5 insights for successful stakeholder engagement
Successful stakeholder engagement doesn’t just tick boxes. It aligns interests, facilitates meaningful, long-term outcomes and keeps your project from spiralling off track.
Whether you're developing a strategic plan for a place, or navigating a complex approvals process, how you engage can make or break the outcome.
Effective stakeholder engagement is a critical part of most successful projects, especially for projects involving multiple parties with skin in the game. While the well-intentioned mantra, “engage early and often” seems like a no-brainer, without a clear plan it can quickly become a project minefield, adding risk and unnecessary costs.
It's no wonder projects quickly revert to doing the bare minimum and hoping that nothing explodes down the track. Spoiler alert: that’s a very high-risk strategy.
The good news? Stakeholder engagement doesn’t have to be painful. In fact, there is a way to keep it cost-effective, fit-for-purpose and maybe even... enjoyable. The key lies in decoding your stakeholders, so you can get what you need from them, and they get what they need from you.
Here are 5 insights to help you craft an effective and practical stakeholder engagement strategy, that works.
Identify agendas: What’s really driving the conversation?
Shakespeare was onto something when he said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." But who are your players? What scripts are they holding? More importantly, what are they truly interested in? Often, the real insights lie beneath the surface — beyond what’s said or written.
Digging deeper can reveal the true motives behind their stance — the “why” behind the “what”. What are they really asking for? What are they hoping to gain (or avoid)? What fears or desires are fuelling their opinions?
By uncovering these layers, you are likely to discover the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’. This allows you to craft a strategy that addresses the real agenda, head-on, all while respecting differing viewpoints and dispelling misconceptions. Remember, in the absence of facts, perception quickly becomes reality.
Attitudes, behaviours and the web of relationships
Understanding the players isn’t just about knowing their roles; it’s about getting a handle on their attitudes and behaviours. How do they react? Are they reflective thinkers or quick responders? Are they the silent brooder or the public forum warrior?
When we talk about behaviours, we often forget that people don’t operate in silos. We overlook a crucial element: relationships. Are these stakeholders particularly close to others, or do fractures exist between them? Are there alliances or rifts that could be shaping their positions? Would it be more effective to engage stakeholders one-on-one, giving them the dedicated time they need, or will a group forum allow a better understanding of the problem being solved? And finally, what escalation pathways are they likely to use if they are not happy with how things are progressing?
Identifying these dynamics early on, can help you understand your stakeholders and how they might act in different settings.
The plot thickens: Interest, influences & expectations
Every stakeholder has a certain level of interest in your project, and each wields a certain degree of influence. These concepts are central to the International Association for Public Participation’s (IAP2) Public Participation Model, and to all community and stakeholder engagement. While mapping stakeholder interest and influence is common practice, don’t forget to manage expectations.
Be upfront. Are you clear about which decisions are up for grabs, and where stakeholders can genuinely exert influence? Being honest and transparent about this, helps build trust and avoid frustrated (and awkward) follow-up meetings.
You could use an interest-influence matrix, but also ask yourself: am I setting realistic stakeholder expectations? What parts of the process am I willing to co-design with stakeholders, and how much decision-making power am I prepared to share? Will the outcome be worth the level of time and effort I’m asking my stakeholders to invest? These questions help you navigate the line between genuine engagement and a tick-a-box engagement process.
Strategy: Bringing it all together
So, you’ve identified the players, uncovered their agendas and motivations, and understood their behaviours and relationships. It’s time to craft a strategy that doesn’t just sit on a shelf collecting dust. A well-crafted strategy isn’t just a communication plan — it’s a roadmap for making sure stakeholders are effectively engaged throughout the project lifecycle.
A good engagement strategy reflects your insights and outlines the target techniques you’ll use to effectively engage stakeholders toward a desired outcome. Whether its to foster shared understanding, to get buy-in or approval or something more transformative, like bringing stakeholders into the program and giving them power to make decisions, an adaptive engagement strategy is your recipe for success.
Remember, engagement is not a one-off event; it’s a living, breathing process. Be ready to adapt, tweak, and recalibrate as you go.
Ownership: Hold on to what matters
While outsourcing stakeholder engagement can be effective (and sometimes even necessary) for bespoke projects — some relationships are too important to delegate. From our experience, the best relationships, the ones that last beyond the transient nature of specific projects or team members, are the ones you build yourself. People can spot a hired gun a mile away.
When engagement emerges from within — when its corporately owned and executed, and internally nurtured — this creates continuity, allowing relationships to outlast the inevitable “exit stage left”.
External advice can help to get the strategy right and identify key relationships. But when an organisation builds its internal capacity for engagement, those long-term relationships can be project gold.
And remember…
Respect, preparation, and clear expectations are your greatest allies when it comes to stakeholder engagement.
If the path ahead seems more chaotic than clear, Briar is here to help. After all, it’s what we do best.
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At Briar, we offer:
Stakeholder engagement strategies
Stakeholder mapping, analysis and management
Community consultation and engagement
Government interagency consultation
To see Briar's full offering explore our services.