Fortuna STAFF: 2025 Listening Campaign
CONVERSATION GUIDE
Introduction Points
Management staff are listening to a range of City staff at the same time that they and community volunteers are listening to a wide variety of community members to guide updates of the General Plan and Strategic Plan.
We’re listening without an agenda and using open questions to get your honest feelings, experiences, and hopes.
We’ll share results from these conversations back to staff and the community in early 2026, to review and hone them together into direction for the Strategic Plan and General Plan Updates.
We’re recording these conversations so we can:
● Have a conversation and pay full attention to what you say ● Make sure our notes are accurate, and in case we need to clarify later ● Look for common themes and key quotes as points to review together with staff (and with the community) in workshops
● Make sense of the results ourselves (vs. a consultant telling us what we should do)
If you share something that could easily identify you, let us know to highlight it, and we will be extra careful with that information. Again, nothing will be shared with supervisors in a way that they can identify who said what.
Thank you for completing the consent form and lending your thoughts so the City can develop guidance out of what we learn from staff (and community members). You’re welcome to skip any questions you don’t want to answer Here are the questions we are working from, but I won’t use it like a script.
This will be a little different than normal work conversations – we’re looking for honest stories and a better understanding of your hopes for Fortuna… so, let’s get started!
Conversational Questions
1. Please tell me a bit about yourself and how you ended up working for the City. ● Why the City and not somewhere else?
● How did you get into the job you're in now? How long have you been doing it? ● What matters most to you about the work? Where does that care come from? ● What do you like best about your job? Why?
● What keeps you coming back every day?
● What are you really good at that helps the team?
2. How would you describe key community values that guide City decisions?
3. Can you share an example of when you felt the City was really doing things right – an experience that reminded you why you work here?
4. If you gave the City a score of 0-10 on these three things, what would they be and why? ● Ability to work with others and get things done effectively? Why that score? Can you give an example or two?
○ What conditions make it easier for people to work well together and get things done? ○ Does the City Council affect how staff work together? How? ● Clear vision, purpose, and steps to improve the City’s future? Why that score? Can you give an example or two?
○ When you think about the City's future, what do you hope we can do better? If you could wave a magic wand and help the City and staff work better, what would you do? ○ Do you have any ideas about how the City could help staff do their best work? ● Clear guidance on how to achieve affordable housing needs and economic development that Fortuna wants? Why that score? Can you give an example or two?
5. Can you think of a time when you felt like you really fit in here at the City? ● Where or when do you feel most comfortable and productive at work? ● Where or when do you feel least comfortable and productive?
6. What do you understand the community really cares about? ● How does that priority show up in the day-to-day work? Or not? ● How does that affect how the City makes decisions? Or not? ● Do you think what the community wants is changing? How might that affect things at City Hall? ● Is anything at stake if nothing changes? If so, what and why?
7. When staff gather to discuss results from these conversations and City priorities, are there important things we should include that we never get time to discuss in our regular work?
8. Anything else I should have asked about, or anything else you want to say?
9. Let us repeat back what we heard to see if we got it right… ● Repeat back the main things they said, in simple terms, using a mix of their words and your understanding of their key points
TO WRAP UP: share appreciation for their willingness, time, perspective, and honesty.
After you depart: confirm key takeaways are captured in the notes and who will upload results.