Latest / Modern Gov Matters / The Infrastructure of Trust with Will Hampton
Transcript
- Sarah Loyd: Welcome to Modern Gov Matters. I'm Sarah Loyd, and this show is all about honest conversations with local government communicators about what's actually working, what's not, and the stuff that keeps you up at night. Modern Gov Matters is presented by CivAll, powered by Social News Desk. My guest today spent 24 years building one of the most award-winning municipal communication shops in Texas, and then walked away to teach everyone else how to do it. Will Hampton is the founder of Hampton Public, the writer behind the Good Government Files newsletter and someone who has a lot of opinions about what local government communications can and should be. Will, welcome to the show. Will Hampton: Thanks for having me. It's great to be here with you, Sarah. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, so great to have you. So you've described what you do now as consulting, writing, and training, but what's the actual through line? What's the thing that really gets you out of bed? Will Hampton: You know, it's kind of the same thing that got me out of bed when I was still working full time at the city of Round Rock is the opportunity to make a real difference in people's lives. think that's one of the great things about local government generally is the work you do, you get to see the impact it makes every day in your community as you're going about your day. And so, know, So that's what gets me going is the opportunity to share again what worked in Round Rock is not, it's not some weird one off that we got lucky. It's, there an approach that we, that we had and that we developed and refined over time and that they continue to work on today to make it even better. And so sharing ⁓ what is what gets me going. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, that's awesome. And you're writing a book called The Infrastructure of Trust. Can you give us the bumper sticker version? What's the core argument of the book? Will Hampton: Yeah, the core argument is you can only govern as well as you can persuade, and you can't persuade people if they don't trust you. And so you have to treat trust, which is this intangible thing, same way as a city that you develop your hard infrastructure, like a street network, water systems, wastewater systems. And that is you've gotta you have to treat trust, which is this intangible thing, the same way as a city that you develop your hard infrastructure, you've gotta plan it, design it, build it over time and phases, and then maintain it all very intentionally. It doesn't just happen. plan it, design it, build it over time and phases, and then maintain it all very intentionally. It doesn't just happen. You have to think it through, and then you have to resource it. It does require resources. It requires money too. And there's an approach that followed in Round Rock that works. Again, it's not... it's something that other cities can emulate. And that's kind of the bumper sticker ⁓ you need to treat trust the way you building out your transportation infrastructure. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, I love that. love thinking about, you know, especially the maintenance and resourcing of it. I feel like that's something that a lot of communities miss out on. Will Hampton: Yeah, know what? Communications, it's sort of, you know, well, everyone can write, everyone, and can post on social media. How hard can it be? Man, the job has gotten incredibly sophisticated over the last 20 plus years. I mean, when I started in 98, it was mostly a media relations and newsletter profession, right? And now with social media, ⁓ Video production, citizen engagement, branding. got to be on top of a lot of different things. You've got to have a really broad skill set now to do communications ⁓ the right way, I think. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, absolutely. So you actually reverse engineered your own success in Round Rock and then turned it into something called the five elements of high performance communication. So can you give us a quick walk through it and then also tell us what cities tend to get wrong when it comes to these elements. Will Hampton: When I retired, I had the time to sit and go, how did we do this? know, because we, as I was looking at results from our, survey that we did, we did a survey every two years in Round Rock and started in 98 that year when I started in a statistically valid survey. So we're asking questions as broad as, you know, how are we doing generally, right direction, wrong direction? How are doing with police, fire, public safety, parks, communications, that sort of stuff. And ETC Institute, the company that did the survey for us they could also benchmark your results with what other cities were doing nationally and statewide. And so our communication results were like close to 70 % satisfaction. People either rated it excellent or good. Nationally, that was like, it was like twice the national average and three times the state average. Now I think I'm, you know, I'm arrogant enough thinking, you know, I'm pretty good, but I'm not that good, right? I've been on the board of 3CMA and TAMIO, I've judged, you know, hundreds and hundreds of award entries. So I know there's a lot of great work being done out there. So I know we're not that much better, ⁓ but did we get there, right? Sarah Loyd: That's amazing. Will Hampton: It started with strategic priorities. That's the first element of the five elements. We were mission driven and really vision focused in Round Rock. Always thinking about where do we want to get this place in the next 20 years? What do we want Round Rock to look like over the next 20 years? then, so every year our city council gets together and does that sort of strategic prioritization. And so having that as foundational, that direction ⁓ of, here's what we're working on and why. It communicates to the public. We're not just making this up we along. We're ⁓ really giving a lot of hard thought to doing what we're doing. So that's the first element. The second element organizational leadership. And that is. Do you treat communications as a department or is it a leadership value? In Round Rock, it was considered a leadership value. Third element is citizen participation and listening. To me, it's the keystone element. It's kind how you're interacting ⁓ the public. Are you engaging them in meaningful ways? Do have a listening architecture in place? Because on the listening, just like you need multiple platforms for your outbound communications, you need to have multiple platforms for your inbound, how you're listening as well. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, you got to give people that opportunity to talk back. Will Hampton: 100%. Yeah. That is key to establishing and maintaining your legitimacy. People will go along with project and programs they disagree with if they've had a legitimate opportunity to weigh in early enough in that process to make a difference. I've seen it happen dozens of times in Round Rock. It's not a theory. It's a reality, which is good news. And then the fourth element is branding. And And branding is probably people, it's more important to building trust, I think people think. A lot of folks think it's your logo and tagline. That's the graphic expression of your brand. But the best definition I ever heard of brand was it's what people say about you when you're not around. And so you have a brand whether you've gone through a branding process or not, right? Sarah Loyd: Whether or not you maintain that brand is a different story. Will Hampton: Exactly. it's more than just your logo and tagline. It's when people come to your website. Do they have a good experience on the website? When they comment social media, ⁓ what that experience like? When they walk into City Hall to pay a utility bill or ⁓ try get a permit for a building project, every interaction that someone has with the city impacts the brand. People experience the city in all kinds of ways. And when they have a predictable experience, trust goes up. That's why branding is so important to the infrastructure of trust. And then finally, is content creation is the fifth element. It's really the bottom of the funnel. You have all these other four elements in place. particularly your strategic priorities and your brand, when you know who you are, when you have that brand voice and you know what your elected leaders priorities are, man, you can create some content. You can get really creative, which is what we had a reputation for in Round Rock, deliver meaningful messages that break through the clutter, that the public, maybe even entertain them a little bit along the way. But those elements working together are how you get to high performance. Sarah Loyd: Yeah. And that's, that's such a great framework and makes it so repeatable. As long as you have all five elements kind of working in harmony, then this is, this is a very repeatable, recipe for success really. Yeah. Will Hampton: Exactly. Yeah. And that's, that's what, that's why I'm writing the book. I've talked to communicators, other city managers and those high performers. ⁓ They all have these things in common. They're mission driven communications and is not just an afterthought. They do their good citizen engagement. They take their seriously. When you get alignment, it's a really powerful thing, but it takes time, it takes focus. It's not happen overnight. You gotta play the long game. That's other thing I think. And that's why I like this infrastructure analogy is you don't build a road network overnight. It takes decades. ⁓ Sarah Loyd: Yeah, absolutely. And it takes decades of investment and work. Which of the five elements do you see most organizations missing? What does that actually look like? Will Hampton: I think it's probably the listening piece. that intentional listening piece that I think is where most people miss the boat. Uh, and I, I, want to give credit to Jackie Lambiase and Ashley English, who run the Certified Public Communicator Program at TCU. A few years back, they really focused on this. They did some research on listening. when presented, Ashley was talking about the importance of listening. And I went, yes, ⁓ 100%. And it's... ⁓ because it feels kind of reactive, I think, maybe, you know, again, you hire a communicator to get the message out. That's important. You got to do it. But that listening, as I mentioned earlier, when people know they've been listened to, the public, even if they disagree with what you're doing, that's how you start to build credibility and legitimacy. I ⁓ think that's maybe where ⁓ folks miss it. Sarah Loyd: we talked about kind of the two way communication ⁓ loop. And it made me think that that comms really, you know, they're not just a seat at the table the comms department, but they're really the, the citizen seat at the table, right? They're, you know, kind of bringing all those citizen concerns, what they see on social media, what comes through surveys. They're really bringing that to the table. And I think that's maybe something a lot of, you know, maybe higher ups in city organizations don't necessarily think about. Will Hampton: I couldn't agree with you more on that, because that is part of the job. you're, if you're in the comm shop, you're managing those social media accounts. So you're hearing, even though it's not necessarily representative of the general you're hearing what people's concerns are. And it's more top of mind for you than say maybe the public works director or, ⁓ you even you know, an assistant city manager, whatever. Because you're thinking about that stuff all day, most days. And so you're in touch with that. that's critical. You've got to think about how is this thing going to, this idea we have, this project, how is this going to land with the public? As a communicator, you ought to know better than anybody. Sarah Loyd: You mentioned that you're seeing organizations move more toward in-person engagement to reach residents in really meaningful ways. ⁓ So can you talk what's driving that shift and ⁓ is it working? Will Hampton: I think it is working. I think there's been some burnout on social media for a while. Just ⁓ what the do to... ⁓ make louder the most negative voices people have, have come ⁓ see that's just not the most effective tool for effective engagement. I think it's good for branding and customer service answering questions. but for like having real conversations with the public that is best done face to face. I think that's why people ⁓ are, doing more of that. And it can be. You know, I wrote about Folcher, Texas, Mariah Leandro, their comms director. They did a program, very low key, they took, I it's called the Council Connects. They get the mayor, they show up at the HEB grocery store on a Saturday afternoon. They've got a little table set out, some flyers, some information. The mayor there is a council member there. It's a really fast growing community just outside of Houston. And so they meet people where they are. And so they have, you can have conversations with the elected officials and people just, they don't know what they don't know about local government, but you can do a little education there. You can start to make those real connections with people. That's one example and it was very successful and they were continue to do that. The council was kind of reticent because the council members have like these difficult, like say a rezoning vote to make and those public hearings can be very contentious. And now you're asking, well, come meet the public again, right? they can be like, I just got beat up for two hours at last council. Really? But then when you meet folks, when it's more just, hey, how you doing? Sarah Loyd: You want me to do that again? Will Hampton: What are up to? What are you and your family up to this Saturday? Yeah, I'm Mayor so-and-so and here's what we're working on at the city. It's just a much more relaxed, much more informal setting. And you can have a real, you can have a, the stakes are lower. So you can have a real conversation. Hey, what's going on? Sarah Loyd: the stakes feel lower. Will Hampton: You've got to get out talk to real people they are. and have real conversations with them. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, I know Brian Ligon mentioned on the podcast that they were going out to farmers markets or other city sponsored events and just popped up a table and asked people, do you love about Mont Belvieu? And that was a great jumping off point to hear the positive about the city, but also open the door for them to maybe offer complaints or suggestions or things like that in a really sort of non-hostile kind of way. Will Hampton: Yeah, well, if you think about your council, most city council chambers, I mean, the council is literally sort of sitting up on a dais. They're literally looking down on the public. There's this dais that's this big barrier, literal barrier in between the elected officials and the public. And then you've got to go stand behind a lectern. Sarah Loyd: Yeah. Will Hampton: And so it's just hard to have a real conversation there. And so you've got ⁓ to make the effort to get of that setting because setting makes all the difference in the world ⁓ in getting effective communication, what I real conversations. They don't happen at a council meeting. They don't. They'll happen at a farmers market. They'll happen at HEB on Saturday morning. Yeah, that's where you have a real conversation with somebody. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, absolutely. So shifting gears just a little bit. You mentioned earlier, ⁓ you were starting over in government communications, one thing you might do differently is learn to say no. And you touched on this a little bit earlier. Can you tell me more about that and what is good prioritization really look like in a, a comp shop? Will Hampton: Yeah. Yeah. Understanding what your elected leaders priorities are need to be your priorities. And if they have, some cities, they don't do the kind of that kind of strategic planning. They may not have a full blown plan. And if that's the case, then you need to talk to your city manager and say, okay, what are the five most important things we're working on this year? And that becomes your North Star for what you're going to communicate on. And so you will, you can then say no to those requests that come in. Um, on a regular basis, because listen, I'm working on these things that are a higher priority. Um, and the other thing, you know, you've to figure out what platforms you need to be communicating on. And I think that's where I'm a huge advocate of the statistically valid survey. I don't know how you do this work without it. Cause one of the questions we always asked was where you get information about the city of Round Rock. And we'd list like 15. platforms and not all city platforms. might be the local newspaper, the Metro paper, TV news, local radio, all the different places where people get information. And then you can prioritize where you're going to deliver those messages. Just like you can't say everything, you can't be everywhere. But you got to focus where you deliver those messages to. You have to pick and choose if you're going to move the needle. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, and I love the idea of using data to drive those decisions. So you're not making those choices in a vacuum. All right. Well, so it's time for our lightning round. these are the questions we ask everybody in the show. So first up, what is your favorite local spot in Round Rock? Will Hampton: That would be Salt Traders, which is a seafood place here in Round Rock run by a guy, ⁓ by a guy named Jack Gilmore. ⁓ someone who used to live in the Austin area, you're probably ⁓ with Jack Allen's kitchen, kind of farm to table, fantastic food. So anyway, ⁓ opened up a seafood place in Round Rock, great food, great atmosphere. If my wife and I need to go decompress or just hang out and just have a wonderful meal, we go to Salt Traders. Sarah Loyd: Yeah. So how about the most underrated thing about your community? Will Hampton: I think it's probably our trail system, not just in Round Rock, but we've partnered with the other cities in the county here in Southern Williamson County along the Brushy Creek Regional Trail. It runs from Cedar Park, which is west of Round Rock, nearly to Hutto, which is east of Round Rock. This gorgeous trail along Brushy Creek, and Brushy Creek is aptly named. A lot of dense foliage. Sarah Loyd: Hahaha Will Hampton: I mean, you can be on parts of that trail and it feels like you're in a primeval forest. I mean, you're not hearing traffic. The water is running and it's just, you the Japanese have this thing they call, what is it? Forest baths, forest bathing. You can get a little bit of that experience here in Round Rock on our trails. It's just, it's wonderful. We're on them all the time. Sarah Loyd: Yeah, that's amazing. in a place like Round Rock, so close to ⁓ this city of last question. If uh, Round Rock had a theme song, what would it be? Will Hampton: Yeah, this was interesting to think about. And I'll confess, I went to ⁓ Claude, my assistant, to help me ⁓ with It would be the Eye of the Tiger from, I think it's Rocky III, right? ⁓ And it's that focus and the effort it takes ⁓ to win. that is what Round Rock has had. It had it before I showed up here. and started working here in 98. It's got it, it maintains that focus today. The city that will do what it takes ⁓ win, to win for the public, you know, to make this a better place, more affordable, all those things that matter to the public, the city ⁓ really focused on. ⁓ Sarah Loyd: Yeah, I love that. Well, this has been such a great conversation, such a pleasure to have you on the podcast and really looking forward to your book coming out. If folks want to follow along in the meantime, where can they find you in Good Government Files? Will Hampton: They can find good government files at willhampton.substack.com. You can also find me ⁓ ⁓ easy enough to find there to search for Will Hampton. I'm easy to find. Hamptonpublic.com is where, ⁓ my website. Sarah Loyd: Okay, great. Yeah, we'll make sure those are in the show notes so folks ⁓ can follow you. All right. Thank you again. And Modern Gov Matters is presented by CivAll, powered by Social News Desk. If you found this episode helpful or interesting, please share it. And for more episodes, visit moderngovmatters.com. I'm Sarah Loyd and we'll see you in two weeks. Will Hampton: Yeah.