Business Core · Stakeholders · Module
Engagement
How each stakeholder is involved — informed, consulted, or genuinely party to the decision — and being honest about which.
The idea
How it works
The damaging pattern is consultation that was never going to change the outcome. It costs more than informing, and it produces less trust than informing, because people can tell.
Different stakeholders warrant different levels, and the level should be chosen deliberately and stated. Someone told they are being consulted when they are being informed will not believe the next message either.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Choose a level per stakeholder
Inform, consult, involve, or decide with. Each is legitimate; only mislabelling is not.
- 02
Say which level applies
People accept being informed. They resent discovering that consultation was decorative.
- 03
Match method to level
A survey informs. A conversation consults. Only a seat at the table involves.
- 04
Close the loop
Tell consulted stakeholders what was decided and how their input was used, including where it was not.
One level in
The components of engagement
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Consultation that could never change the outcome costs more than informing and earns less trust. Pick the honest level.
The other modules in stakeholders
Identification
Establishing who is affected by the organisation and who can affect it. The second group is usually mapped; the first is usually not.
LearnExpectations
What each stakeholder actually wants, established by asking rather than by assuming. Assumed expectations are usually the organisation’s own priorities restated.
LearnReporting
What is communicated to whom, how often, and in what form — including the things that are harder to report.
Learn