A customized approach to stakeholder engagement - and five mistakes to avoid

By Elizabeth Schuster, Sustainable Economies Consulting

Debbie Mans, and Stacy McCormack, TWENTYTWENTY public affairs

Engaging stakeholders outside of your organization works; it creates better outcomes and increases your likelihood of success by building support for your initiative. Yet many nonprofit managers and government leaders get stuck on how to do effective stakeholder engagement around new programs, policies, or plans. We’ll walk you through why a customized approach matters and five mistakes to avoid.

Not all stakeholders are the same. Whether you are working in a non-profit or a government entity, you may be engaging with three categories of stakeholders: decision makers who work for various entities, businesses, or NGOs; elected officials; or the general public.

In conservation, a frequent example we’ve observed where stakeholder engagement can go wrong is around native vegetation and ecological restoration projects. Maybe a municipality has decided to convert a portion of their park system to native vegetation, and a full meadow of wild grasses and flowers grows up in a suburban neighborhood. Or perhaps a coastal community is implementing a wetland restoration project and suddenly there are four-foot-tall grasses growing along the property.

Residents start calling with complaints: “Is the municipality short-staffed? Why did they stop mowing the grass? What an eyesore!” If the project partners had taken some simple steps to notify the public about the intention of the project and the benefits of native vegetation, this situation could have been avoided. An article in the local newspaper, a public meeting, and signage in front of the project could easily have communicated the process and goals to local stakeholders.

Why a customized approach matters

Not all stakeholder engagement is effective. A poorly designed stakeholder engagement process can make things worse by being perceived as unfair, biased, or even secretive. People tend to create stories to fill the gaps when they do not have sufficient information.

Careful and thoughtful design and implementation of a stakeholder engagement process sets your program, policy, or planning process up for success. The key, however, is to design a customized process for each project.

The first step is typically answering the question, which stakeholder group do we need to engage? We understand that budgets can be tight, so care needs to be taken in which group will be prioritized and how they will be engaged, while taking into consideration previously underrepresented groups.

When prioritizing groups, be specific, e.g., assuming “the general public” is the main target audience is not helpful. A more descriptive list might include parents of elementary aged children, residents of a certain neighborhood, or county, municipal and non-profit planners.

Dozens of tools exist for stakeholder engagement, with some of the common approaches including public meetings, focus groups, workshops, surveys, polls, and interviews. Selecting appropriate tools for engagement will help build trust. For instance, if business owners are sensitive about sharing their financial challenges in an open group setting, surveys (which protect privacy) might be a better tool for that audience.

5 mistakes to avoid

Based upon our experience, we’ve highlighted five of the most common errors we see.

1.       Thinking it will be too expensive or you don’t have time. The reality is that not doing stakeholder engagement can cost you more money and lead to more time having to fix problems later that could have been easily identifiable during the stakeholder process.

2.       Likewise, starting your stakeholder engagement too late in the process often leads to bigger challenges. Once rumors get out, you then must counter those rumors. It’s better to start early and have more control over your messaging.

3.       Not setting clear expectations, both internally and externally, about what is on the table and what is not. For example, asking stakeholders to comment on the potential location of a recycling facility when it is clear there are no alternatives when what you really need to learn are their concerns about how trucks reach the facility as they travel through the community will only lead to frustration and mistrust.

4.       Engaging elected officials the same way you would engage other stakeholders. Elected officials often usually have a broader set of priorities than neighborhood groups, for example.  This may include ratables, job creation or finding a balance for their district or municipality.  Keep in mind that this type of engagement could be considered or perceived as lobbying.  

5.       Conducting “performative” stakeholder engagement – meaning that the team is only doing the engagement process to check a box. In the worse case scenario, performative stakeholder engagement can actually create more conflict than a process that is carefully designed. Take the time to design a “roadmap” for stakeholder engagement that leads to a clear outcome and purpose. Ensure a fair, transparent process, clearly communicate opportunities for engagement, and provide sufficient notification and pathways to provide comments.

Conclusion

Stakeholder engagement has been proven to be effective at increasing your success around new programs, policies, or plans. While many groups hesitate to engage stakeholders early in a project, for fears of getting negative feedback that would slow their project, the reality is that NOT getting feedback is riskier. Our team is here to help you design an effective, customized stakeholder engagement project to help you succeed in your next project.