Beyond “Checking a Box”: Designing Outreach That Reflects What You Stand For
People can tell when community outreach is performative—especially when folks don’t normally show up to ask about their needs.
They feel the difference between communication that exists to meet a requirement and communication that reflects real care, curiosity, and belief. That difference lives in Values.
There is a meaningful distinction between required organizational communication and curious, solution-seeking conversation. Required communication checks a box: notices sent, meetings held, statements issued. Curious communication asks questions, listens for nuance, and remains open to being changed by what it hears. One satisfies an obligation; the other builds understanding.
The Values pillar of STOLO (Standard of LOVE) asks a simple but often uncomfortable question:
What do you actually stand for—and does your communication reflect it?
Too often, the outcomes of community outreach reveal an implementation that prioritizes tactics before purpose. Flyers get printed. Emails get sent. Meetings get scheduled. But without clarity on why people should care—or how this work relates to their lived reality—even the best tactics fall flat.
This is where many efforts slip into transactional interaction: information exchanged, attendance counted, deliverables completed. Transactional communication is efficient, but it’s not always memorable for the right reasons. It does little to build trust, deep understanding, or long-term esteem.
By contrast, values-led communication plays the long game. It treats each interaction as an opportunity to build credibility, respect, and relational equity over time. Instead of asking, Did we deliver the message? it asks, Did we show people who we are while also giving them space to see ourselves in their desires?
That’s why our Master Message Architecture Template (say that three times) starts with the Community’s Value Proposition. Before a headline is written, it asks:
What are we protecting?
What opportunity are we expanding?
How does this work improve dignity, stability, or access?
When values lead the message, outreach stops feeling transactional and starts becoming relational. Communication shifts from announcing decisions to inviting participation. From compliance language to community language. From one-off touchpoints to esteem-building continuity.
But values don’t live in words alone—they become greal when people can recognize them through action.
That means making values measurable and observable. Not just saying we value transparency, but:
Sharing decision criteria before outcomes are finalized
Closing feedback loops by reporting back what was heard and what changed
Naming trade-offs honestly when not all needs can be met
Not just saying we value dignity, but:
Designing processes that reduce unnecessary steps and paperwork
Respecting people’s time by starting and ending engagements as promised
Compensating community members for expertise, not just asking for input
When words are consistently reinforced by behavior, they become easy to recognize. Folks don’t have to guess what an institution stands for—they experience it.
We try to remind STOLO practitioners that the outputs are dynamic. Every communication then becomes a small act of alignment between stated beliefs and lived behavior. Over time, that alignment builds trust not because it was demanded, but because it was demonstrated.
So, the alignment of values converts mission statements into lived experience. This is how we improve a community’s standards in a way they’ll love. ❤️
