Listen-Learn-Lead. A conversation with Catrin Owen
This week on Episode #16 of the Cool Collaborations podcast, I had the incredible opportunity to speak with Catrin Owen, the Deputy City Manager, Engagement and Communications for the City of Edmonton about collaboration in a city of nearly a million residents. Here’s some insight into our conversation:
Begin with Mindset
“No organization that wants to pursue meaningful public engagement can do it by process alone. You have to fundamentally believe that the decisions that your organization will make in a collaborative way with stakeholders will ultimately be better decisions.”
Belief is the foundation of collaboration. The belief, as Catrin puts it so well, that we can achieve better decisions by drawing on our diverse experience and working together. An organization’s leadership is essential to establishing this mindset so that the rest of the organization can take the steps necessary to put collaboration (and any good public engagement) into practice.
For the City of Edmonton, the philosophy of “Listen – Learn – Lead” is what underpins the City’s engagement work and sets the tone for how collaborative processes occur. Leadership is based on listening to the residents and learning from their diverse experiences and perspectives; it is a fundamental part of democracy and Catrin describes the thread that runs from citizens to elected Councillors to the City’s staff.
Inclusive and Generous
When Edmonton built their strategic plan called Connect Edmonton, they were broadly inclusive of many different people’s perspectives. And so, thousands of residents had a hand in choosing how their City should grow. Catrin describes the incredibly generous nature of people who are part of collaborative work like Connect Edmonton and how honouring that generosity is critical to maintaining trust between the City and its residents.
Even more exciting to me is the work done by iyiniw iskwewak wihtwawin (Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs) to rename the electoral wards in Edmonton. The process was designed and delivered by the Indigenous women of the committee and ended with Indigenous names selected for all of the City’s electoral wards.
“It was an exercise in letting go in order to get a much greater gift than we could have designed ourselves.”
Going Virtual
Of course, the world today is having to rely on new tools and different approaches, and the City of Edmonton isn’t any different. The City’s engagement efforts have gone virtual in the last year and Catrin was telling me how that shift has actually increased participation. Last year alone, the City ran 62 virtual engagement with more that 8,000 participants.
While there is a recognition that the convenience of virtual connections is great for connecting, important, Catrin emphasized the need for inclusive collaboration so that the full diversity of voices and experiences can be heard. With virtual tools, it becomes especially important because not everyone is able to access the technology needed to have their voice heard.
It was a real pleasure to speak with Catrin and learn about how collaboration can unfold in an urban centre. We talked about quite a few other things during our conversations, so listen in on the full conversation here.
Happy collaborating.
Scott Millar, through Collaboration Dynamics, often works as a "peacemaker" by gathering people with different experiences and values and helping them navigate beyond their differences to tackle complex problems together. As the host of the Cool Collaborations podcast where he explores fun stories and insights of successful collaboration with guests from around the world, and then dives into what made them work. Cool Collaborations is currently available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
