Trust takes time to build and can be quickly and easily lost. For the modern CAO, access to reliable data is one of the most powerful tools to help build and maintain trust across council, municipal workers and the community.
The world is changing rapidly. Municipalities must make difficult and complex decisions with long-lasting repercussions. They have a duty to residents to spend their tax dollars wisely, and for the benefit of the community. However, the needs of communities can shift quickly. Shifts in population and revenue—often anticipated—along with unexpected events such as evacuations, environmental disasters, infrastructure failures, or disruptions to essential services, can all significantly influence resource demand, planning, budgeting, service delivery, and public trust. Even global issues like tariffs and trade policy are increasingly surfacing in council discussions, reflecting broader concerns at the local level.
Well informed decisions, supported with clear, transparent, trustworthy data can make the difference between a disenfranchised council (and their constituents), and a more supportive, understanding relationship, willing to provide more latitude to the decision-making process. Think of data as your digital armour.
Building Trust In Data
To use data effectively, there must be trust in that data. Below are some components of data trust to consider:
- Data Quality: Is it accurate, consistent, and complete? If not, decision-making can be seriously compromised and trust in that data will and should be eroded.
- Data Governance: What are the policies in place regarding the procedures and practices that manage the security, accessibility, storage, longevity and usability of data?
- Data Security: Is the data secure? Have efforts been made to protect from unauthorized breeches, unrecorded alterations, cyber-attacks or other unauthorized access?
- Ethics: How are you handling sensitive or personal information? Do you even need to obtain and/or store certain information?
- Compliance: Does your data governance adhere to the laws in your jurisdiction?
- Transparency: Is it easy to identify and understand:
- What information is collected?
- How it is collected?
- Where and how it is stored?
- What it is used for?
- How long it will be stored?
- Who has access to the information?
- What rules are in place surrounding the information ?
- Ease of Use: Are the people tasked with handling information provided with easy-to-use platforms to access, analyze and disseminate that data? Is it easy to understand and user friendly?
Communicating Data
Building trust in data is only the first step. Municipal leaders must then use that data to effectively communicate how and why decisions are made, along with the outcomes of those decisions.
Take a real-world example from a rural county in northern Canada. An existing road construction project has been underway for months. Residents are frustrated, road closures and detours are inconvenient and millions of dollars in funding appear to be tied up in a project that looks, from the outside, like very little progress is happening. With clear access to up-to-date data from the project, the county will be able to post regular progress reports on their website, including dollars spent, project milestones achieved, timelines and how they line up with project expectations. Providing hard data to the community creates an understanding of the process and timelines, builds trust in the project and fosters goodwill towards the council.
Data Provides Clarity
Clarity is essential for effective decision making and good governance. Reliable data reveals trends, exposes inefficiencies and helps decision makers to respond proactively. By providing high quality data, the bigger picture is revealed, trends are identified and outliers accounted for. Ambiguity can be eliminated helping stakeholders make confident, effective decisions that address root problems, anticipate needs, and mitigate risk.
Furthermore, the ability to provide transparent, concise and trustworthy data, helps strengthen the relationship between the CAO and council. The ability to address questions and concerns with evidence-based reporting provides clarity to both sides. Budgets, milestones and outcomes are available as justification for the decision making process, and compared to the original mandates and objectives of municipal projects. While attitudes, perceptions and political ideology may change, the numbers provide a clear picture of where projects were, where they are, and where they are going.
Using data to keep stakeholders informed also breeds collaboration and engagement. When council, residents and staff are regularly updated they feel involved and consulted, building trust and boosting moral.
Using Data Effectively
Systems like ProcessPro and FARMER can help municipalities proactively build out processes that provide clear expectations and well-structured, secured data management. Data can be aggregated to custom dashboards that offer transparent access to data to decision makers and stakeholders—all while simplifying and streamlining existing business processes that tie up thousands of hours of administrative time.
The ability to use data to make informed decisions helps mitigate risk and ensures the longevity of projects, building trust in the decision-making process. The ability to present high quality, structured-data in a timely, relevant manner can help CAOs and councils further build trust with stakeholders across their municipalities. It is imperative that municipalities get a handle on the data they have, the data they need and how their using it.
Pamela Nicholson
Senior Strategy Advisor
Have questions about data governance? Government Frameworks helps municipalities use data to improve decisions, streamline processes, and communicate results. Want to see how your peers are tackling these challenges? We’d be happy to show you what’s working.
