About Me
Dr. Nicole Moore (PhD) (GAICD)
I am passionate about authentic engagement because it empowers communities to share their stories and contribute to solutions. I have seen both successful and unsuccessful attempts at authenticity, often due to limited understanding rather than poor intent. My aim is to help public servants achieve authentic engagement, which the public demands and deserves.
This website helps public servants understand, design, and evaluate authentic public sector engagements. It is based on over a decade of public service experience and a PhD. The guidance on this site is method-neutral, focusing on the conditions needed for authenticity, not specific engagement methods.
Authentic engagements are useful when there is genuine interest and ability for participants to shape decisions. Informing or consulting the public is appropriate in some cases, but authentic engagement should be reserved for when there is political and practical support for partnering with the public.
Engaging the public under lesser conditions can decrease trust in engagement processes. Building capability for authentic engagements can restore, build, and maintain trust for future generations.
The guide is informed by robust research, combining experience and practice. It uses qualitative comparative analysis to identify conditions necessary for authentic engagement. The findings are detailed in my PhD thesis 1 , but this website summarizes the essential points for busy public servants.
The key formula from the research is: equal power relations (P) and connection to decision-making (C) lead to authentic engagement (A). This website aims to bring this formula to life.