Three steps to planning a productive engagement process.
Your organization has some choices to make. Maybe you’ve got a new idea. Or maybe an old one isn’t working so well anymore. Soon, decisions will be needed.
For pretty much any successful enterprise, it’s at this point you’ll start to think about reaching out to get some more input. That could mean chats with people down the hall, or on another floor; meeting with your staff, your customers, your sale force; polls and surveys of your friends - or foes - out in the broader community. In all cases, how you go about engaging others may well contribute to the future success – or not – of those important decisions.
All successful engagements share some things in common, whether they follow a casual or formal process, and whether they involve broad-scale participation or just a few select voices.
1. Establish absolute clarity on why you’re engaging.
There are many legitimate reasons why organizations may want to carry out engagement, with no one reason inherently better than any other. But the process, expectations, and general rules of the game will differ depending on what you’re trying to achieve, why you’re asking for input, and what you intend to do with that input.
On a continuum that goes from “getting feedback on information” to “shaping direction”, what’s the goal of your engagement? There’s no one right answer here, although bear in mind that “engagement” implies a commitment to at least some degree of dialogue. If your only goal is to provide updates or information (and sometimes that’s totally appropriate), it’s better to describe your actions as communication, rather than an offer of engagement.
2. Get buy-in to the scope and goals
This might seem obvious, but whatever your engagement entails, make sure the decision-makers on your team share the same understanding of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. It would be tragic to go through the effort, only to have it seen after the fact as missing the mark.
You’ve really got just one shot to get engagement right. Going back to your stakeholders for a do-over won’t do much for your organization’s credibility, not to mention that it may potentially undermine whatever good your engagement was intended to achieve. So take the time to get full buy-in first.
3. Anticipate and plan for every angle.
So now you know why you’re engaging, with everyone safely onside. Next step is to plan out the details. Don’t minimize how complex this can be. And don’t worry that you don’t have all the information before you start: it’s often better to think of engagement as a process of discovery. Indeed, in some cases an iterative, tactical approach is actually more productive, where you carry out one stage of engagement and learn from its findings before you work out your next detailed moves.
Whose input is needed? What do you want to discuss with them? And how will you get that input? Big groups? Small groups? Phone calls? Surveys? Any logistics that need to be considered? How will you get out the word that you’re looking for input? Do you need to advertise or market your activities?
Optics and political considerations are as critical to get right as more concrete logistics – in fact, they might even matter more, depending on the issue. Are there key individuals whose insights you need? Are there others you need to get onside before you go to the larger audience? Groups who will undermine your activities if they’re not feeling properly respected? Plan for all these considerations.
Last but not least, you need to have a solid script to follow. So make sure your plan includes tight key messages for everyone to use throughout the engagement. You’ll need a story describing why you’re engaging, what you need from participants, why it will be of use to them to be involved and how their input will be used, any timing or next steps, and of course what you want to discuss.
Every engagement is unique so there’s no cookie-cutter approach. And the one thing you can assume is surprises will happen. But use these three steps to get you going, and you’ll be as prepared as you can be.