Internal stakeholders may be the best investment you can make in the sustainability of your stakeholder engagement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. Seriously.
We all know examples where the people dealing with communities, stakeholders and responsibilities are ghettoized in a corner of a project or company and not seen as part of the ‘real business’. They are tolerated, sometimes even encouraged, but when budgets get tight they are often squarely in the cutting line. Not a very sustainable position to be in. You don’t want to be there and if that is where you are you want to change your positioning.
Successfully engaging internal stakeholders is key. Do it right and other parts of your organization will recognize the important contribution your work makes to profitability, shareholder value and their specific interests. Drop the ball on internal stakeholder engagement and you are likely near the front of the line the next time cuts and downsizing happens and near the back of the line for budget increases.
The core principles for successfully engaging internal stakeholders are much the same as for other stakeholder groups.
Some of them include (in no particular order):
- What’s in it for them?: Think of their interests .
Take ‘what’s in it for me’ from top to bottom and side to side of your company through finance, human resources, investor relations, engineering, C-suites, etc. Think through what is in it for them if your work is successful. How does your success help their success? Then think through what impact it has on them if your work fails? What happens if your project or company loses its social license? Think these through, make lists and communicate them (more on that later). Keep them updated with specific examples .
- Build allies, find champions
Even with your most compelling arguments not everyone will become a raving fan of your work. But, if you engage appropriately some will, or at least they will be overtly supportive. Work with them. Help them to know more about your work and what it means for their area and interests, for the company and for other key areas. Give them the information, support and rationale to be a champion for you.
- Share stories from their peers
Stories are great for communicating. Find some that can help you to reach internal stakeholders. Find short, pointed stories on how CSR/stakeholder engagement and other related areas had big impacts on particular areas and then share them appropriately.
One of my favourites involves a CFO of major global mining company. I met with him near the conclusion of a project where I was doing an assessment of their social license/CSR work in a particular geographic region they were working in. They were doing incredible in that region, clearly one of the best examples in the world (this was in 1999 and it is still one of the best – they were way ahead of the game). But, the systems and successes they realized in the region I assessed were not consistent across their operations. They had countries and regions where they were doing little or nothing. Big risks. And they didn’t see them. I explained the risk to the CFO and that if they had a problem, if something came up in those areas they would have a hard time to respond to an agitated public and confrontational stakeholder groups (think about making friends in the middle of a mob!). I think he was quite happy to see me leave his office.
About a month later the company had a cyanide spill that, while technically not a major concern, quickly became a major international issue for them and even for the country they were headquartered in. The spill happened some distance from their mine and in a community in which they had literally zero relationships, but one that had seen their impact and traffic for a few years. All vehicle traffic to and from the mine passed through this community. One can imagine how the community felt as trucks drove through it daily, going to and from the mine and nobody from the company ever came by, nor did they have much of a chance at jobs or business at the minesite. The community used the spill to get attention, and attention they got. Suddenly there were advocacy and special interest NGOs all over the community and the incident got a lot of global media attention. Share price plummeted and the company went into emergency response. Except, they didn’t really have the relationships with international stakeholders to mount a quick and effective response to this situation. (think again of building relationships in a mob) . A couple of months later when I was back at headquarters, the CFO actually asked to see me. He had been through a pretty rough period. As the share price tanked the company was suddenly getting all sorts of attention it didn’t like from investors, lenders and other financial stakeholders. They found themselves offside of important agreements like debt to market capitalization covenants. Suddenly, a skeptical CFO was a believer. The success of stakeholder engagement and CSR programs did have real meaning and value for his job.
- Don’t be a do gooder. Keep your organization’s interest paramount.
Do good work but don’t be a do gooder. Your work and the good you do is important for sure. But, so are the interests of your company. Keep your work consciously aligned with the interests of your company. Always, always, keep company’s interests at forefront. Link what you want to do to what is good for the company or will mitigate risk for the company. Lose that link and you are lost. Keep that link present in your thinking and your communications. Your company wants good work but not a do- gooder. Same for the stakeholders you are working with.
- Learn their language
You will be much more effective at communicating with various internal stakeholder groups if you ‘learn their language’. Hint: Do-gooder language won’t get you very far in the CFO’s office! Learn enough about their world and priorities that you can communicate with them in a way that they can hear and that doesn’t make you seem like you’re from a foreign planet (which is how some of them may see stakeholder engagement and CSR before you start to educate them).
- Be passionate, but not fanatical
Most of us working in CSR and stakeholder engagement are passionate about our work. So too are many working in other areas of your organization. Passion is a gift. Cherish it. Fanaticism is a curse. Avoid it.
It is perfectly fine to be passionate about your work and the impact it is having (on stakeholders AND for shareholders). But, don’t be fanatical about it. Passionate is constructive. Fanatical is destructive. This is a simple communication skill but often can be challenging to apply, especially when projects and initiatives feel so important. Be conscious that there is a fine line between passionate and fanatical and stay on the constructive side of it.
- Assertive Humility: Humble AND assertive
Temper all internal stakeholder engagement with assertive humility. We’ve all seen do-gooders that come across as ‘holier than thou’. It is a turn- off. We’ve also seen the meek and mild who struggle to make a point and don’t communicate effectively. The work you are doing is important. Very important. So is the work that others in your company are doing. Recognize both of these realities.
And so…
Internal stakeholders are key to the success of your work. Do not assume that they are automatically on your side. Invest time in understanding them and their interests and why your success supports their success. Learn to engage and communicate with them in effective ways and you, your work, your company and your other stakeholders will all benefit.
Author: Wayne Dunn, President and Founder – CSR Training Institute
This article was taken from here.