If you’re planning for engagement you need to consider how you engage one of your most critical stakeholder groups – decision makers. Involving them in an appropriate, effective way is a crucial step. We often see employees struggling to successfully navigate this part of their planning journey and, unfortunately, not only can it be tricky, it’s also one of the top reasons engagement processes fall over.
Get it wrong and you face a myriad of potential (unwanted) consequences. From lengthy delays to mid-process back tracking, community outrage to complete project cancellation –not only might your whole process fall over, you could cause irreparable damage to the reputation and relationships you’re attempting to build.
In today’s post, we’re highlighting the most common mistakes made in this space and providing 8 top tips for upping your decision maker engagement game.
MYTH:
We don’t need to engage decision makers early (or at all) – in fact, it's better not to bother them, and smarter to leave them out of it if possible.
IN REALITY:
Why bring in decision makers at all?
Without listing every benefit, we can summarise this answer by saying that you want decision makers to be champions for your project and not in opposition to it. They hold the key to your engagement process being meaningful and effective. That’s because they either make the decision that you are engaging people around or they have the power to significantly affect it.
Either way, they generally control how much influence your stakeholders or community have over the issue. This affects every part of your process, from the promise you make, to the activities you undertake.
Unfortunately, all too often we see processes undermined by decision makers getting involved mid-process and undoing a whole lot of hard work (usually when you least expect it!)
What are some common mistakes?
The most common errors we see include:
Involving decision makers too late
Not involving decision makers at all
Attempting to involve decision makers but executing it poorly
Leaving it too long between touch-points with decision makers
Why do people get it wrong?
It seems so simple: Involve them early, get them on board, involve them often etc. etc. … but it’s harder than it sounds. People get this wrong for a whole range of reasons including:
They fear decision makers will stop the process or control how it’s delivered so they try to limit or avoid decision maker involvement.
They believe that decision makers don’t play a role until the end of the process (i.e. when making the final decision) so leave them out of it until then.
They struggle to get in front of decision makers or communicate with them (i.e. there are limited avenues for this or they are blocked by organisational hierarchies)
They pitch to decision makers at the wrong level – involving them in a discussion around the low-level details and ‘how’ of the process.
They believe that because there’s technically no decision maker sign off required for this issue or plan that decision maker involvement is unnecessary.
It takes two to tango
At this point we feel we should acknowledge that this can absolutely be a two-way issue, and that there’s lots of organisations and decision makers out there who aren’t making it very easy for their employees to get this bit right. There’s also decision makers who aren’t ready to engage with their communities at all – we would need a whole other post to address that issue.
For the purposes of this post, however, we’re going to focus on what an employee or project team can do to make a difference from their end.
8 tips for avoiding a decision maker disaster
Perfection is an unobtainable reality, but these 8 tips will help you up your decision maker engagement game.
Understand the avenues:
Get clear on what processes and avenues are available to you to connect with decision makers. If you can’t get in front of them personally, who can? In what forum? Using which format? Talk to leaders in your organisation about how best to navigate what can be a complex landscape.
Present a strong case:
Bring decision makers a business case for your engagement process and gain support before you begin a detailed planning process. Highlight the ‘why’ - risks, issues, benefits and opportunities, talk about return on investment and connect your case to overarching organisational plans and objectives.
Plan to touch base early and often:
Build in decision maker briefings and touchpoints throughout the process, even a quick update at key milestones is better than nothing – long silences don’t just make the community nervous!
Talk to them at the right level:
As tempted as decision makers might be to get into the details of ‘how’ you will run your process (i.e. methodology), try to pitch the discussion at a strategic level. The context for engagement (such as engagement purpose, drivers, level of influence, overarching timelines) is where you need their focus.
Clarify their role:
Decision makers play a crucial role in your process – highlight it to them. There’s lots of points at which they can add value, and they're particularly vital at the end when they consider and implement engagement outcomes.
Identify when and how they can take part:
Identify all the small, meaningful ways your decision makers can be involved in the process. There may be opportunities for them to speak at specific times in certain processes (i.e. being interviewed by the media or for an explainer video, addressing a stakeholder briefing, or being a speaker at a jury process). However, the most valuable way they can participate is by simply listening. Invite them to observe a session, sit and listen to a group discussion or come along and hear what people have to say at a listening post.
Prepare them for the roller coaster:
Prepare decision makers for the journey. Highlight how they might handle tricky situations, angst, ideas they don't expect etc. so they’re ready to get through 'wobbly' times. Remember, these challenging bits are normal and should be expected within any difficult and worthwhile conversation.
Connect them with their peers:
Connect decision makers to others that have ‘walked in their shoes’ – in person, via video interviews or even by using case studies – they can learn from those who have gone before them.
We've summarised all the top tips from this post into a handy free download. Perfect for sharing, printing or filing away for future use. Click the image to subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter 'The Discussion' and grab this free resource.
OVER TO YOU
What effective tools, steps or techniques have you used to involve decision makers in your process? Share your ideas in the comments below.
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