Stakeholder engagement could be the make or break of your business. Don’t let your organisation receive a letter like this; but if you do, make sure you follow their advice.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to make you aware of the upset caused for myself and other stakeholders in your business project due to the lack of engagement. You have failed to effectively communicate with us and consequently, you have not only lost our trust, but you are missing out on valuable feedback and support.
We stakeholders are the bread and butter of your business. As a person, company or group that has an interest your organisation, it is unsurprising that engaging with us should be high up on your list of to-dos. Consider how stakeholders could help you to achieve long term objectives; we may be the source of some fundamental ideas which could help steer development in your project!
As a business owner myself, I can recommend ways in which to better your communication. Although each type of stakeholder must be considered individually, a combination of engagement techniques can be used to target each category.
Firstly, you need to collaborate with those that have a high interest and impact on your project. Document co-authorization and task assignment are both ways to ensure that these stakeholders and well-informed and consulted throughout a project. Additionally, focus groups allow participants to give their opinion- don’t we all want to feel that our voice is heard?
Furthermore, you need to inform those that have a low interest or impact on your project. Emails, questionnaires and an updated webpage keep many stakeholders easily up-to-speed without investing too much time or too many resources.
Stakeholders are important and bring possibility; however, also think about precautions for when a couple of those more difficult stakeholders inevitably create obstacles. What you want is not necessarily what we want, so manage our expectations about what we can influence and what is going to be achieved.
Hence, in your next project remember to involve your stakeholders from the start! Let us know what you are hoping to achieve and how you plan to achieve it. We can help you to better manage your project by sharing ideas and working together during the decision-making process.
To avoid upset like this in the future, I strongly suggest you contact Amanda Murrell Associates. With their informative training courses and useful tools, they will help you to develop an engagement strategy to be proud of! As a result, you will have strong and positive relationships with your understanding and trusting stakeholders.
Kind regards,
V. I. Stakeholder