Stakeholder engagement doesn't look like it did a decade ago, and organizations that still rely on old playbooks are feeling the gap. People expect more transparency, more voice in decisions that affect them, and more proof that their input actually matters. So what does effective engagement look like today, and how can practitioners build the kind of trust that turns skeptical stakeholders into genuine partners? We sat down with an industry expert to find out.
Joining Jambo for this Q&A blog is Kim Hyshka, the owner of Dialogue Partners. Kim has been a leader in civic engagement and public participation for over a decade.
Dialogue Partners specializes in:
High stakes, high-impact projects. We open possibilities, cultivate collaboration and spark change through dialogue. We involve the community, bringing people together to facilitate impactful conversations.
Kim is in the business of better conversations, meaning she supports organizations in interacting, engaging, and making decisions about high-stakes issues.
She supports a broad range of projects and conversations, helping bring people together to talk about what matters to them and to make decisions that support diverse people and perspectives.
For today's blog, Kim has offered her expertise and helped us compile a list of current engagement trends in the industry, along with five best practices for richer engagement.
The world is a different place than it was ten years ago, and what previously worked in stakeholder engagement no longer does.
There have been fundamental shifts in the ways people connect, in their expectations of organizations and government and in how people organize, perceive and interact with large and "powerful" organizations.
These shifts don't necessarily mean people are different at their core; rather, the way they come together has changed, which affects how we define, understand, and implement public engagement.
Today, we'll discuss five trends shaping the engagement landscape.
When it comes to engagement, there's a lot of "yes!" and "no!" and this divisiveness can be a challenge, especially as it's often amplified in larger groups.
As practitioners, we must work to support people in coming together, whether online or face-to-face, to help them talk with one another rather than at one another, which we especially see online.
We need to help people have conversations where they actively listen and engage with each other to work through this divisive tendency. To do this, we need to build trust.
Trust plays a significant role in this polarity and divisiveness. Today, trust in large organizations or governments is low (see Edelman's Trust Barometer).
The research suggests that trust in traditional, formal organizations and institutions has been declining in Western society, and that we don't believe organizations are making the best decisions for us.
I see this as one of the big challenges of our time. Organizations like municipalities, provincial governments, and other businesses or corporations serve the public or meet public needs, but if stakeholders don't immediately trust their decisions or choices, it becomes significantly more challenging to deliver projects effectively.
As engagement practitioners, we should assume that people don't trust us while also understanding that trust is essential for good decision-making. Trust is critical to meaningful engagement over the long term.
We need to remember that trust is a two-way street. If we want people to trust us, we need to trust that the people we are talking with have something valuable to say.
To build this trust and address divisiveness, we need to think not only about the data we need from people but also about the experiences we create with them when we engage.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." – Maya Angelou.
Trust isn't built on "how good your questions were"; it's about the experience you create for people. This will define whether people trust you, how willing they are to work with you, and what kind of long-term relationship you have with them.
You need to consider three components to plan an impactful experience.
We're used to services and technology that give us what we want, almost immediately. We can reach out, connect and respond on social media within minutes. This trend of instant gratification has become the norm, and we've come to expect it.
When conversations are hard and don't go the way people expect (or as quickly as they expect), it's easy to fall back into that "yes!" and "no!" divisiveness we mentioned above. This polarity affects our ability to engage in deeper, richer ways.
Stakeholder engagement can take a long time (many projects take years), which can be frustrating for the people we're engaging with, who often think, "We just talked, and they haven't reached out to us, what's taking so long?"
We expect results right away, and we have trained our brains to want to engage in this manner. Unfortunately, this directly contributes to the reactivity and high emotion we see in engagement. We come to quick conclusions without taking enough time to consider, reflect or digest the information before we react.
This takes away from meaningful dialogue and instead turns the conversation into one guided by our judgments, assumptions, and personal perceptions.
It's important to remember that in quick, closed interactions, we won't fully understand how to densify our cities, properly identify where to place our schools, or determine how to move people more effectively from place to place.
Today, as engagement practitioners, we have a role to play in supporting people to experience a different kind of conversation that helps create positive change.
We want facts to solve our problems.
We often approach situations where we're trying to convince people and think, "If people just knew the facts surrounding a situation, they would support our position, or they would understand, or they'd stop opposing the project." So, we show up to meetings with slide shows, poster boards, cue cards, and experts, but the reality is that facts rarely make people feel better.
Facts matter, and they are a critical part of engagement. People need certain data and information to be informed about situations; however, what we need to remember is that stakeholders are experts in their own lives. They do not need to be technical experts to tell you how your projects will affect them.
By focusing so heavily on facts, we're not connecting the dots to build the full picture. We're missing the opportunity to have a conversation where we say, "Here's what we know, now tell us what we don't know."
Our stakeholders have expertise and knowledge we do not (that's why we are asking them in the first place), and we need to combine this with our technical knowledge. Together, we are much more likely to find sustainable, long-lasting decisions and choices.
Today, people are seeing issues that matter to them and choosing to unite around them in new and different ways (e.g., hashtag movements on social media).
People are organizing outside engagement practitioners' formation processes, which pose both challenges and opportunities.
When people have formed their groups (e.g., they're protesting outside an event or running their own consultation process), there's an opportunity to invite them into your conversation and potentially learn from their diverse and valuable perspectives. They obviously care enough about the issue to form a group, so is there an opportunity to learn from their perspective?
We often see people who aren't with us as against us, but this isn't necessarily true. People might not like you, and they might not like what you're doing, but that shouldn't limit our interest in or desire to have a relationship with them and learn from them.
We know that technology has exploded, and we're continually finding new ways to connect online; however, technology can't be the only thing we rely on.
We see today that while we have more technology, we're also feeling more isolated than ever before. Especially in today's climate, where many of us are working from home, we're trying anything we can to connect.
Technology plays a part in engagement, as do people and conversations. Technology affects how and when we engage and our ability to solve problems; however, it's important to remember that it's just one piece of the process.
Now that we've covered the five trends, what do we do with all this information?
Once we understand the environment surrounding engagement, we can engage in richer ways to drive positive change with stronger alignment.
It's important to remember that as practitioners, we don't need all the answers; we need to rely on our stakeholders and communities and trust that they have something valuable to offer to the conversation.
We need to care about relationships just as much as we do about the data. If we put people and relationships first, the results will follow.
Take a moment to define why you're doing what you're doing beforehand.
We often fall into the trap of thinking "we need to engage," and then we quickly book a hall, choose a date and pick the location without considering:
If you don't know why you're doing it, there's no way to understand what is needed. You certainly cannot figure out how you're doing it. So take the time to develop a solid but flexible stakeholder engagement plan beforehand that answers these questions.
We often think of engagement in the context of our projects as something that begins on a specific date and ends on another, without considering how people enter or leave the project. But participants and stakeholders don't remember it that way. They remember you, your company, or your organization. This is important because what they remember will affect how they choose to interact with you in the future.
As engagement practitioners, we are the keepers of conversations and relationships, and we need to consider the full journey (and all its pieces) rather than just the destination.
Our industry excels at creating structure, processes, and worksheets. We're good at project and change management, but we can easily miss vital elements like humanity, relationships, and connection. We need to consider all these elements for a complete engagement process.
While there's no "magic wand" for all of this, I encourage you to bring equal parts a critical mind and a compassionate, courageous heart, because this work is powerful and opens the door to positively changing lives.
I am a strong proponent of stakeholders' voices, concerns, and priorities; however, I don't believe the purpose of engagement is "to make everyone happy." Rather, I believe the purpose is to offer a complete engagement process in which, regardless of the final decision, participants will believe the dialogue was meaningful, feel their voices were heard, and be willing participants in the next conversation that impacts them.
Meaningful stakeholder engagement that follows these best practices isn't always easy, but it's so important. If you need help, Dialogue Partners has the expertise and experience to guide you through this process.
"The public engagement experts at Dialogue Partners have become thought leaders in engagement, facilitation, and conflict transformation. No matter the client, our mission is to build a sustainable bridge between client and community." – Dialogue Partners