It can take years for an organisation to develop meaningful stakeholder relationships and their earn trust but when stakeholders feel they are not being communicated with adequately, listened to or meaningfully consulted, it can result in an immediate loss of support or trust which is why most organisations use stakeholder mapping when preparing any public engagement or consultation exercise.
One of the first steps in stakeholder engagement is to identify and analyse who the stakeholders of a project are, what are their interests, needs, expectations, power, influence, and potential impacts of the project. This helps to determine the level and type of engagement that each stakeholder requires, and to prioritise and tailor any communication and engagement strategies accordingly. The earlier you identify and engage your key stakeholders the better. You’re more likely to inform and support stakeholder understanding of your proposals if they can see that you are sharing information and are engaging within their best interests at heart.
Just as you wouldn’t start a major project or change management program without a project plan in place, you also need to actively plan your stakeholder engagement. Creating a list of known stakeholders is the first step for any team looking to track and improve their stakeholder relationships. Stakeholder analysis is the foundation of a stakeholder engagement plan and a key part of project management.
Inadequate stakeholder consultation can have negative effects.
Failing to identify and engage with stakeholders can lead to consequences. The result? Delayed projects, overspending, under-confidence in you and your organisation and potential legal repercussions for not meeting the correct compliance. This is why stakeholder engagement is so crucial. An inadequate approach to stakeholder identification can often lead to poor decision making which can ultimately lead to inflated project costs, delayed delivery, and reputational damage.
Amongst many other well documented examples, the recent controversy surrounding North Northamptonshire Councils decision to grant planning approval to develop a 160,800 sq. ft warehouse directly behind residential properties at a former Weetabix site in Corby in November 2023 is a prime example of failing to engage the correct stakeholders.
North Northamptonshire Council is now facing challenges from Hooke Close residents who have criticised the authority of failing to consult them on plans to build a 60ft high warehouse that will overshadow their properties and instead, consulting a set of resident’s living half a mile away. The consequences of consulting the wrong stakeholders can include (but not limited to), as may be the case with residents living on Hooke Close could include:
- Poorly informed decisions: Consulting the wrong stakeholders may lead to decisions that are not well-informed. This can have long-term consequences on the success of the project.
- Lack of support: If key stakeholders are excluded, they may feel undervalued or ignored. This can lead to a lack of support for the project, hindering its progress and potentially causing resistance or opposition.
- Reputational damage: Making decisions without consulting the appropriate stakeholders can lead to negative perceptions. This can harm an organisation’s reputation and affect its relationships with clients, partners, and the community.
- That one critical mistake: One of the biggest risks of failure to consult in a meaningful manner can result in legal challenges, also known as a Judicial Review, the legal process through which a court reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body. If there is a failure to consult residents in a decision-making process, it may be grounds for seeking Judicial Review.
It can be incredibly frustrating for a successful applicant to encounter claims for a Judicial Review following a successful planning permission application. The mere fact that a claim is threatened or issued can result in weeks or months of delay to much needed development, time, and additional costs.
One other key mistake in stakeholder engagement is to neglect the monitoring and evaluation of the engagement process and outcomes. Projects that fail to conduct a thorough and systematic stakeholder identification and analysis, either because they assume they already know who the stakeholders are, or because they overlook key stakeholders can end up missing out on valuable insights, feedback, or support, or even face unexpected resistance, or criticism from other influential stakeholders.
As with the case with North Northamptonshire Council, this can result in losing track of the feedback received from key stakeholders directly impacted by your proposals. Therefore, it is important to establish and implement a monitoring and evaluation system for your stakeholder engagement plan, which includes indicators, methods, tools, and criteria for measuring and assessing when responses have been received, the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of the engagement process and outcomes, and for identifying and addressing any issues or gaps.
Despite stakeholder analysis being the foundation on which any communication, engagement or public consultation is built on, consulting the wrong stakeholders can have several negative consequences for a project or decision-making process. Developers and decision makers should avoid the pitfalls of not identifying and prioritising their stakeholders, an activity any project should undertake before any engagement takes place.
Without a robust approach to stakeholder analysis, you’ll often find yourself communicating blind, with limited visibility over who you should be engaging with or if your efforts are having the desired impact. A scattergun approach to stakeholder engagement is never going to be efficient or deliver the best outcomes. A robust analysis of stakeholders will help identify gaps in your stakeholder lists and feedback during the engagement period. Sometimes it is the missing voices that can make or break a project’s acceptance. Gaps in your stakeholder lists could cause you to miss identifying and proactively managing some of the risks your project faces. It goes without saying that stakeholder analysis is a critical part of successful stakeholder engagement and public consultation. Formal and structured analysis of stakeholder lists lays the foundation for all engagement.
Rapport North 