There are quite a few pitfalls involved in engaging stakeholders. Under the guise of transparency, entire busloads of specialist reports are shared. Without a guide. Complex issues, worked on by people who have dedicated their lives to them, are progressing at lightning speed, and you can't expect people to be fully engaged at the table quickly. If you take stakeholders seriously, you don't do it by dumping a cartload of information on them.

When people are enabled to truly understand your initiative and its impact, it helps your connection. Questions arise that were not asked before, new knowledge and experience are brought on board, and it contributes to a discussion about real obstacles. It also helps to treat each other respectfully when there are strong emotions. This respect forms the basis for good further collaboration and can even lead to a desired outcome when you disagree on certain points.

Risks of powerless stakeholders

The often-seen counterpart to an affluent stakeholder is a powerless one. The feeling of not being taken seriously at all. Powerlessness can have many consequences, with organized resistance being the most visible form. When a feeling of powerlessness arises, it can be enormously mobilizing. Changes that affect people's safety or health hit very close to home. But developments that endanger the future of someone's business also penetrate deeply. The combination of great threat and powerlessness can become a toxic cocktail that makes people feel legitimized to do all sorts of things. Both within and outside the law. Protesting, initiating legal proceedings, spreading lies, and even violence or threats.

Why would you empower stakeholders?

In the blog of May 22 Wake the sleeping dog! Let Hans van Zijst Seeing that it's important to engage people who are not familiar with your initiative. And engagement means indicating, as clearly and accessibly as possible, where there might be adverse consequences for these people. For both the people you've been in contact with for a longer time and the people who are being ‘awakened,’ you are responsible for making them fully involved participants. The interpretation of sensitive research can differ significantly, despite its apparent clarity. If it concerns someone, that person had better be on board. When people are taken seriously and acknowledged, they also want to use their knowledge and skills to address issues. With more attention, seek good solutions.

Wealthy stakeholders: what are they actually

• “Why would we give those people the opportunity to view the report before it is final?”
• “The last time we got shared information directly back through the newspaper!”
• “How much more time do you need to spend on that municipality, don't they understand yet?”
• “Why are you talking to residents already and what will you do if they want something different?”

Just some of the cries you'll hear if you start a conversation about involving stakeholders within your own organization. In many places, it's not yet common practice to think in advance about what you can do to make people and organizations a part of a plan. If someone is capable of advocating for their interests in a suitable way, we call that person ‘empowered.’ A key measure of this, of course, is whether that person actually feels empowered.

Whether it's a consortium partner, a community organization, or a local resident, they can all have a form of involvement in your initiative. This could be about the current situation they dislike, an agreement that needs to be finalized soon, or fears about the disadvantages once your initiative is complete. All these are different forms of motivated interests. Depending on these interests, you can help or equip people. Before you can properly equip someone, there are still some steps to take, and it's sometimes quite an art. This requires empathizing with their situation. What does our assignment mean for others, and what is important to them?

How do you get affluent stakeholders?

Before someone feels empowered and a constructive attitude arises, there is work to be done. It starts with knowing your environment. Where specifically are the interests in your initiative and how sensitive are certain parts or topics? What might seem like a small and insignificant effect to you could be a reason for someone to lose sleep. An environmental analysis should give you an overview. If you do this well, fortunately, many parties will emerge with whom you already have a positive working relationship.

There is also a category where contact still needs to be initiated. These can be people who traditionally fall outside your organization's scope or parties who only surfaced when the extent of the impact became clear.

When a situation or plan has the potential to cause pain or require effort from people, there are several options to help them. Give them time to absorb information and discuss it with those around them, provide them with access to relevant and understandable knowledge, supply resources for them to organize themselves, give them responsibility for part of the task, etc.

Finally

Not everyone in your immediate surroundings will welcome approaching and equipping stakeholders. This is because, in the manager's world, uncertainties arise that disrupt the hitherto smooth planning. They see the environment as a risk. So, don't forget that there are also internal interests, and these are just as legitimate. Interests in being able to report positively to the steering committee or to get positive news into the media. As long as your message feels too vulnerable, support from your organization may remain absent.

Director

Thijs Kraassenberg