Stakeholder engagement
We help project teams manage important changes by keeping key people informed and involved as plans move forward.
Relationships with key stakeholders matter. Understanding who needs to know about your plans, and how they may respond, builds stronger connections.
Helping decision-makers and local leaders understand changes proposed for their area is vital to the success of a development or project.
The reverse is also true. Whether it’s a stalled development, or ditched plans to overhaul the world’s biggest sporting event, keeping your stakeholders out of the loop can come back to bite hard.
For organisations leading development projects or planning major changes to their services, engaging stakeholders well gives projects a stronger chance of success.
Smart communications helps project teams build relationships with the people and partners who support progress.
How good engagement can support your project
For organisations planning major development or change, early engagement gives you a clearer view of how your proposals may land.
We’ve seen through our work on transformative developments like Gravity in Somerset the impact of clear, effective stakeholder engagement.
For us, this goes beyond sending an email and thinking ‘that’s the job done’. It needs to be a two-way conversation and sit at the heart of your project team’s work.
When did you last contact your local councillor or MP proactively, or do you wait for them to contact you? Are they aware of your latest plans? Do you know what they think about them?
If you don’t yet have answers to these questions, you are blind to the issues they may raise.
In our experience, early engagement is one of the best protections against future challenge. That’s why we say organisations should make engagement a mindset, not a tick box exercise.    Â
Ensuring stakeholders are engaged at crucial stages
We are proud to help developers, universities and transport providers raise awareness, build understanding, and nurture advocacy for their projects.Â
Our sector expertise and knowledge of the places where we work make us a perfect partner to lead your stakeholder engagement.
Guided by our three engagement principles, our support for stakeholder engagement includes:
- Strategy development to understand who you need to engage, how it should work and when it needs to happen.
- Stakeholder mapping – who should you engage closely, consult or just keep informed.
- Briefings, clearly written and designed.
- Contact at important stages to ensure they’re informed about your work – by email, phone or in person.
- Event organisation, including stakeholder previews, round-table discussions and webinars.
- Online monitoring, to stay across important updates from organisations and key stakeholders about a place.
- Supported with a clear response process, so conversations happen swiftly and questions are handled properly.
We can provide engagement support as part of a community consultation, integrated campaign or standalone package of work.
Get in touch
If your project depends on stakeholder confidence, we can help you engage early and keep plans moving. Talk to us about how we can help.
The image in the header is of Peter Langly-Smith (Managing Director, Reef+Partners), Mayor of Gloucester Cllr Ashley Bowkett and Gloucester City Council leader Cllr Jeremy Hilton with partners at the official opening of The Forum in Gloucester.
Picture by Antony Thompson/Thousand Word Media Ltd.
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