Resources

Civility Messaging Toolkit

Citizen incivility—when community members are disrespectful to employees—is becoming an increasingly common challenge across local government landscapes. From routine rudeness to threats of physical harm, these behaviors are progressively impacting the well-being and morale of local government employees. However, through Leisha’s ongoing research into understanding and mitigating the impacts of citizen incivility, we have learned a very important lesson: Messaging matters!

Messaging is a set of short phrases placed in key moments and channels to reduce defensiveness, humanize public employees, and set clear expectations for respectful behavior. Based on a pilot study with an LGWI research partner, playing empathetic, humanizing, or prohibitive messages on the City of Thomasville’s Billing and Collections phone system reduced the intensity of negative citizen interactions.

To learn more about Leisha’s research and to create impactful messages for your workplace, review and download the Civility Messaging Toolkit for Local Government.