Engagement playbooks
Community engagement playbooks: project management built from your practice
A community engagement playbook is your engagement practice, encoded. Apply one to a new project and CE Canvas builds its phases, milestones, activities and dated tasks in one step, timed to when the community can take part. When the dates move, the plan moves with them.
The setup problem
General project tools start every engagement from a blank board
Asana, Monday.com and Microsoft Planner are good at tracking work once it is set up. Setting it up is the labor-intensive part, and for engagement teams it happens on every project.
Built by hand
Someone recreates the phases, milestones and task list for every new project, from memory or a copied spreadsheet.
Dated by hand
Every task is dated one at a time, with no link to when engagement opens, when it closes or when the decision is made.
Re-dated by hand
When the engagement window moves, and it always does, every affected task is found and moved again.
What a playbook is
Your engagement practice, encoded once and applied to every project
A playbook defines the kinds of engagement project your organization runs and how each one should go. Good practice stops depending on who happens to set up the project.
For each project type, a playbook holds
- The level of engagement on the IAP2 spectrum, and how long an engagement window can run.
- The steps every project moves through, such as preparation, engage, analyze and report back.
- The engagement methods that suit it, from drop-in sessions to online surveys.
- Task templates, each timed against a milestone: engagement opens, engagement closes or the decision date.
Engagement Essentials
What applying a playbook builds
CE Canvas ships with Engagement Essentials, a starter playbook for most community engagement projects. It covers six project types, 18 engagement methods and 70 task templates.
| Project type | Level | Window | Tasks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community vision and strategy | Collaborate | 42 to 90 days | up to 20 |
| Major development | Involve | 28 to 60 days | up to 19 |
| Project delivery | Consult | 14 to 28 days | up to 19 |
| Routine engagement | Inform | 14 to 21 days | up to 17 |
| Policy and service changes | Consult | 21 to 42 days | up to 16 |
| Information and awareness | Inform | 7 to 14 days | up to 14 |
Every project also gets four steps, three milestones and one activity for each method you accept. Task counts depend on the methods you keep.
Seven tasks every project shares
- Develop the engagement plan14 days before engagement opens
- Notify stakeholders3 days before engagement opens
- Launch the consultationWhen engagement opens
- Close the consultationWhen engagement closes
- Prepare the engagement report14 days after engagement closes
- Communicate outcomes21 days after engagement closes
- Evaluate the project28 days after engagement closes
How it works
Three steps from a new project to a dated plan
Nothing is created until someone has reviewed it and pressed apply.
- 1
Choose the project type and engagement window
The project type tunes what is suggested. The engagement window’s start date and length set when every task falls due.
- 2
Review before anything is created
See the suggested activities and every proposed task, each timed against a milestone such as engagement opens or the decision date. Decline what does not apply.
- 3
Apply, with real dates from day one
Tasks land in the task list, milestones and steps on the timeline, and activities on the engagement canvas. Change the engagement window and, once you confirm, the tasks move with it.
Tick Assign all tasks to me to take ownership when you apply, then hand tasks to colleagues and external partners from the task list or by asking the AI assistant.
When dates change
Move the engagement, and the plan moves with it
Council meeting dates shift and drafts take longer than planned. In CE Canvas the tasks are timed against the engagement itself, so rescheduling is one change, not fifty.
- Move an engagement window or a phase and every task anchored to it moves by the same amount.
- The timeline shows which tasks will move before anything is saved.
- Tasks someone has dated by hand stay where they were put.
- Later phases can stay undated until you know their dates. Their tasks are created anyway, so nothing is forgotten.
AI assistant
Keep the plan current by asking
The CE Canvas AI assistant works inside the project, so it knows the plan the tasks belong to. Ask it to create tasks, assign them to colleagues by name, change status, priority or dates, or tell you what needs attention. It drafts the activities and implementation tasks from your engagement plan too.
- “Create a task to book the library meeting room for the second drop-in session, due 12 March, and assign it to Sam.”
- “Move the survey analysis back a week and mark it high priority.”
- “Reassign everything Priya has open on this project to Alex while she is on leave.”
- “What is overdue on this project, and who owns it?”
Your own playbooks
Start from Engagement Essentials, or encode the way you work
Organization admins maintain playbooks in settings: add project types, rename steps, choose methods and set when each task falls due. If you already have an engagement strategy or framework, a playbook is how it gets applied on every project.
- Adapt the starter playbook, or build project types for your own kinds of engagement.
- Run one engagement phase or several, each with its own window and milestones.
- Export and import playbooks to share them between teams or organizations.
- Have CE Canvas encode a sector workflow, a compliance framework or your own method as a custom playbook.
The product documentation covers every setting. Read how playbooks work
Compared
Setting up an engagement project: a general tool or a playbook
- Starting a projectGeneral tool: A blank board or a copied template, rebuilt for each projectCE Canvas: Apply a playbook: phases, milestones, activities and tasks in one step
- Dating the tasksGeneral tool: Each task dated by handCE Canvas: Every task timed against engagement opens, engagement closes or the decision date
- When dates changeGeneral tool: Find and move each affected taskCE Canvas: Move the engagement window or phase and its tasks move with it
- ConsistencyGeneral tool: Depends on who sets up the projectCE Canvas: Every project of a type starts from the same practice
- Knowledge of the engagementGeneral tool: None: the plan, the decision and the stakeholders live elsewhereCE Canvas: Tasks sit in the same record as the plan, the stakeholder map and the evidence
- Updating the planGeneral tool: Open each task and edit itCE Canvas: Ask the AI assistant to create, assign, update or reschedule tasks
Keep your organization-wide project tool for work outside engagement. Why general tools struggle with engagement work
Questions
Common questions about engagement playbooks
What is a community engagement playbook?
A playbook is your organization’s engagement practice, encoded. It defines the types of engagement project you run and, for each type, the steps, engagement methods and task templates, each task timed against a milestone. Applying a playbook to a project builds its phases, steps, milestones, activities and dated tasks in one step.
How is a playbook different from a project template in Asana or Monday.com?
A project template copies a list of tasks. A playbook is tuned to the type of engagement and its level on the IAP2 spectrum, suggests the activities that suit it, and times every task against the engagement window and the decision date. When those dates move, the tasks move with them.
Community engagement project managementCan we build our own playbook?
Yes. Start from the Engagement Essentials playbook and adapt it, or build your own: project types, steps, methods, task templates and their timing. Playbooks can be exported and imported, and CE Canvas can encode a sector workflow, compliance framework or your own method as a custom playbook.
What happens when engagement dates change?
Move an engagement window or a phase and every task anchored to it moves by the same amount. The timeline shows you which tasks will move before anything is saved, and tasks someone has dated by hand are left alone.
Does it work for projects with more than one round of engagement?
Yes. A project type can have several engagement phases, such as gathering input and then confirming a direction, each with its own window and milestones. Later phases can stay undated until you know their dates; their tasks are still created so nothing is forgotten.
Does the AI assistant manage tasks too?
Yes. Ask the CE Canvas AI assistant to create a task, assign it to a colleague by name, change its status, priority or dates, or tell you what is overdue. It works inside the project, so it knows the plan the tasks belong to.
See a playbook applied to one of your projects
A guided pilot configures a playbook to your framework and runs one real project end to end.