Category Archives: Uncategorized

Picture this, a project team spends 18 months developing a proposal, they commission studies, gather evidence, build business cases, review options, challenge assumptions and refine plans and by the time the proposal reaches stakeholders, the team knows it intimately. They have lived, debated and accepted it, then they walk into a meeting and share theContinue reading “The emotional journey of change: what every stakeholder engagement professional should understand”

When organisations talk about stakeholder engagement, the conversation almost always turns outward: customers, communities, partners, regulators, political leaders and the public. A significant amout of time and energy is invested in understanding their needs, building relationships and creating trust and rightly so, these stakeholders really matter but there is one stakeholder group that is oftenContinue reading “The stakeholder we often forget”

You can have the best strategy, the best product, and the slickest branding in the world, but if people don’t trust you, you’re building on sand, because in today’s world, trust isn’t a ‘nice to have’, it’s the whole game. Here’s the shift that changes everything: That’s where real stakeholder engagement begins. Not with activity,Continue reading “A Strategic Blueprint for Stakeholder Engagement”

There’s a conversation I’ve had more than a few times over the years. It usually starts with someone equating PR to simply press releases, media coverage or an occasional quote. Lets be really honest – it isn’t, PR is so much more than that. If you spend any time working with stakeholders, particularly on complexContinue reading “Public Relations Beyond the Press: a broader view of the work”

One of the more useful lessons you pick up over time is this: stakeholder opposition isn’t the issue, it’s the indicator. It tells you something hasn’t landed, been understood or more often than not, something hasn’t been trusted. And yet, I still see it treated as something to get through, something to reduce or manageContinue reading “Winning Hearts and Minds: what stakeholder opposition is really telling you”

Spend enough time in corporate meeting rooms and you start to notice patterns. The language shifts over time, but the underlying pressure doesn’t. For years it was all about growth, efficiency, margin and that hasn’t gone away but there’s another thread running through those conversations now, quieter, but more persistent. Responsibility. Not the kind thatContinue reading “Building Better Communities: corporate responsibility is now just how business works”

There’s a principle I’ve come back to throughout my dedicated 20 year communications career, whether working on roads, rail, or major infrastructure programmes: clarity comes first, confidence will follow and confidence, real confidence, the kind that holds up under pressure, is built on evidence. If you want people to engage with a project in aContinue reading “Building Better Evidence: what separates a conversation from a public consultation”

Let me start with something you’ve probably experienced. You’re in a meeting, everyone’s nodding and aligned and then, three different teams go off and send three different messages to the same stakeholders. Welcome to silo city, population: most organisations. Here’s the reality, stakeholder engagement doesn’t sit neatly in one team anymore. It lives across Communications,Continue reading “Breaking Down Silos: a Practical Guide to Cross-Functional Collaboration”

Let me start with a truth that often gets buried under spreadsheets and delivery plans. People don’t oppose infrastructure, they oppose feeling ignored and that’s a very different problem. It’s easy to get caught up in options, timelines, budgets and engineering detail. All important. All necessary. But here’s the real secret: Infrastructure projects succeed orContinue reading “Best Practices for Community Engagement in Infrastructure Projects”

Most projects start with budget, timelines and deliverables. All important and sensible but here’s the twist, none of that matters if people don’t believe in what you’re doing. People don’t believe in plans, they believe in purpose, being heard and feeling part of something. Let’s call this what it really is. Stakeholder engagement isn’t aContinue reading “A Better Way to Deliver Value-Driven Stakeholder Engagement”

If you’ve spent any time trying to build trust or get buy-in, whether it’s in a team, an organisation, or across a complex network of stakeholders, you already know this truth: real engagement doesn’t happen in meeting rooms. It happens where people actually are. That sounds simple, but it’s not easy. Too many of usContinue reading “Go where the people are: bold strategies for meaningful engagement”