Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Manual 2.0
- November 22, 2022
- min reading time
- Marc Wesselink
When things get tense, everyone looks out for themselves. The newspapers are full of examples every day. This causes major delays in projects and societal challenges. The way out seems simple: look for a solution that is good for everyone. But how do you do that?
Strategic Stakeholder Engagement (SSE) is now fully established and has even become a required methodology for many complex projects. To better support you in working with SSE, the Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Handbook has been completely updated in this 2.0 version. With concrete tools for dealing with contradictions in complex environments, you—as a stakeholder engagement professional, project leader, manager, or executive—will gain the guidance you need. Marc Wesselink has further elaborated on dealing with trust, power, and complexity in both the underlying vision and the approach, thereby enriching and deepening the concept of mutual gains.
SSE with heart, head, and hands
Societal challenges are more complex than ever. Scarce space, significant interests, high tensions: stakeholder engagement professionals are confronted with them daily. The SSE approach offers a perspective for action. But before you get started, there's a more fundamental question that shouldn't be skipped: why are you doing it?
Author of the Handbook 2.0, Marc Wesselink, explains in this video that SSE is more than a method. It rests on a triangle of hands, head, and heart — and it is precisely this balance that determines whether SSE remains an active working method or becomes a trick bag. Because without intrinsic motivation, without connection and trust as a foundation, the method loses its power.
