2.1 Principles for building a team

In the course of authorizing the feedback loop process, leaders must decide who will be responsible for the process and establish a working group, task force or team. Decisions about the respective roles of elected officials, political appointees, civil service leadership and external partners like CSOs or a local university will depend on several factors, such as:

• The structure of the local authority, its departments and agencies, and its size
• The availability of internal and external human resources, technical skills and time
• The size of the community (and its implications for feedback loop design methods)
• The aims of local officials with respect to the importance of directly engaging with citizens

Senior political leadership – who often do not have time to be part of a feedback loop team themselves – will be important in approving and authorizing a process and designating staff to form a team. This senior political leadership will be a mayor, local council member(s) or city managers/city administrators where these exist.⁴⁴ Regardless of the particular structures and circumstances, the officials and staff within the local authority will form most, if not all, of the team implementing the feedback loop. As noted, while nongovernmental civil society can play a supporting role, comparative experience from El Salvador, Mexico, Moldova and Slovakia indicates that government officials must be involved and own this process. Nongovernmental support can become essential in certain instances, such as when local authorities have little to no experience as public officials or have limited guidance from public institutions on how to comply with existing administrative and legal requirements.

The size and composition of the team will be influenced by the nature of the problem the feedback loop will resolve and the size, structure and resources of the local authority institutions.

For the purpose of this guide, we will call this initial group the core team. Nearly all of the work to design and implement the feedback loop will be accomplished by the members of this team. Membership of the core team may change over time – inevitably, some individuals drop out to focus on other duties, and other interested individuals may join. In addition, the core team may find it necessary to recruit new members from civil society or volunteers from the public to support specific tasks along the way or bring in needed skills. This is the group “doing the work.” If one or more key decision-makers are not directly on this team, they should be consulted about changes in direction and kept updated; this kind of structure aligns with the supervisory engagement model discussed in Section 2.2 as a kind of core team plus leadership.

Dimensions of a core team

Consider the following dimensions when forming a team:

• Credibility – Elected officials, serving as the public face or personally leading a feedback loop, help build credibility among residents because people give their feedback directly to the decision-makers. Staff and civil society – although potential advocates – do not have the independent authority to act on feedback. Additionally, elected officials appear on ballots and are known by community members, whereas members of the civil service may not have strong name recognition. Note that civil society representatives, especially where trust in government is low, may have more credibility than government officials and be more known to the community (such as when they are actively helping solve local issues). As such, they may be able to know where to go to get needed information and may be helpful in collecting, responding to and reporting on feedback.
• Time – Elected officials everywhere need to prioritize how they spend their time. Staff, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and volunteers can be brought in to ease the workload of a feedback loop, especially when collecting and enumerating responses and conducting an initial analysis of feedback.
• Knowledge – The core team must be knowledgeable about the local community and local authority’s structures and rules, including which actors and departments are responsible for decisions related to the problem your feedback loop will seek to address. Members should also have a range of skills that are relevant for a successful feedback loop process, such as in project management, public communications and messaging, research and analysis, and writing.
• Accountability – When forming a team, identify at least one process manager: this person is responsible and accountable for seeing the feedback loop to its conclusion; if needed, make sure this person is empowered to do so.
• Transparency and openness – Public communication will be essential to the process, from informing the public that the process is taking place and how to get involved to following up and providing updates on progress toward priorities.
• Diversity and inclusion – To what extent does the core team resemble the community it will be engaging with? For example, is there a balance between the number of women and men on the team? Are you including people of different ages, especially young people, people with disabilities, or members of ethnic and religious minorities?

Key competencies and skills of a core team

Consider the following key competencies and skills when forming a team or in attempting to supplement the skills and competencies of your core team during the process:

• Public outreach, messaging, communication and writing skills
• Research, data collection, information management and analysis skills
• Administrative planning and organizing skills
• Subject matter expertise relevant to the problem that the feedback loop will address or the governance decision process (like budget planning) that public feedback will contribute to (these experts do not have to be members of the team but should be available to advise as needed during the process). For example, someone who understands gender analysis will be important, as almost every issue or process has a gender dimension.
• Knowledge of and skills to ensure compliance with relevant local and national laws
• Language skills, depending on the linguistic diversity of your community

Existing networks and relationships with diverse groups of residents, or local universities or civil society that can bring other necessary skills to the table