yes, in your backyard.
Not shouted. Not defensive. Just honest.
That’s what effective citizen engagement looks like.
Courage is telling the truth (even the uncomfortable parts)
Most people can live with a decision they disagree with if they believe the process was fair.
That’s what makes the Bleiker approach so powerful. They train local governments to lead with transparency, to acknowledge adverse impacts, and to surface stakeholder concerns early. If there’s “bad news” about a project, it should come from you—not your critics. That’s how credibility is built.
And it works. In Round Rock, we used the Bleiker framework on every big, controversial project, from regional water plans to sports stadiums. It helped us listen more deeply, adjust when needed, and still move forward when the time came.
It wasn’t always easy. But over time, that courage paid off. Credibility and respect were earned. And each project was implemented.
Serve the many, not just the noisy few
Listening takes many forms. Open houses. Roundtables. Online engagement. But none of those are a substitute for statistically valid surveys.
As Kevin Lyons from FlashVote says:
“Public input sentiment (expressed on social media) was the opposite of what the whole community wanted about 70% of the time.”
Seventy. Percent.
Kevin saw this firsthand in his hometown with a solid waste project that seemed to have unanimous support—until a statistically valid survey revealed strong opposition because of terrain and storage concerns no one had considered.
Surveys aren’t cheap. But they’re far less expensive than bad decisions. When paired with the right engagement tools, they give elected officials and staff the confidence to govern wisely, not just reactively.
Build the habit, not just the event
Lewisville and Plano both show what it looks like to embed listening into the DNA of local government.
In Lewisville, the Listen Learn Lead commission began as a response to a national crisis. Four years later, it’s still producing meaningful relationships and long-term change.
In Plano, the Listening Tour led to Community Leadership Meetings, where residents, nonprofits, and faith leaders talk about food insecurity, mental health, and emergency preparedness. They’re not just listening for input. They’re convening for solutions.
And it’s working. Because once you start listening with humility and consistency, people don’t just feel heard—they start leaning in.
Practical takeaways
Ask yourself and your team:
Are we listening to hear or listening to defend?
Do our engagement efforts reach a cross-section of the community, or just the usual suspects?
Do we explain where and how public input fits into the process?
Are we willing to say, “Yes, in your backyard,” and own it, with courage and clarity?
Are we building systems to listen continuously, not just in a crisis?
Ask yourself this:
Is listening something your agency turns to in a crisis, or invests in as part of its core values?
Because courage in communication isn’t just about standing tall at the mic.
It’s about sitting quietly in the room, taking notes, and being willing to move forward—even when not everyone agrees.
Let’s build the kind of government that listens with purpose.
Let’s play the long game.
Onward and Upward.
Related reads on the road to high performance
Respect, trust, and credibility don’t come from talking. They’re earned through courageous listening and honest engagement. These teams didn’t just host meetings. They built momentum.
Why every controversial project needs a clear strategy for public participation—and how the Bleiker model helps get it built, not just debated.
📌 The Power of Listening in Times of Division
A case study in humility, inclusion, and building long-term civic partnerships through structured listening.
📌 Listening as a Path to Unity. A Community’s Commitment to Listening
What happens when city leaders listen more than they talk—and design engagement with care and clarity.
📌 Survey Says … Guessing Is for Losers!
How statistically valid surveys protect your credibility, reduce costly missteps, and help you serve the many—not just the noisy few.