Engaging with stakeholders
Engaging with stakeholders has become necessary for organizations aiming to deliver successful projects and achieve lasting, positive results. While the phrase stakeholder engagement might sound unfamiliar to most, chances are, you have already practiced it in your professional journey. For those working in project management, government, executive leadership, policy development, or sustainability, understanding the principles and value of stakeholder engagement is especially crucial. Equipping yourself with the right strategies and tools can make the difference between a project that simply finishes (at some point) and one that truly thrives.
In this blog, we’ll explore why stakeholders are important to engage and how to do it effectively.
What is stakeholder engagement?
Stakeholder engagement is the ongoing process of building and maintaining positive relationships with individuals, organizations, and groups that are affected by, interested, or influential in a project or initiative.
Simply put, it’s all about keeping the right people in the loop by finding out who cares about your project, getting to know what matters to them, and making sure they are heard. It also involves getting your stakeholders active in decision-making through open conversations, regular updates, and collaboration.
Why is it important to engage stakeholders?
Stakeholders can be pivotal in your project's success or failure; thus, they must be communicated and engaged with mindfully and strategically early on in projects to ensure alignment toward common goals. They are also an excellent resource for information and help organizations reduce operational risks. You can build trust, avoid conflicts, and set and meet realistic expectations by effectively engaging with stakeholders. Here’s why stakeholder engagement matters.
What are the benefits of engaging with stakeholders?
- Learn new information through knowledge sharing and different perspectives. Stakeholders often share information and views that weren’t on your radar, and they are a great resource for getting a feel for what’s happening on the ground.
- Foster transparent communication.
Engaging with stakeholders is really a two-way street. If you’re open, communicative and responsive to requests, your stakeholders will appreciate you and hopefully reciprocate. - Make better, more informed decisions.
The more information you have, the less likely you are to overlook important factors that you may have been unaware of, and the higher the probability that your decisions will be in the best interest of all involved. - Build trust, reduce risk, and give a social license to operate.
Frequent, consistent engagement works wonders in establishing and maintaining trust between you and your stakeholders. It also allows you to discover and address risks promptly to avoid project delays and disruptions. - Empower stakeholders.
By engaging with stakeholders, you empower them to voice legitimate concerns and actively participate in decision-making. This is especially important for marginalized groups who have not been considered historically.
What is the best way to engage stakeholders?
Communicating with stakeholders can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. Let’s dive into the best ways to communicate effectively with your stakeholders.
- Identify and understand your stakeholders
Before you can engage with stakeholders, it's essential to identify who they are, how your project will affect them, and their goals and concerns. We recommend performing a stakeholder analysis and creating a stakeholder map to categorize your stakeholders based on interest, influence, and level of impact.
- Develop a clear stakeholder engagement plan
Create a structured engagement plan that sets your communication objectives, key messages, channels, timelines, and assigns team accountability. This plan should focus on two-way communication to ensure information is exchanged both ways.
Dig into five essential steps to creating a stakeholder engagement plan here. →
- Tailor your communication and engagement methods
Stakeholder groups are diverse, each with its own interests, cultural backgrounds, and communication preferences. To effectively reach everyone, use a variety of communication methods, including digital platforms, focus groups, surveys, and town halls, to name a few. Addressing sensitive topics face-to-face may be the best way to show genuine respect, especially when operating in Indigenous territories.
- Engage early and often
Don’t wait for problems to arise before reaching out. Engaging with your stakeholders from the start of your project allows you to understand perspectives and to address concerns before they escalate. Following up with frequent, ongoing communication also keeps stakeholders informed and involved throughout the project.
- Document interactions and track commitments
Recording all interactions with stakeholders is recommended to ensure concerns are documented, team members are held accountable, and commitments are met. Stakeholder Relationship Manager (SRM) software like Jambo is an excellent platform for recording interactions, feedback, and actions. Using an SRM, organizations can support compliance requirements and make reporting accurate and easy.
- Evaluate and improve
Continuously improving engagement strategies keeps your stakeholder relationships strong and your organization agile. Review and adapt how you communicate with your stakeholders from soliciting feedback about what’s working and what isn’t, analyze engagement results and adapt your approach to meet evolving goals.
How to ensure your engagement with stakeholders is effective
To ensure your stakeholder engagement is truly effective, your team must be able to track and report on all stakeholder activities. This means systematically capturing, organizing, and analyzing every interaction, piece of feedback, and instance of stakeholder involvement. Additionally, it involves tracking and reporting on all activities to ensure teams foster information transparency, reduce data discrepancies, and gain valuable insights.
A Stakeholder relationship management software like Jambo offers a simple way for teams to centralize all communications, expectations, follow-ups, and related data in one place. By eliminating the need for multiple spreadsheets, an SRM streamlines collaboration and promotes greater transparency both within the team and with stakeholders.
Interested in learning more? Check out our 1-minute introduction to Jambo SRM.
