When it comes to business change, the way you engage your stakeholders can have a profound impact on both the pace and the quality of the outcomes. It’s cited in most studies on change performance as one the most, if not the most, critical factor in change success.
What is stakeholder engagement?
To start with it might be useful to define what we mean by a stakeholder. There are a few definitions, but the common one is anyone who is directly involved in, impacted by or who could impact in some way your ability to deliver a change.
“Engagement” is the emotional drive or force to get involved and make it happen. We know when we’re truly engaged in something because we feel motivated to make the effort needed. We rarely need to be told to go on holiday (well I don’t anyway) or to spend time on our favourite pastime. We’re not doing it because we’re told to but because we want to.
So, when you strip back stakeholder engagement to its essence, what you’re trying to achieve is that everyone wants the same outcome. Like many things in life, much easier to say than to do.
The hard reality, backed by numerous high-profile studies on change, is the more engaged your stakeholders are, the faster and easier the change will happen. And that’s regardless of scale or complexity.
So, stakeholder engagement is about creating the conditions whereby those involved or affected by the changes are actively supportive, passionate and fully invested in making them happen.
Why is engagement so important in a change?
Consider what it feels like when you’re told you have to do something, or maybe to stop doing something you like. When we feel forced we tend to do it grudgingly, if at all. We may pretend not to hear, maybe think to ourselves if we do it badly enough they won’t ask us again. Sound familiar?
People generally like to feel they are masters of their own destiny. Whilst they may recognise the greater good they would normally rather have a say in how they make the changes.
People engage when they feel there is a reason to and that normally comes down to some degree of self interest. In other words when they recognise how it will be better form them, taking into account what they will need to give up. When done well, acting for the greater good can also be a great motivator.
As the studies on change success continually show, when people are engaged it goes well and when they’re not it doesn’t.
How do you encourage people to engage?
If you’re looking to increase engagement, it’s important to start by understanding the how the change is likely to look from the perspective of those you are seeking to engage. This perspective is critical and is one of the most overlooked aspects of business change, often pushed down the priority list in the pursuit of hard deadlines.
People tend to weigh up the positives and the negatives (at an emotional level and often subconsciously):
• Positives could include feelings of excitement, being a part of something important, desire for something better, even avoiding something undesirable.
• Negatives could include fear of loss (money, power, security etc), lack of time, lack of belief that change is possible, suspicion about the motives of those in charge of the change.
Engagement is about helping people to see for themselves how the changes will be better for them while at the same time helping them address the downsides. In other words it’s about creating the conditions where people are more likely to choose to engage rather than dis-engage. Helping to make the positives dramatically outweigh the negatives.
Meeting resistance and disengagement
When making changes there will inevitably be times where some people are resistant or dis-engaged. The key to addressing it lies in taking the time to understand how the change is likely to look through their eyes, knowing what you do about them and their unique circumstances. Each of us is different, bringing our own unique personalities, history, beliefs and values. Those in turn shape our perspectives.
Only from a place of understanding, can you start to help those around you to address their reasons for dis-engagement whilst also helping them to see why it’s good for them to make the change happen.
Stakeholder Engagement Process
At a practical level we’d recommend a few steps that may help to bring some structure to the process of deciding how to increase engagement:
- Specifically identify who your stakeholders are, either by name (if the population is relatively small and / or for certain key individuals) or according to groups who are likely to have certain shared perspectives. Keep in mind the danger of generalising though.
- Consider for each person or group, how they are likely to feel about the change and why
- Speak to them where possible to test your beliefs
- Consider strategies to improve their perceptions of the reasons to change whilst reducing the downsides
- Test and measure, ideally using a tool such as Change Journey Navigator to guide you
Some final things to remember
- We’re all unique, so a one size fits all approach is unlikely to work
- In the end people will decide for themselves (consciously or subconsciously) their level of engagement
- You can’t force engagement on others so your job as change managers is to create the conditions where engagement is more likely
- The more you know about the people you are seeking to engage, the more likely you’ll be able to understand how to engage them
When we reflect on the real purpose of Change Management, it’s about finding ways to increase stakeholder engagement. And that comes down to a simple equation: when people perceive that the reasons to change are greater than the reasons to stay as they are (both emotionally and rationally) they are far more likely to change.
And where emotions and perceptions are involved, that balance can shift quickly, so you’ll need to stay alert!
If you are leading a change and either facing or concerned by resistance then let Change Journey Navigator take away the guesswork so you can focus on accelerating your impact
