Stakeholder Engagement

The term stakeholder engagement covers many different circumstances.  Stakeholders are generally held to be groups who effect,  and/or could be affected by the organisation, activity or policy under consideration.  They may be external or internal to the organisation.

Engagement is often presented as a range of ways of interacting with stakeholders.  The IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation, for example, ranges from providing stakeholders with information at one end of the spectrum, to empowering them to make decisions at the other.  The techniques of effective engagement vary accordingly from the provision of accurate and timely information,  through to more participatory tools such as citizens’ juries.

The Middle Way is experienced in stakeholder engagement in the context of sustainability assessment and corporate responsibility assessment of corporations;  major infrastructure planning and implementation programs;  strategic planning;  and government policy development and assessment.  We specialise in managing stakeholder engagement on topics which require complex technical information to be delivered to varied audiences in clear terms.

We are able to provide a range of different approaches to meet the needs of the assignment as well as the services of trained mediators and facilitators.

We access, as needed,  the various commercial software applications that have been developed to support stakeholder engagement functions such as data collection and analysis;  seeking and recording stakeholder comments;  tracking stakeholder involvement;  and developing reports.

Some steps taken by The Middle Way in stakeholder engagement include to:

• Prepare a stakeholder map identifying groups who effect and/or could be affected by the activity in question; their likely areas of interest and positions on issues;  and their ability to influence outcomes.
• Develop a stakeholder engagement strategy listing mechanisms to be used to engage with identified stakeholder groups taking account of:  their issues;  influence;  level of awareness and understanding;  possible hostility; and other considerations
• Prepare informational material such as briefing notes; speeches; information and discussion papers; displays; and draft or final reports.
• Manage, facilitate and report on agreed engagement mechanisms such as program launches; scenario analysis; open days, workshops, focus groups; written submissions; websites and other electronic communication.
• Evaluate the stakeholder engagement process.