Thanks to the candid sharing of our subscribers, we have access to some valuable insights into the real and trending issues people are having with their engagement practice right now.

When new subscribers sign up to receive the monthly MosaicLab newsletter The Discussion, we ask them to tell us in a few words about their biggest engagement challenge or dilemma. We really value these insights, and enjoy tackling common engagement problems by providing tips and advice that everyone can use to overcome them.

Our subscribers come from all over Australia and the world and work in a range of fields from community engagement and communications through to engineering and architecture. They are CEOs, project managers, executives, researchers, students and more.

Many of them are currently grappling with a common issue: how to get internal buy-in and support for an engagement process and embed quality engagement across an organisation.

jump to ways to decrease the dilemma

THE STRUGGLE FOR INTERNAL BUY-IN

You might have a high-level engagement framework, policy or strategy in place. Unfortunately though, it’s all too common for organisations to invest time and resources into the creation of a document that isn’t implemented beyond the core engagement team.

Producing this document is not the final step. More needs to be done to build understanding, capacity and commitment. The right systems and processes need to be in place along with a program of ongoing learning and capacity building. We wrote about this in more detail and provided a free resource to guide you in a previous post on embedding engagement policies and frameworks across your organisation.

Additionally, when you commence planning for an engagement process, you need to take additional, focussed steps during the design phase to build internal commitment for that project. It’s easy to focus on the community and stakeholders that will participate, and forget about the essential internal support your process needs to succeed.

Learn more

Internal Engagement:
Eight steps you want to take before you engage

WHAT OUR SUBSCRIBERS ARE SAYING

This is a snapshot of direct quotes from a few our subscribers when asked for their biggest engagement challenge or dilemma:

““Getting staff enthused and sharing the same value in engagement as I do.”

“Internal approval of engagement strategies.”

“Shifting organisational culture to be comfortable with deliberative engagement.”

“Internal agreement, external reach.”

“Virtual strategic (internal) engagement and change management.”

“Demonstrating to my colleagues that there are ‘other ways’ than the traditional.”

“Getting internal buy-in ... buy-in across the organisation … leadership buy-in.” ”

“Conveying the value of engagement, and its spectrum of possibilities.”

“Finding internal allies for structural change.”

“Ensuring it is given sufficient priority in policy development.”

“Getting upper management to understand the importance of engagement.”

“Influencing internal staff to invest in early engagement.”

“Not getting access to decision- makers. Decision-makers with conviction.”

“Project sponsors not understanding the fundamentals of engagement.” ”

— Our subscribers

DIALLING THE DILEMMA DOWN

Here are a few strategies you can use to help build the internal support you need to achieve engagement success.

Start small to get bigger
If you can help solve one smaller engagement problem (and in the process demonstrate what is possible) you will build strong advocates for your work.

Tap into people’s biggest concerns
By focusing on risks to the project, you can help demonstrate how traditional approaches carry as many, if not more, risks than trying something new. Using a risk management approach can help others understand this work more easily.

Find an ‘opinion leader’ and share their story
Finding those people who others look up to, admire, or follow is incredibly important to building a strong movement from across the organisation. These people are not necessarily in leadership positions, but might be those who have been around for a long time or who are known as ‘experts’. Work with them around a project and help them to share their insights with others.

Chart the journey
Every single organisation has been through this process. Talk to colleagues about what they have done and map out your journey. You will have small wins to begin with and then the pace will pick up. If you aren’t looking for the small changes early, you might get despondent and lose your way. You will get there!

Walk the talk
People inside an organisation are just like any community. They have history, needs, expectations, vulnerabilities and goals. So, treating your internal community just like you do your external communities is key to this process. By demonstrating how good engagement can change how staff feel about their job/workplace, you are showing them how good engagement can work in general.

BUILD YOUR OWN SKILLS & ENHANCE YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS

Some of these skills and steps are tricky and could likely lead to some challenging conversations. Facilitation skills are not exclusively owned by professional facilitators up the front of a big group meeting; they benefit everyone in everyday contexts and can make these types of internal discussions easier.

Our MosaicLab Academy learning platform offers the following short online courses that can help you build your capacity:

Engagement Planning:
includes internal engagement considerations to factor into overall planning such as assembling a multi-disciplinary team to set up projects for success, organisational risk assessment, leader checklists, stakeholder/decision-maker mapping, communications.
The Art of Facilitation:
includes tips on facilitation microskills, techniques for bringing the best out in groups, guidance on how to facilitate with purpose.
Virtual Facilitation:
covers the fundamentals of best-practice facilitation in both face-to-face and virtual environments including critical aspects of design, planning and delivery as well as the technical skills to manage online platforms like Zoom and Teams.

These courses are currently delivered online and self-directed, meaning they can be completed solo and in your own time.

Exciting news! LEARN WITH THE ENGAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS

We will be offering these courses publicly in a live, group setting in August. That means learning from MosaicLab engagement and facilitation specialists with hundreds of real engaement projects and years of experience behind them.

We’ve just opened up expressions of interest in these courses. Get your name on the list and we’ll be in touch when enrolments officially open. This fresh new round of public courses will be in addition to the self-directed online versions of each course (linked above), which are open for enrolments anytime.

free downloads, useful tips and handy links

Blog articles

At last! A free guide to simple engagement planning

There is an art to facilitation

Myth: Policy approved, engagement embedded

Avoiding decision-maker engagement: Learn the most common mistakes made when engaging, or not engaging, with this critical stakeholder group, plus receive eight top tips for upping your decision-maker engagement game.