{"id":600,"date":"2011-01-26T07:35:13","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T07:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com"},"modified":"2016-06-08T20:54:15","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T20:54:15","slug":"stakeholder-engagement-opportunities-types-and-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/free-resources\/stakeholder-engagement-opportunities-types-and-vehicles","title":{"rendered":"Stakeholder Engagement: Opportunities, Types and Vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back to all Free Resources<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 View PDF Version<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Linda Ackerman Anderson
\nDean Anderson<\/h3>\n

Creating an effective stakeholder engagement strategy is an extremely important aspect of your overall change strategy. The more engagement you have, the more commitment and positive contribution you will have, and, as engagement goes up, resistance goes down.<\/p>\n

However, stakeholder engagement is not easy. It takes time and resources to coordinate involvement, and takes people away from their normal operational jobs. This article will help you think through the key aspects of stakeholder engagement in preparation for designing your engagement strategy.<\/p>\n

Engage in What?<\/h4>\n

The first question to answer is, \u201cIn what change tasks do you want your stakeholders to engage?\u201d Often, change leaders put off much engagement until the change effort is in its implementation phases. Generally, this is a mistake. By then many stakeholders, especially employees, will have already formulated their positions regarding supporting or resisting the change.<\/p>\n

You should begin thinking about engagement the moment you conceive your need to change. Stakeholder engagement can and should begin very early in the change process, as early as assisting the leaders in the task of assessing the drivers of the change to the task of building the case for change. Certainly, employees (including executives and managers) should be engaged in understanding the case for change, if not helping to create it. They should learn about (even help create) the vision of the change, as well as the desired outcomes for it. They can also be involved in assessing customer requirements, doing benchmarking, even designing the future state. All of this occurs long before implementation.<\/p>\n

Early stakeholder engagement will cause your initial phases of change to be more complex, but you will have to deal with far fewer people problems during implementation if you engage people early.<\/p>\n

The following table lists the change tasks in The Change Leader\u2019s Roadmap methodology with the most obvious opportunities for stakeholder engagement. You may engage stakeholder groups in other tasks, but these warrant serious consideration in any large change effort.<\/p>\n

CHANGE TASKS WITH SIGNIFICANT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Task I.B.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Assess Drivers of Change<\/li>\n
  • Task I.B.5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Perform Initial Impact Analysis<\/li>\n
  • Task I.C.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Assess Readiness and Capacity<\/li>\n
  • Task I.C.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Build Readiness and Capacity<\/li>\n
  • Task I.D.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ensure Leaders Model Desired Mindset and Behavior<\/li>\n
  • Task I.D.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Build Leader Commitment and Alignment<\/li>\n
  • Task I.D.4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Develop Leaders\u2019 Change Knowledge and Skills<\/li>\n
  • Task I.D.6\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Support Individual Executives and Change Leaders<\/li>\n
  • Task I.E.8\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clarify Engagement Strategy<\/li>\n
  • Task I.F.4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Design Information Generation and Management Strategies<\/li>\n
  • Task I.F.5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Initiate Course Correction Strategy and System<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    CHANGE TASKS WITH SIGNIFICANT STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES<\/h4>\n
      \n
    • Task I.F.6 Initiate Strategies for Supporting People through Emotional Reactions and Resistance<\/li>\n
    • Task I.F.7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Initiate Temporary Support Mechanisms<\/li>\n
    • Task I.F.9\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Initiate Temporary Rewards<\/li>\n
    • Task II.A.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Communicate Case for Change and Change Strategy<\/li>\n
    • Task II.A.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Roll Out Process to Create Shared Vision and Commitment<\/li>\n
    • Task II.A.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Demonstrate that Old Way of Operating Is Gone<\/li>\n
    • Task II.B.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Build Organization\u2019s Change Knowledge and Skills<\/li>\n
    • Task II.B.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Promote Required Mindset and Behavior Change<\/li>\n
    • Task III.A.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Assess Relevant Aspects of Your Organization<\/li>\n
    • Task III.A.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Benchmark Other Organizations for Best Practices<\/li>\n
    • Task III.A.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clarify Customer Requirements<\/li>\n
    • Task IV.A.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Design Desired State<\/li>\n
    • Task IV.A.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pilot Test<\/li>\n
    • Task V.A.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Identify and Group Impacts<\/li>\n
    • Task V.A.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Assess Magnitude of Impacts and Prioritize<\/li>\n
    • Task VI.A.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Identify Impact Solutions and Action Plans<\/li>\n
    • Task VI.A.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Integrate Solutions and Action Plans and Compile Implementation Master Plan<\/li>\n
    • Task VI.A.4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Design Strategies to Sustain Energy for Change<\/li>\n
    • Task VI.B.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Support People through Implementation<\/li>\n
    • Task VI.B.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Communicate Implementation Master Plan<\/li>\n
    • Task VII.A.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Roll Out Implementation Master Plan<\/li>\n
    • Task VIII.A.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Celebrate Achievement of Desired State<\/li>\n
    • Task VIII.B.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Support Individuals and Teams to Integrate and Master New State<\/li>\n
    • Task VIII.B.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Support Whole System to Integrate and Master New State<\/li>\n
    • Task IX.A.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Build System to Continuously Improve New State<\/li>\n
    • Task IX.B.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Learn from Your Change Process and Establish Best Practices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Who to Engage?<\/h4>\n

      Once you have identified the change tasks in which you want significant engagement, you then must answer the questions, \u201cWhich stakeholders to engage?\u201d Clearly, employees or sub-sets of them (supervisors, managers, plant workers, etc.) will be the most often engaged stakeholders. However, you should scan your entire project community map to ascertain the best stakeholder to engage in each task.<\/p>\n

      Engage in What Ways?<\/h4>\n

      Once you have identified the change tasks and stakeholders, you must clarify what you want them to do in their engagement. The diagram, Types of Engagement, lists the various ways you might engage stakeholders in any change task. Do you want specific stakeholder groups to perform some rote action, offer original thinking such as providing input or advice, make decisions, or create results they own? As you move across the types of engagement continuum toward creating results, the engagement provides greater influence, and therefore, generates more commitment. People are more committed to processes when they own the results and the actions to achieve them.<\/p>\n

      The diagram below breaks down the four classifications of engagement into eight different types of engagement. In any given Rote Action change task, you might use different types of engagement for each stakeholder group you engage in that task.<\/p>\n

      Types of Engagement<\/h4>\n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      Engage How?<\/h4>\n

      The following table, Vehicles for Employee Engagement, specifies the various methods of engagement, both technological and faceto-face, for engaging individuals, small groups, and large groups. Face-to-face engagement usually has more impact than do technological vehicles.<\/p>\n

      Often, you might decide it best to use multiple vehicles for any given change task and stakeholder group. For example, you might begin your engagement regarding communicating your case for change and vision with supervisors using a large group, face-to-face vehicle. Then a week later, you might plan a work product to be produced in the supervisor\u2019s work team, followed a week later with a response form to be filled out on your change effort\u2019s intranet site by individual supervisors.<\/p>\n

      Be sure to use the vehicles for engagement that will deliver the results you need from each engagement. Do not expect technological engagements to deliver the same quality of human impact as face-toface.<\/p>\n

      Many new vehicles for engaging large groups are being developed. These are often touted as change<\/em> methodologies, but this is a misnomer; they are actually meeting<\/em> methodologies. A great reference book that explains many of these methodologies is The Change Handbook<\/em>, Holman, P., Devane, T., and Cody, S., Berrett-Keohler, San Francisco, CA, 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
      <\/th>\n VEHICLES FOR STAKEHOLDE ENGAGEMENT <\/strong><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
      <\/td>\n Individual<\/strong><\/td>\n Small Group <\/strong><\/td>\n Large Group<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Face-to-Face<\/strong><\/td>\n\u2022<\/strong> Meeting
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Conversation<\/td>\n      		 \u2022 <\/strong>Advisory Councils
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Project Teams
      \n \u2022 <\/strong>Task Forces
      \n \u2022 <\/strong>Focus Groups
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Brown Bag Lunches
      \n \u2022 <\/strong>Learning Map Discussion \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Teams
      \n \u2022 <\/strong>World Cafe<\/td>\n      		\u2022 <\/strong>System-Wide Networks \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(i.e.,ambassadors,representatives,\u00a0 advocates)
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Conference Model
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>World Cafe
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Open Space
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Real-time Strategic Change\u2022 <\/strong>Future Search
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Appreciative Inquiry
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Learning Map Rollouts
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>All-Hands Meetings
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Brainstorming<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Technological<\/strong><\/td>\n\u2022<\/strong> Video Conferencing
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Telephone Call
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Interactive Website
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Website
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Instant Messaging
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Email
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Response Form
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Newsletter; newspaper
      \n \u2022<\/strong> Written Memo<\/td>\n      		\u2022 <\/strong>Video Conferencing
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Telephone Conferencing
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Online, Real-time Workgroups
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Webinars
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Blogs<\/td>\n      		\u2022 <\/strong>Video Conferencing
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Telephone Conferencing
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Webinars
      \n\u2022 <\/strong>Blogs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Back to all Free Resources \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 View PDF Version Linda Ackerman Anderson Dean Anderson Creating an effective stakeholder engagement strategy is an extremely important aspect of your overall change strategy. The more engagement you have, the more commitment and positive contribution you will have, and, as engagement goes up, resistance goes down. However, stakeholder engagement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1477,"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/600\/revisions\/1477"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeleadersnetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}