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How to Engage Stakeholders in Your Organisation

In today’s fast-paced and demanding world of business, organisations need every advantage they can get to stay ahead of the competition. This is why so many businesses are looking for ways to streamline and optimise their internal processes so they run more efficiently, especially when having to implement change.

Understandably, this means that companies need to find new ways to ensure that the necessary level of collaboration is taking place and that all the essential information is being shared with the stakeholders within the organisation.

After all, it’s not just about coming up with better ideas but also making sure those ideas actually come to fruition. This article explores the different ways you can effectively engage with the stakeholders in your organisation. These tips will help improve collaboration within your business, reduce bureaucracy, and increase efficiency.

Establish a Clear Communication Protocol

Communication can take many different forms. Beyond emails and phone calls, stakeholders also need regular face-to-face communication.

Every organisation is unique, but one thing that holds true across the board is that employees need clear communication protocols for communicating with stakeholders.

This means making sure that they understand who they should be communicating with, how they should be communicating, and what information should be shared.

There are numerous ways to implement a communication protocol in your organisation. This could be as simple as creating an email template for different stakeholder types. You could also implement a digital collaboration tool that includes pre-populated fields.

Hold Regular Stakeholders Meetings

You should ensure that you hold regular meetings with the stakeholders in your organisation, preferably in person. Regular stakeholder meetings give departments for example a chance to interact with one another and discuss any issues or roadblocks they may be facing. This helps departments identify problems before they get out of hand. It also provides every team with the opportunity to collaborate with one another in order to find solutions to these problems.

Establish a Culture of Feedback

If you want to effectively engage your stakeholders, you need to foster a culture of feedback. This means encouraging people at every level of your organisation to give and receive feedback. This can be as simple as having regular one-on-one meetings with your employees. In these meetings, make sure you ask employees and other stakeholders how they are feeling, what they are working on, and how they feel the department is functioning. Be sure to be respectful of their time and take their feedback seriously. Also when it comes to receiving feedback, try not to dismiss the negative points. Negative feedback is just as important as positive feedback. This is because this type of feedback can help you identify areas for improvement. It can help you better understand what’s not working within your organisation and improve upon it.

Foster Collaboration Through Platforms

Different departments in your organisation have unique goals, needs, and challenges. Rather than trying to come up with one-size-fits-all solutions to these issues, foster collaboration by using platforms that allow departments to work together. These platforms can be as simple as a shared document where different stakeholders can discuss and collaborate on specific issues in their department or area. Other digital platforms such as Zoom or Teams can be used to facilitate even more collaboration.

Conclusion

Engaging your stakeholders doesn’t happen overnight. These relationships take time, patience, and effort to foster. When done correctly, engaging stakeholders in your organisation can help you save time, reduce bureaucracy, and improve internal processes.

To engage your stakeholders, you need to be open, honest, and respectful. You also need to be willing to share information and receive feedback, regardless of whether it is negative or positive.

Fostering a culture of feedback within your organisation is key. This process is a continuous one and will likely require tweaking along the way. The key is to stay committed to the process and always be working to improve your communication with stakeholders.

However, many organisations need help in this area, and one company that has an unusual answer to this problem is Prendo. They use real life simulations to train leaders to handle interactions with all stakeholders in a far more efficient and productive manner, see https://www.prendo.com/leadership-challenges/engaging-stakeholders/  for more information.