Working towards “Communication Nirvana”…
Council has not yet perfected communication, however we are working hard every day to improve this area.
As I’ve mentioned previously in this column, council has not yet perfected communication, however we are working hard every day to improve this area. Communication is quite simply passing information from one person to another, and in council we have a LOT of information to share with you, and we understand you also have a LOT of information you want to share with us. It would be fantastic to have a silver bullet fix for this one as it’s so vitally important to get right, alas with this one it’s a case of try, and try again, until we get it right.
Utopia would look like this…community would see council as part of the solution and not part of the problem as we both would understand each other’s issues and work on solutions and improvements to these, together. Council would see community as the foundation on which all decisions are made and be able to extract meaningful, realistic information from the ground up; which then in turn would produce the highest level of strategic direction; which in turn council would use to inform their decision making.
In other words, community would know that council has a full understanding of and is considering their particular issues and in turn community would also understand the parameters around which council has to operate and make decisions. Council would be able to easily share the roadblocks we encounter with community, celebrate the successes and keep community up to date on progress. Community would be able to understand the issues council is dealing with and not have to “wonder” what’s going on. The benefits to getting communication right between us are countless however, for me personally I look forward to continually breaking down the barriers between us and helping us work together as a team. We aren’t each other’s enemies, but allies. Only together can we lobby for and achieve great outcomes for the region we all love.
Working towards this “communication nirvana”, last week we released our first website budget page. This page has hopefully made it easier to understand outcomes council expects to achieve over the next 12 months. It will also be the place to check on progress and any other information you may require. We are doing things differently. This webpage is still in its infancy but I find it’s better just to start somewhere and improve on it day by day. Bookmark this page http://www.northburnett.qld.gov.au/budget and check back often on your favourite projects. There will be more and more information and projects added during the year. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but I’m hoping it’s just another way we can communicate and improve our relationship. We also have other ideas to invigorate our partnership in the pipeline.