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Stakeholder Engagement. By Jonathan Wilson and Doug Shaw for the Organisational Development Innovation Network. Contents
JW Comments....................................................................................................................... 1 Summary Flip charts ............................................................................................................. 2 Table Notes Question One - Benefits and Problems .............................................................. 4 Table Notes Question Two - How can an organisation best engage its stakeholders? ............ 8 Doug Shaws Introductory Song .......................................................................................... 11 Doug Shaws Closing Song ................................................................................................. 12

JW Comments
These are some of my thoughts prompted by reading the record of our World Caf. Many managers seem to fear that trying to engage with stakeholders inevitably brings conflict, but I dont think that has be true, once stakeholders have gone past the initial suspicion that people have that the organisation may be trying to manipulate them. It is a pity that people have learned from unfortunate experience. It is fear that most constrains engaging with stakeholders or indeed anyone. Someone asked, What do you with the answers in a World Caf? At one level, we record them (just as we do here) here and feed them back to the participants, partly as an accuracy and sense check and partly as a reminder and reconnector, in the hope that their engagement in the discussion increases peoples awareness, understanding and ongoing engagement so that they in turn can raise others consciousness so that eventually more people, especially more corporate managers, genuinely and continually engage their stakeholders more and better. One person commented with whom affects the how. I agree. It is only possible to engage people on their terms, in language and activity that makes sense to them. People need to feel in control and to feel listened to. They also can work things out, so in practice there are fewer major substantive disagreements than people fear. The time spent in conversation and dialogue listening and exploring is time well spent that leads to wiser, stronger decisions and saves much time and expense later. Engagement can only ever be invited and earned, never commanded or bought. Marks and Spencers has always been a very engaging organisation. It was one of the core values of both founders and their families. Under Lord Greenbury (the first M&S chairman who was not family, M&S first achieved record sales and then fell spectacularly from grace, it is still failing to achieve those fleeting record business results. He moved M&S from their traditional stakeholder philosophy to one that was much more shareholder and management oriented and M&S is still trying to recover from that movement. The words genuine and authenticity occur and recur in the table notes. Its is hard to stay engaged with anything that is patent, fake or elusive; a quality that usually becomes very obvious as soon as you try to engage with it. Engagement is relationship. Relationships thrive only when there is mutual trust, equality and inclusiveness and a prioritisation of the long term over the short term.

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Relationship depends on communication. From comments I read, most people in management believe that communication means transmitting information. The assumption is that if transmission is perfect and if the reception is also perfect then perfect communication has occurred and people will agree with the transmitter (communicator). This seems to me roughly like repeating oneself in a louder voice in a foreign country. It is based on the premise that the transmitter is right, which is not always so, even if we accept the very Tayloristic concept of the one right way Another way to look at it is to think of communication as the achieving of common mind that is greater than any individual mind. On that basis the outcome of great communication is communion. Engagement is an emotional state. Emotions complement rationality when both also integrate with spirituality or purpose. Managers may try to ignore or suppress emotion, but that does not make it any less powerful, merely denies people the ability to use it helpfully. It seems to be innate and natural for people to want to engage. Everyone arrives on the first day motivated to do well at least by their learnt standards. The art of leadership and effective stakeholder engagement is to sustain peoples engagement and integrate all their different views and values without making them all the same and to use dialogue as the way to build relationships and joint power. The outcome will be sustained value for all with each stakeholder enjoying the value they seek rather than some getting more value than others and all having one notion of value imposed upon them. Achieving that is the challenge of stakeholder leadership.

Summary Flip charts

What might be the benefits and problems of stakeholder engagement?
Power imbalance in stakeholder group Work with what people can influence People who set the process going and dont understand and appreciate what comes back not set up properly Discover where your organisation is on the scale between capitalism and John Lewis Partnership (JLP) Park the management speak just have a conversation Need to decide when and which stakeholders are important Sports Direct (SD) has increased profits by giving individuals a stake (observed that when JLP do this it is seen as a good thing, when SD announce it much cynicism) To make it real link engagement to business strategy Engagement will cause conflict dont ignore it Who elects stakeholders?

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Engagement is a two way process Who is the organisation for? Engagement is seen differently by different cultures Is engagement a means? An end? Both? Engage around short and long term issues Social tools are forcing a change Is it organisational? Personal? Engagement is emotional and unpredictable Diversity is a complex and rich source of innovation Identify and acknowledge the differences fear of doing that Context and culture Mitigate risks New Coke as an example Can help you tolerate differences Creative solutions emerging from recession, what next? Harness energy Adaptable more easily Productive, responsible, profitable Service delivery engage at the front line Invite people to exercise judgment

How can an organisation best engage its stakeholders?

Authentic relationships, personal Face to face Why are we doing it? Whats in it for us? Who sets the questions?

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How to record, harvest and feedback? Listen and do make sure its done Is it just good management or a whole new activity? Remind, coach and encourage what good leadership is A single strategy wont work A mindset of high expectations. Low expectations means more I told you so and control type stuff Persist with it Social norms and management norms (after school club which saw greater instances of lateness after a penalty charge was applied) Use language that mirrors that it matters Integrate the rational and emotional

Table Notes Question One - Benefits and Problems

Question One
Who are the stakeholders? Staff Receivers of Service Family/other peoples families Future generations Other companies and organisations General public Anyone who has an interest. The benefits include Commitment Empowerment Doing the job for you (when engaged) Energy Reputation internal and external Providing natural resistance -> becomes constructive creation There is cultural difference in engagement Awareness of and into relationships WHY?

(there is) need to know profit persuasion relationship marketing how genuine? Is it for mutual benefit? For shared success? (Or not.) E.g. employee engagement

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Problems Competing Diverse discourses Different languages Desire to be seen to be different Education = articulate, but some have no voice. Time consuming and planning intensive Different skill levels Doesnt meet our control needs Cant please (everyone) who to pay attention to? o How to engage oppositional stakeholders The most important group? o Help with the processes Starting from very different places o Do I want to be engaged? o Do I want a relationship? o Who chooses who is in control? o I think its about including you. o I think its bogus

Question One
What do you do with the answers? Who? Benefits Alignment Transparency The benefit of doing it well Genuineness Serious E.g. Unions on Board (Germany) Wider perspectives/ideas Enabling antincipation/decision making Engagement - what does it mean? Say what you mean by this. Definitions of stakeholders o Shareholders /membership/partners (e.g. JLP, Co-op o senior staff o Staff IIP Learning Communication Internet channel o Community o Short-term Long-term

Question One
Retailers FM Front line trying hard Group them SE is engaging with conflict Engage the workforce to engage with the wider world.

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Corporations: too far from top to bottom of company. Less emotional attachment. Clients <- dependency -> employers Who listen to the guide dog? Everybody is equal, but some are more equal than others. BP spill o Customers o Victims

Question One
A stakeholder is ..? Fuzzy term Shareholders? Staff? e.g. high speed rail link - impacts many Responsibility? Anyone with an involvement of some sort (e.g. employee) or impacted in some way, e.g. My view now includes a skyscraper! Power imbalance Problems Defining stakeholder do their decisions and actions impact your ability to do what you need to do? Who has the power? Is there value in the category? Slows things down so the speediest competitor wins o Unless get v efficient o Future search Feels scary? Loss of control Engagement o Long-term process/ongoing o A means or an end o Passing the buck?

Semco business to be fun 3 x Why questions Benefits Common interests (can be addressed together) A process for making a decision exists Increase the number of perspectives Can pre-empt later issues and address (them) Energy build through involvement Good business keeps your customers But time-consuming

Question One
Goals for SE? o Responsibility o Accountability o Consultation Could be protest resistance! Who is a stakeholder? Visibility?

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How to communicate with them? Competency discourses Conflicting needs Boundaries? Here they go again What types of stakeholders? Different agendas Quality of decisions Financial crisis narrow groups plus short term Releasing the power of the network Have available process Good effective processes Context Diversity You might learn something Potential source of innovation and energy and commitment

Question One
Concentric circles power in centre, influence in middle, no influence in outermost ring Aligning organisation with environment key benefit Context + important Problem senior part of organisation letting go of some decisions + power Non engage avoid engagement + emotions for long term win-win. Benefits everyone engaged Which stakeholders do you choose to engage with? o Managers/employees/public/political authorities What does stakeholder engagement mean? o Taking part in decisions o Being consulted o Giving information Different people have different agendas about level of participation You cant not do it. Are you doing it actively or passively? Are you seeing it as contributing information that could be useful?

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Table Notes Question Two - How can an organisation best engage its stakeholders?
Question Two
How? Culture Talk What is the job? Values Taylorism Humanism engage Task people engagement is implicit Emotion, acceptable? Expression Visualise what the end result is for the organisation. AUTHENTICITY All about communication How do you ensure that the organisation really wants it And knows what they want from it? Culture of organisation EQ o Self Awareness o Empathy and self-regulation o Communication and Dialogue o Trust and Authenticity o Team responsibility o Self-motivating Auto-driven

Question Two
Reality is Broken Amazon Good customer experience Tony Hsieh Zappos - Delivering Happiness Methods & channels of engagement especially new tech o Games o Interactivity Customer has huge rights Employees call the shots

Cooperation Ben and Jerrys Values Innocent invitation to engage with them Fairtrade Customer likes (the) deal with (the) supplier Pie Chart Employees, customers, suppliers, H&S? Favouring customers over suppliers

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Question Two
Need a focused enquiry question. Record/harvest the information to record the views Why? Whats the offer? Parameters are clear and articulated who decides? Relationship building With whom affects the how Meaning making What do we do with conflict? Interactive Both parties get something not just Q&A. Whats in it for them? Relevant micro-level or org-level Conversational in person direct contact CASH IS KING! How (to) harness? Personal o By manager Conversational Action taken. Is change for the better? Acknowledgement that views have been heard Informal o Dinners o Fun/game-like o Social clubs Authentic get emotion into engagement.

Question Two
Continuous feedback loop Stakeholder environment Emotion -> rational thought How can we be encouraged to bring the best of what weve got? Invitation to show up Shared objectives? Listening customer complaints Learning culture Stakeholder engagement what does this add to good management?

Question Two
Its about how you do things EVERY DAY thats supported by specific actions. Conversation matters o Being heard o Joint sense making Authenticity engage with my tin beans. Organisations cannot engage, PEOPLE CAN! Who are the people with no voice who are the most powerful? A. Is this a genuine attempt? Have they failed yet? a. Stakeholder mapping b. Tendency not to see c. Ask questions about how to go about daily life and reflect on meaning in relation to stakeholder mapping.

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d. How leadership see their role engage in conversations How? Why? What for? Who? Power matrix

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Doug Shaws Introductory Song

Were here today to talk with you and start some conversations Hopefully encouraging some gentle provocation The subject centre stage today is stakeholder engagement A broad discussion can occur; sometimes what we say aint what they meant So whilst I have no wish to, intentionally confuse The clarity can depend on terminology we use Perhaps today we think and share opinions and some questions In order to arrive somewhere close by to definition Its not a problem to be solved Its an experience to be lived Its not what you say its what you do That makes engagement a part of you A key purpose of engagement is to inform and to involve And often this is best achieved when decision making is devolved Often folks hold focus groups which create a great illusion They present some ideas and ask of you to choose one The outcome heres already set, we dont call this engagement Yet folks say we involved our people, on their mission statement Its not a problem to be solved Its an experience to be lived Its not what you say its what you do That makes engagement a part of you To evolve change takes lots of practice on and off the beaten track Be mindful the gravity of familiar plays around and pulls you back Engagement must return more energy than it demands and uses Else the outcome wont sustain and everybody loses Great engagement is not forced it must be invitational And when you get it right it goes off the scale, its transformational Its not a problem to be solved Its an experience to be lived Its not what you say its what you do That makes engagement a part of you

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Doug Shaws Closing Song

Engagement Prison Blues
I hear the survey comin, Its rolling round the bend And I aint seen the output since I dont know when, Im in engagement prison, and time keeps draggin on But that survey keeps a rollin on down to San Antone.. When I was just a baby my mama told me, Son, If you take part in a survey, make sure theres action done So I listened and encouraged, I hoped to make them try But all they do is measure, they never ask folks why.. I bet theres rich folks eating in a fancy dining car While employees are still suffrin, the gap between them is too far Well they should question and take action, Good listening comes for free But too often theres just talkin, And thats what tortures me Well if they freed us from this prison, If that engagement train was mine I bet wed move it on a little farther down the line Wed listen and take action, a little more each day And wed let that lonesome whistle blow our blues away..

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