Active vs. passive needs assessment

When it comes to listening to your community, you can do it actively:

• engaging patrons at the checkout desk, at programs, etc.
• engaging people anywhere you run into them, at the grocery store etc.
• identifying agencies that are potential partners or otherwise important and initiating a conversation
• doing a survey
• holding a community needs assessment meeting
• asking questions and inviting input on social media

You can also listen to your community passively:

• reading the local newspaper, listening to community radio and watching local TV news
• monitoring local social media
• looking up community statistics and information from the federal census, from ecmap.ca, and other sources
• reading your municipal strategic plan and other planning documents from local organizations.

Most of us would probably think that active listening is somehow best, maybe because it takes a little more work.  I do think that active listening has the advantage of being visible: the community sees you doing it, which has its own value. But passive listening is useful too.