A stakeholder engagement plan is a strategic step-by-step process on how you and your team will communicate with your stakeholders for positive project outcomes.
Are you new to stakeholder engagement? Down our free practical guide to get started!
Some of the benefits of creating a strategic stakeholder engagement plan include:
To help you as you develop your stakeholder engagement plan, today we’re talking about five essential steps to a stakeholder engagement plan with several additional tips and resources to help you on your stakeholder engagement journey.
To create the best plan for your team and your project, you need to understand your desired outcomes (or goals) for this plan (e.g., build positive stakeholder relationships, meet regulatory requirements, gain approval, etc.).
This is an important first step because a stakeholder engagement plan created with your goal(s) and necessary requirements in mind will help you and your team make aligned and strategic decisions for more positive project outcomes.
If you’ve run a project in the past, are there any learnings you can take from your previous plans to help guide this one? What about from members on your team?
Use these learnings as a guide to help strengthen your next plan!
Once you understand what you’re hoping to accomplish with this plan, it’s time to focus on the stakeholders and communities you’ll be engaging by conducting a stakeholder analysis.
Want to learn more about stakeholder analysis? Check out our blog!
While stakeholder analysis can have several parts, three key elements include:
Before you can begin engaging, you must figure out who your stakeholders are, and this process needs to be done thoroughly.
To make sure you’re identifying all necessary stakeholders and community members, we always recommend making this a team exercise and considering every person or group who could be affected or interested in your project, either positively or negatively.
Need help identifying your stakeholders? Check out our blog on 9 Questions to Help Identify Your Stakeholders!
Now that you know who your stakeholders are, it’s time to prioritize them by organizing your stakeholders into groups.
A popular stakeholder mapping canvas is Mendelow’s Power-Interest Matrix, which helps you categorize stakeholders based upon their level of interest (high/low) and level of influence (high/low) on your organization or project.
Want to learn more about stakeholder mapping? Check out our blog on How to do a Stakeholder Mapping Exercise!
After stakeholder identification and mapping, you need to take the time to more closely understand your stakeholders. You’ll want to learn about their perspectives, interests, concerns and opinions on your organization and project.
Once you understand their perspectives, you can assess where they stand regarding your project (i.e., support, object, conditional, undecided or neutral). With this information, you’ll have a better idea of the key messages they need to hear and how best to engage moving forward strategically.
Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software works as your teams’ single source of truth for all your stakeholder engagement information, which is beneficial in many situations, like when you’re preparing to engage with a stakeholder that you’ve already communicated with on previous projects.
By utilizing an SRM like Jambo to organize and manage your stakeholder information, you'll have access to all the data you and your team have logged for each of your organization’s projects. When engaging with a stakeholder who was part of a previous project, you can quickly jump into the SRM to see what kinds of information they've shared previously (e.g., what they value, their concerns, perspectives, any issues they previously raised, etc.). Access to this history of engagement will help you be one step ahead and understand what kinds of conversations might be vital for this project.
Interested in learning how SRM software can help you understand your stakeholders better? Check out our blog!
There are several considerations when planning for stakeholder engagement:
A useful way to guide your engagement is by choosing levels of engagement for your stakeholder categories (i.e., the categories from your stakeholder mapping exercise).
An excellent tool for identifying which level of engagement is best for your stakeholder categories is the Spectrum of Public Participation, developed by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). The IAP2 Spectrum identifies five different levels of participation: inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower.
Once you decide on your level of engagement, you’re ready to choose your specific engagement tactics (i.e., how you’ll engage with stakeholders).
Don’t forget about your key messages! Take some time to consider your stakeholder’s engagement category (i.e., their level of interest/influence), along with their perspectives and the level of engagement you’ve chosen for each category to help guide what information each stakeholder will need to hear from your organization.
Key messages should be identified early and be clear and concise so that everyone on your team can understand and use them. Utilizing strategic key messages can help you and your team communicate consistently with stakeholders, which can help build trust in your organization.
When we say “two-way communication channels,” we mean communication that allows you to reach out to your stakeholders with a channel for them to respond to you.
Sending out a brochure to stakeholders with no information on how to contact you is considered a one-way communication method because, while you can contact them, they cannot contact you. One-way communication methods can certainly be useful in some situations, but it’s important to remember that your stakeholders may have valuable information and opinions on your projects, and it’s beneficial to hear their feedback.
For additional tips on elevating your stakeholder and community engagement, visit our blog!
Now that you understand the goal of your project and have a clearer understanding of who your stakeholders are, their perspectives and how you’ll engage with them, you’ll need to develop a step-by-step process using the information you’ve already identified. This process will be the blueprint for you and your team to put your plan into practice.
Include elements like:
Don't forget to consider elements like:
Stakeholder engagement can be complicated, and things can change quickly, so you’ll need to adjust and update your plan regularly and ensure you communicate those updates to your team.
As you begin engaging with your stakeholders and communities, you’ll be collecting a lot of information. You need to ensure this information is well-organized, accessible and easy to find for your team, as you’ll likely need to share updates on your engagement information and use it to guide your plan.
Check out our blog, 8 Steps to effective stakeholder engagement tracking, to ensure you have a proactive tracking plan in place.
A few situations where you'll benefit from having organized stakeholder information and the ability to run detailed reports:
While many organizations are still trying to use spreadsheets to manage their stakeholder engagement information, this isn’t the best method for stakeholder management as spreadsheets leave you, your team, and your project open to unnecessary risks and challenges.
To learn more about why spreadsheets aren't the best option for recording stakeholder engagement, check out our blog on 10 Reasons Why it's Time to Break-up with Spreadsheets!
The best way to manage all your stakeholder relationships and communications with stakeholders is with Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software.
Our SRM, Jambo, helps you take your stakeholder management process to the next level by keeping your stakeholder information organized, accessible, searchable and easy to understand. Plus, with Jambo’s ability to run concise reports in minutes, you can save time and stay focused on meeting your project’s goals as efficiently as possible.
Want to learn more about SRM software and why it's the best option? Check out our comprehensive blog on What is SRM?
Now that you understand a few of the critical elements of a stakeholder engagement plan, we’ve developed a free resource to help you get started!
As stakeholder mapping is a critical and valuable step, we’ve designed this free printable stakeholder mapping template. Click the image below to get your free copy now!