You’ve identified the essential stakeholders, established contact with them, and shaped their participation in a way that gives your selected stakeholders both a motivating reason and fair conditions to dedicate their time to stakeholder collaboration. So, what do you actually do with those stakeholders in practice?
There’s no single ideal model for stakeholder collaboration or engagement. If you began your work with a stakeholder mapping process, you’ve probably identified certain stakeholders as particularly important — and with good reason. They are worth your time and thoughtful attention.
However, it’s not always possible to tailor everything as much as you’d like. That’s why we’ve identified a few key points that are important to plan carefully. If you take care of at least these, the practical format of the collaboration — whether it’s a roundtable discussion, a series of dialogues, a deliberative panel, a festival, or a permanent collaboration network — can be as bold or as traditional as you like.
1. Clarify your shared mission
Start by taking enough time to articulate the task you are assigning to this particular stakeholder collaboration. A clearly defined shared mission helps all parties understand the scope of the collaboration in this specific context. What questions or needs are we seeking information for? What are we not addressing? What issues will these discussions influence — and which ones won’t they?
A well-articulated mission helps structure the use of time in interactions and supports facilitation. It brings the conversation back from tempting side tracks if they start to lead too far off course. Naturally, there should be room for digressions too — but sometimes, prioritization is necessary.
2. Aim for genuine interaction
Choose your collaboration methods based on what will lead to the most fruitful discussions with your key groups. Be brave enough to ask early on — as early as you dare — what kind of collaboration your stakeholders would like to engage in and what kind of interaction they are able to commit to. It’s even worth defining the overall goals of the collaboration together.
Aim for genuine, high-quality interaction over sheer volume of data. One well-planned and executed conversation can generate more valuable understanding than a broad stakeholder survey. Real dialogue also allows for follow-up questions, in-the-moment thinking, and building trust. That said, well-designed surveys are a valuable addition to your toolkit.
3. Plan for follow-up after the collaboration
That’s why good communication and follow-up are crucial. If the collaboration involves an intensive joint effort, agree early on how you’ll stay in touch once that intensive phase ends. Plan and schedule when and how you’ll update partners or participants on how the work you did together is progressing. In uncertain or long processes, you can also clarify how long you’ll keep them informed.
Ideally, collaboration won’t end after just one or a few encounters. So also think ahead about how to sustain the trust and good working relationship you’ve worked hard to build.
Participants won’t necessarily be disappointed if their suggestions or views aren’t adopted as-is. But they will be disappointed if they never hear from you again after the collaboration.
Planning and implementing stakeholder collaboration isn’t rocket science — but an external partner can bring fresh ideas and structure to the process. A neutral expert can also help facilitate emotionally charged discussions. We’re happy to support the development of your stakeholder collaboration.