October 2021
It doesn’t matter where you are on the planet, your stakeholder engagement demands generally remain the same.
Our clients are located across Latin America, the US, Canada, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Despite being so geographically spread they all face similar day to day challenges as they go about interacting with surrounding communities and decision makers.
The need to reach out to the surrounding communities, traditional landowners, first nations or other indigenous communities is a recognized requirement globally.
There are generally two choices to be made when considering when to engage with external stakeholders. The first is to front foot the process and acquire a better understanding of what your stakeholders are needing and be seen as coming from an authentic space.
The other alternative is to delay and run the risk that someone else will occupy that space. This disempowers your ability to connect with your stakeholders and places you on the back foot.
Recovering from these situations takes a lot of hard work and resources to gain back community confidence in what you’re proposing to do.
It’s never a simple decision and it’s all about choices and courageous decision making. Often going early can seem like a risky approach as you are still shaping up the project and don’t have all the answers. Ironically that in itself is an opportunity to bring those stakeholders on that journey with you.
