Use the Engagement Methods Tool to find the right tool for your community and stakeholder engagement project.
The Full Circle method is a highly participatory engagement approach designed to generate ideas, explore perspectives, and deepen collective understanding. It works by dividing participants into small groups who rotate through a series of “stations,” each featuring a different topic or question. At each station, the group reviews what earlier groups have written or created […]
Public Hearings are a well-established engagement method often used in government, planning, and policy processes. They offer a formalised space for individuals, organisations, and interest groups to voice support, concerns, or objections to a proposal in a way that is documented and considered in decision-making. Typically facilitated by an independent chairperson or panel, Public Hearings […]
Town Hall Meetings are public forums where community members gather to hear from decision-makers, ask questions, and provide feedback on policies, projects, or local issues. Traditionally held in large halls or community spaces, they have evolved to include hybrid and virtual formats. They often feature brief presentations followed by open Q&A sessions or breakout conversations. […]
A Socratic Circle (or Socratic Seminar) is a dialogue-based method that encourages participants to engage deeply with a topic by discussing a shared question, text, or idea. Rooted in the Socratic tradition of inquiry and reflection, this method focuses on thoughtful dialogue, active listening, and respectful challenge rather than debate or persuasion. Often used in […]
Social networking site based on users’ professional expertise.
A Referendum is a formal, structured process that enables eligible voters to make a binding decision on a specific issue — typically by casting a “yes” or “no” vote. Most commonly used in constitutional or high-level policy matters, referenda are administered by electoral commissions and involve strict legal and procedural frameworks. In a local government […]
Participatory Arts is an expressive engagement method that invites people to explore and share ideas, experiences, or community issues through creative mediums such as visual art, music, performance, storytelling, or multimedia. Led by artists or cultural facilitators, participants co-create artworks that reflect their identities, hopes, or concerns, often culminating in a public exhibition or performance. […]
A Hackathon is a short, high-energy event where diverse participants — such as designers, community members, developers, policy thinkers or creatives — come together to rapidly develop solutions to a specific challenge. Traditionally associated with technology or innovation, hackathons are increasingly used in community engagement to prototype new ideas for civic issues, policy design, or […]
Graphic Facilitation is a visual engagement technique where a trained facilitator captures key ideas, conversations, and themes in real-time using drawings, symbols, and words. This can occur on large sheets of paper, whiteboards, or digital tablets. It is used during meetings, workshops, or forums to enhance understanding, create shared meaning, and support memory retention. This […]
Crowd Funding is a participatory fundraising method that engages individuals to contribute small amounts of money — usually online — to collectively fund a specific initiative or cause. Often hosted on dedicated platforms like Chuffed, GoFundMe, or StartSomeGood, crowd funding campaigns use storytelling, images, and clear goals to inspire people to donate and share the […]
Community Working Groups are small, focused groups of community members brought together to provide input, advice, or co-design support on a specific project or issue. Often established by councils, agencies, or community organisations, these groups operate over a defined time period and are guided by clear terms of reference. They allow for in-depth dialogue and […]
Community Organising is a long-term approach to civic participation that focuses on building the leadership, relationships, and collective power of everyday people to address issues that affect their lives. It typically involves identifying local leaders, building networks of trust, mapping shared concerns, and developing strategies for action. Unlike one-off consultations, community organising is deeply relational […]
Collective Action refers to coordinated efforts by a group of people working together to address a shared issue or pursue a common goal. It is often grassroots in nature and may involve community-led campaigns, rallies, clean-up days, public art projects, or advocacy initiatives. The power of collective action lies in its ability to mobilise people […]
A Citizen Assembly is a deliberative engagement method that brings together a representative group of everyday people to learn about, discuss, and provide recommendations on a specific public issue. Participants are often selected randomly to reflect the demographics of the community, such as age, gender, location, and background. Over a series of facilitated sessions, participants […]
The hui is a sophisticated New Zealand Māori tradition that involves bringing people together for a specific purpose or take (cause for gathering). (O’Sullivan and Mills, 2009)
A bundle of mini methods that support groups work towards long-term strategic thinking and problem solving.
Dotmocracy, also known as dot-voting or idea rating, is a method for group prioritisation to help progress ideas or action.
Voting on a series of options.
Storytelling helps people make sense of the world and engage with each other on a different level.
Similar to an opt-in e-panel except members are randomly-selected to avoid bias.
Online forum where invited or self-selected participants contribute to an online discussion about a topic or project for a set period of time.
Can be designed to inform, seek feedback, to gather ideas, and to update the community on the engagement project and how community input/feedback has been taken into consideration.
Interactive computer application designed for smartphones, mobile devices and computer tablets.
Development of online or non-digital games which participants play to solve problems and accomplish tasks.
Deliberative democracy processes are methods where a representative sample of the population, usually chosen through random selection, meet and deliberate over a few days.
A forum where a representative sample of the community deliberates on a topic, issue or proposal. Forums last at least 2 days.
Structured process where a panel of experts answer a series of questionnaires (at least two rounds). After each survey, a feedback report and a new survey is circulated. Designed to seek consensus on a complex problem.
An exploratory, facilitated group method where participants are asked to close their eyes and visualise what their community looks like now and in the future. Uses visualisation and dialogue and may be extended to include creative arts activities.
Research involving a community of practice trying to solve a problem through action. Communities act as “co-researchers”.
Deliberation and decision making is undertaken by decision makers in view of the public, such as in a public gallery or by video streaming, to enhance transparency and accountability.
A website where content is not owned by a specific person or organisation, but is created, deleted or modified by members of the public.
Online interactive web-based seminar, presentation or workshop.
A structured process where participants discuss a question or series of questions at a group of small tables.
A series of questions provided to a sample which may be a representative sample or a self-selected sample.
A structured process where randomly-selected participants explore and deliberate on a topic at a meeting over 2 to 3 days and then their opinions are polled. Results of the poll are shared with the group and publicly. Can include a pre-poll, as well as additional polling that occurs after the engagement activity.
A meeting organised by either the organisation or community with presentations and questions asked by the crowd.
Small groups of people (usually between 5 and 20) who meet multiple times to explore an issue.
A method for hosting a meeting, conference or summit which is focused on a particular purpose or topic, but which has no formal agenda set.
A structured method to explore specific, complex issues, and where participants work in small groups.
Large numbers of people who are selected to be representative of the population and be a part of a panel that deliberates on a range of issues over a set period of time. Surveys are distributed during the time to understand community attitudes, feedback, issues and behaviour. Can track changes as well.
Presentations and discussions with community or stakeholder groups. Can vary widely from informing to gathering feedback, ideas or options.
Process where the community works with an organisation through its budgeting process.
Community members gather and share photos that represent their ideas or preferences for the future. Can be incorporated into face-to-face engagement events, or collected and shared online.
Capturing participants ideas, expressions and discussions in real-time during an engagement activity, to create a visual representation of the discussions.
Citizens edit and shape documents and reports through a series of circulating documents.
A future planning process where participants undertake a series of sessions on the past, present, future, common ground, and action planning. Designed to develop a shared vision for the future.
A program to educate the community about a topic, project or proposition. Education campaigns can be designed to raise awareness, generate understanding or support behaviour change.
A large-scale 2-3 day event where a large number of diverse people come together to consider information, engage in dialogue, participate in interactive activities and make recommendations.
A representative sample of citizens are randomly selected to form a citizen’s jury which deliberates on a problem or opportunity. The jury hears evidence from witnesses, in front of a public gallery, before adjourning to deliberate and make a recommendation or decision.
Participants individually write their ideas, concerns, issues on cards. These are shared in small groups then categorised by the whole group.
A structured process for decision making that focuses on building on strengths (“what works well”), rather than focusing on problems and limitations.
A group activity to identify and then prioritise issues, concerns or ideas.
Consumers and users work works with designers to codesign products, services or processes
