The following column from NRC President Tom Miller was printed in the most recent issue of the Colorado Municipal League's bimonthly magazine, Colorado Municipalities:
Imagine that you run a sizable American corporation and you can push a button to know, almost instantly,what all of your customers are thinking.
How might that affect your decisions about product upgrades, new services, advertising locations, and messages about what you have to offer? Not only do municipal officials have an important role in running a sizable American corporation - an incorporated city or town - but that button already exists. It is a public opinion survey.
Most larger U.S. communities (and all large businesses) have discovered the beauty of a survey, but for smaller communities, the mystery of "the button" is still a bit like magic, and some local decision leaders carry a touch of fear and cynicism about the wisdom of relying on a survey instead of personal calls and town halls to know what the public thinks.
Especially in small communities, it is easy to convince yourself that you are at the center of public opinion every day when you try to walk Main Street. It seems that everyone knows the local leaders and everyone has an opinion about where they should head. But thinking you are the receptacle for a representative sample of public opinion - even in a small town or district - is like concluding you are Tony Bennett because you sing so well in the shower. The truth comes from independent and dispassionate appraisal - not only on Karaoke night, but on the night of town councilor board meetings.
Concern about surveying in a town where surveys appear only on the national news is fading because the accuracy of polling is so great. Also, the days are gone when the word "pollster" was uttered with the same affection as"salesman," "airline," or "bureaucrat." Although public opinion surveys continue to prove themselves able to predict voter choices on the national and state stages, the science behind a high-quality poll worries some decision makers. In truth, the science is not complex. No Large Hadron Collider is required to seek traces of hidden citizen sentiment. Elected officials usually are asked to contribute or approve straightforward survey questions on topics they care about. Then, it is wise to relinquish control of the survey data collection, analysis, and reporting to professionals who specialize in capturing reliable information about what residents think.
For many in public life, a town get-together is the ultimate "survey." The annual meeting attracts a variety of residents who typically have the passion, time, and wherewithal to attend. The variety can be deceiving because those who attend a community-wide meeting rarely represent the whole community. Simply put, the "town hall meeting" offers the conveniences of simplicity, speed, and low cost; however, citizen surveys offer the justice of range of voices, number of participants, and representativeness.
While gatherings of invited residents are easier, faster, and cheaper than most surveys, they fail to compare favorably to surveys when it comes to justice. The breadth of opinion and the number of participants are survey features that support the fundamental advantage of surveys - the representative sample.
The results of a quality survey of residents represent more than the aggregated opinion of 100 or 200 folks. A scientific survey represents (within a range of uncertainty) what all adults in a town think about how the community is doing. That is an important difference and so valuable that it almost seems like a magic wand.
From the minds of many to the ears of a few, a well-conducted survey of even 100 or 200 residents can take speculation out of the leadership equation. This way, town halls or personal conversations need not suffer conflicting assertions about who among. elected officials or regular attendees speaks more authoritatively for "all of our neighbors" or "the entire town" or "the public at large." A robust public opinion survey will tell community leaders what every CEO and board member needs to know about their customers: Do the company products and services improve the quality of life of our customers? Do customers trust the company to do what is best for them? Are product features what customers want? Is customer care what it needs to be? Is service delivery strong? Are customers behaving in ways that support company goals? Will customers support new product lines, higher costs, or changing product features?
In the kind of broad citizen surveys conducted with ever-greater frequency across the nation, in towns, cities, counties, villages, and special districts, residents are being asked the analogous questions related to their local government. Representative samples of local residents are asked about the quality of community life, service delivery, public trust and prospective policies, programs, and budget changes. Results of these surveys have helped leaders to win support for millions of dollars of capital improvements for roads, recreation, police, courts, libraries, and more.
Surveys help leaders to rearrange budget allocations to support those services that residents deem to be more important but whose quality is flagging, and surveys have become the touchstone to evaluate whether new programs have improved the community as hoped.
They say that the best leaders know which way their followers want to go, especially if the leaders are taking followers somewhere new. So, it is not a matter of using a survey to stick a finger in the wind and travel wherever the currents blow. Leaders still get to decide the best destination for their communities, but a trustworthy, independent assessment of resident perspectives gives the readings leaders need to know how best to bring their neighbors along. Whether the "trip" is toward a new community goal or simply a way to encourage residents to participate in their local government, knowing what community members think about the town will help leaders craft a plan to encourage residents to make civic contributions, serve on boards, or just act as independent volunteers helping neighbors.
Given that representatives - elected officials - are "hired" to represent their constituents, what a wonderful idea it is to inform those representatives about what the public wants. No elected official seeks to be painted into a corner by a survey, but the survey does nothing more than reveal what already is out there. Strong leaders need to know the direction that the typical resident wants to go, not simply to go there, but to know how hard he or she will have to pull the reins to get neighbors to head in the direction that leaders believe to be best.
That way, leaders have a real inside track to improving community. It is not magic. It is just good business.
