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June 06, 2008
Town halls: “A great conversation”
I’ve been thinking a lot about town hall meetings these days, since I’m preparing for a web workshop on the topic. Apparently, Sen. John McCain also has town halls on his mind, as evidenced by his invitation earlier this week to Sen. Barack Obama, asking him to participate a series of 10 such sessions.
Why does McCain endorse town halls? Because he believes they offer a forum for the presidential candidates to engage in real dialogue (not packaged or spun). Wrote McCain in his letter to Obama, “What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty sound bits and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections.”
McCain cited a 1963 agreement between President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Barry Goldwater for “flying together from town to town and debating each other face-to-face on the same stage.” (Kennedy was assassinated before the campaign began and the town halls could commence.)
How does this relate to the kinds of town halls that we get involved with: internal forums where senior leaders share information and engage in dialogue with employees?
Here’s the connection. Just by using the term “town hall,” you create high expectations for participation. Town halls are connected to the roots of democracy (invented by the Greeks and Romans). And in the United States, town halls have long been symbolic of the ability of ordinary people to speak freely.
So, if your town halls are static and one-way, you have two problems. The smaller problem is that 45 minutes of PowerPoint followed by listless Q&A is a boring way to spend an hour. The second, and more significant, problem is that employees’ expectations about their involvement are not being met, which means a missed chance to engage people.
Next time you’re planning a town hall, think about the potential of the format. And, remember what John McCain said this week: “The town hall . . . is the most effective way for democracy to function.”
And Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe agreed, “Town halls (allow) a great conversation to take place.”
Posted by Alison Davis at June 6, 2008 10:27 AM