Your organization is facing a complicated public policy decision or major investment. You know it is important to get input into these critical long-term decisions, but are unsure about how to start. Here are five tips to help you involve the right people in your process.
1. Determine what issues you want stakeholder input on. These could include project or program goals, potential strategies, funding sources, priorities, etc. Write them out as a series of questions. You won’t be asking stakeholders to decide these issues but rather to provide input to decision-makers.
2. Determine who would have a stake in answering these issue questions. Identify groups who have a stake by asking yourself:
- What groups are typically involved in community decisions?
- What groups are typically not involved in community decisions but are likely to be impacted?
- What groups are likely to be supporters?
- What groups are likely to be opposed or skeptical?
- What groups need to be educated about these issues?
- What groups have important information or perspectives about these issues?
- What groups influence decision-makers?
3. Don’t shy away from including all views and perspectives. It’s essential that all voices are heard. People from different backgrounds and with different views can help educate each other and ensure a problem is considered from all sides. Potential opposition groups can learn more by being included as stakeholders and feeling that their views are considered.
4. Once the groups have been identified, find individuals that best represent that group. Sometimes it’s wise to ask groups to self-select representatives. If you have a small task force and many groups to include, you may want to find individuals who belong to more than one group. It is important to ensure diversity in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity. Suggesting particular representatives that represent multiple groups can help ensure a task force or committee that is diverse, balanced and representative of the community.
5. Now that you know who to involve, how do you get them there? It is helpful to explain to them why it is important for them to participate. It will help to give them a clear sense of time commitment, number of meetings and what you will do to make their experience worthwhile. But it may take a key community leader to help persuade them to participate. Don’t be afraid to ask your Mayor to send a letter and make a follow-up call. And don’t be surprised if people aren’t interested initially. Sometimes recruiting takes two or three rounds of invitations.
Remember that the quality of your decisions relies heavily on the quality of the input gathered during stakeholder engagement. Shockey is here to help you get the right people to the table. Reach out to me at sheila@shockeyconsulting.com to learn more.