My take on “Bold” from an engagement old timer
Tuesday 14th of April 2026
I’ve been around tenant engagement for over 30 years now. Seen it all pretty much. Tenant reps, panels, scrutiny, co-design… all the “new” ideas that aren’t really new, just called something different.
So, at the recent Engagement Professionals Conference when we asked a simple question: What’s your boldest engagement idea? I was genuinely interested to see what came back.
There was plenty of good stuff. Youth panels, WhatsApp groups, engagement events, using data to target different tenants. All decent. All useful. But let’s be honest, is that bold, or just where we should be at by now?
Where it got a bit more interesting was when people started talking about doing things differently. Things like “sofa on tour”- going into people’s homes and having a proper chat. Big door knocking exercises and actually getting out there. Speaking to tenants while repairs are being done. Going into communities instead of expecting people to come to us.
Yes – this is good - less formal, less staged, more real.
And then there were a couple that made me sit up and think, right…ok this is different
· Paying tenant community connectors to engage with their peers
· Giving people proper freedom and access to organisational resources to support engagement.
This starts to shift power, and pushes the boundaries of safe
So what does it tell us?
We asked for bold. What we mostly got back was good practice, stuff people are already doing, and things that feel new but aren’t. And that’s not a dig – it’s all good worthwhile stuff but we’re not exactly pushing things as far as we could.
From where I’m sat, bold isn’t another panel, group or data set. It’s tenants making decisions, not just giving views. It’s tenants having control of budgets, not just being consulted on them. It’s tenants scrutinising the whole business, not just a few service areas. It’s getting them involved right at the start, not bringing them in at the end. It’s organisations actually handing over a bit of power, not just saying they have. Paying tenants properly for their time and expertise. Being honest when things aren’t working and doing something about it.
That’s the stuff that makes people shift in their seats a bit. Which is usually why it doesn’t happen.
So instead of asking, what’s our next bold idea? maybe the better question is:
How bold are we really being with what we have – and where are we still playing it safe?
There’s a lot to be proud of across the sector, don’t get me wrong. But there’s also room to push things further and that’s where the real difference will be made.