Stakeholder Engagement Context

Research by Patterson et al. (2006) found that 80% of all large organisations fail to meet their planned business objectives. The same research suggests human practices and behaviours are at the root of the problems. More than a decade of research by the Standish Group suggests business success is contingent on many factors, including clear objectives and management buy-in. However, effective stakeholder engagement is the foremost success factor, and accounts for up to 60% of all other factors.

People work in a network of relationships. Research at the of University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce suggests effective stakeholder engagement is contingent on positive relationships. In turn relationships are contingent on a conversation that results in shared understanding, which may be different to agreement. If shared understanding is absent the results can be disastrous, and the business network compromised. On the other hand if you get it right the business outcomes can be spectacular.

Therefore it follows, that effective stakeholder management must address people dynamics, individual understanding, and expand existing business networks.

Who Should Attend

This one-day seminar/workshop will introduce you to narrative techniques and social network analysis as applied in a business context. The seminar/workshop is aimed at middle managers who are responsible for stakeholder engagement and its evaluation.

Why Should You Attend?

Attendance at this seminar/workshop will help you to effectively engage your stakeholders, and evaluate the impact of the engagement. Indeed the research cited above, and other research, shows that effective stakeholder engagement can:

• realise significant return on budget, and reduce the effort and time involved;
• target stakeholder engagement to those who really matter;
• reduce uncertainty around which potential actions will produce the greatest alignment or opposition to the desired business outcome;
• build trust between stakeholders , resulting in real engagement with the business problem; and
• reveal stakeholder reasoning styles, so all parties can reach shared understanding.

What Will You Learn?

The morning will concentrate on stakeholder identification and engagement techniques. It is structured as follows:

• Introduction to Narrative techniques for Stakeholder Engagement;
• Making Sense of the Narrative.
• Introduction to Social Network Analysis techniques for Stakeholder Engagement.

In the afternoon we will take a look at how you monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of those techniques. The afternoon is structured as follows:

• Weaving and Evaluating the Stakeholder Network;
• Inter-active experiential learning exercise; and
• Summary and Conclusions.