Grant's Best Practices: Engagement Beats Management
Our most recent Best Practices piece highlighted identifying stakeholders as an important first step in the development a successful stakeholder engagement plan. Today we explore stakeholder communication strategies.
According to the Association for Project Management (so much of the thoughtful writing on stakeholder relations comes from the world of project management), communication is “the first principle of stakeholder engagement.”
By now you may have noticed my preference to speak of stakeholder relations in terms of “engagement” rather than “management.” In my mind, the word “stakeholder management” summons the image of stakeholders as obstacles to be avoided or overcome. Certainly, those of us charged with the responsibility of leading efforts to establish retirement savings program proposals have some confidence in our expertise on the subject matter. As a result, it’s only natural that we would sometimes view stakeholders whose ideas deviate from our own as obstacles.
Does “stakeholder management” summon the image of stakeholders as obstacles to be avoided or overcome?
It’s important to keep in mind, however, that the insights of stakeholder groups – particularly those who represent workers, employers, and financial service providers – can lead to significant improvements in program design. Stakeholder clout and influence is also essential for success with legislative proposals.
A recently released report from the Idaho Legislature’s Office of Performance Evaluations notes that “early and frequent collaboration with stakeholders has been essential to the smooth implementation of policy” for state-facilitated retirement savings programs.
An engagement approach is best suited to build cooperative partnerships that collaboration requires. The word engagement brings to mind an agreement (e.g., the period following a successful marriage proposal) or a spur to action such as engaging an engine.
Communication strategies aimed at engagement, rather than management, better position policy makers to develop productive partnerships, to energize stakeholders to bring resources and influence to bear, and to build a dialogue that will inform the development of a program tailored to the needs of employers and employees being served.
Engagement: using communication to foster
mutual understanding and trust
as a foundation on which to build
effective long-term relationships.
How does an emphasis on engagement shape the way in which you communicate with stakeholders? When you seek to engage you are not simply disseminating information you want stakeholders to know, but also providing information they want to know. Engagement means using communication to foster mutual understanding and trust as a foundation on which to build effective long-term relationships. It also means listening and creating opportunities for stakeholders to provide input and to feel like they have a meaningful role to play.
In the coming weeks we’ll explore practical strategies for:
Communicating with stakeholders – how, when and why;
Listening to stakeholders – creating opportunities to cultivate productive dialogue; and
Deftly and diplomatically “managing the message” when necessary.
Stay tuned.
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You can reach Grant Boyken at grant.boyken@massenaassociates.com
This piece was featured in the October 8, 2020 edition of Retirement Security Matters. For more fresh thinking on retirement savings innovation, check out the newsletter here
