In major infrastructure projects, stakeholder engagement can mistakenly be treated as a campaign, one that is intense, urgent, and highly visible at key moments, then quiet, almost absent, in the periods in between. This ‘feast or famine’ approach isn’t just inefficient. It erodes stakeholder trust. And trust is the foundation of all strong relationships. So how do we break this cycle? Let’s start with Cause.
Begin with cause: why we engage in the first place
Stakeholder engagement isn’t a box to tick. It’s not a report to file or a list of names to brief. We engage stakeholders because we need them. Their trust, insight, and support are vital. If a community doesn’t believe in a project, it doesn’t matter how perfect the engineering is, the project will face resistance, delays, or worse.
Our cause is to build lasting relationships, ones that outlive the project timeline, the funding cycle, or even the people leading it. Engagement isn’t a transaction. It’s a commitment.
The danger of episode engagement
Imagine you’re only available to your friends when you need something, that’s not friendship, that’s exploitation. Stakeholders feel the same. When they only hear from a project team during public consultations or just before a milestone, it breeds scepticism: “Now that you need us, you’re back?” This is the hallmark of a famine-feast or a stop-start cycle: silence followed by a flurry of activity. Over time, it creates disengagement, burnout, and even hostility.
Infinite game thinking: engagement as a long-term practice
James Carse’s ‘The Infinite Game’ talks about the difference between finite and infinite players. Finite players play to win. Infinite players play to keep playing. Infrastructure is an infinite game. Communities evolve. Infrastructure adapts. Relationships must endure. Avoiding a fragmented approach means shifting from event-based engagement to relationship-based engagement.
It means:
- Consistency over intensity: Better to have small, meaningful touchpoints regularly than grand events rarely.
- Listening even when you’re not building: Stakeholders need to feel heard even when there’s “nothing to say.” That’s when real trust is built.
- Internal alignment on purpose: Every person on the project should understand that stakeholder engagement is everyone’s job, not just the comms teams. We don’t engage because we have to. We engage because we believe in it.
A practical approach: build a rhythm, not a response
Here’s what a more sustainable engagement model might look like:
- Stakeholder mapping isn’t static. People change; contexts shift. Revisit your stakeholder landscape every quarter, not every year.
- Monthly engagements, even if small. Newsletters, local site visits, a phone call, a coffee. These create continuity.
- Feedback loops, not feedback events. Don’t just gather feedback once. Show people how their input influenced decisions. Then ask again.
- Celebrate the small wins together. Stakeholders aren’t just critics. They can be champions. Share successes early and often.
Trust is earned in the quiet moments
The true test of your stakeholder strategy isn’t how well you perform under pressure, it’s how present you are when nothing’s on fire. Feast or famine is a symptom of short-term thinking. The cure is clarity of purpose, a long-term mindset, and a genuine commitment to relationships.
Remember: people don’t trust projects. They trust people. And if you want to be trusted, you need to show up, not just when it’s convenient, but always.
Rapport North 