Stakeholder Engagement - Cranfield School of Management ...

Figure 14: Desirable Company Characteristics (continued)
6. Involve stakeholders in the Decide beforehand if you are willing to Is the atmosphere conducive to
planning of the process allow stakeholders to have a say in the different stakeholders proactively
development and steering of the raising issues for discussion?
process, and to what degree, and then
be consistent in your reasoning as to What techniques are you using to
why you have chosen a particular ensure different stakeholders feel
route. Don’t be afraid to ask ‘ownership’ of the issues?
stakeholders to play a role in
co-evolving the agenda, but be very Are you ready to embark on new
clear as to what you are asking them rules and act according to a different
to do, and what you are not asking script from that with which you are
them to do. familiar?
7. Field the best people Company participants should be Do your colleagues have the patience
those best suited to the job rather to listen carefully?
than those you can best spare from
other duties, with the appropriate Will your colleagues be open to new
level of expertise and experience perspectives rather than simply
with regard to the specific cultural, looking for confirmation of their own
gender and political scenarios that prejudices?
may be encountered during a
particular engagement. Do your colleagues truly appreciate
diversity and different forms of logic
as sources of learning?
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Are your colleagues ready to put themselves,
for the purposes of understanding,‘into
the other person’s shoes’?
8. Be prepared for change Be prepared to make real changes to Do we have measurement and
your project, company or business reporting systems permitting the
model as a result of stakeholder company to track business changes
dialogue. attributable to stakeholder dialogue
and to feed this back to stakeholders?
Does the company have a process to
allocate rewards fairly to stakeholders
who have contributed to positive
change?
9. Engage key stakeholders – Companies should engage those with What is the reputation of each
which may include ‘difficult’ the most interest, influence and participant, and how does it vary with
stakeholders salience with regard to their business different audiences?
and its activities (as outlined above).
This however may mean inviting in Could association with ‘difficult’
even ‘some difficult voices’. stakeholders actually be beneficial to
the company, while it is trying to build
a relationship with a particular market
segment or target audience?
10. Acquire individual and Companies need the proper skills in Are you willing and able to learn how
organisational skills place, in both individuals engaging to communicate with people from
stakeholders and at an organisational different backgrounds and with
learning level. different experiences of life?
Are you able to demonstrate
patience to others, including
willingness to listen to others?
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Towards Meaningful Engagement