Now you’re talking, but…
Do your stakeholders think anybody’s listening?
Is the information they are providing relevant to the decisions you must make?
Are you tired of having big public debates?
Do you long for a two-way conversation?
Today’s public and communities expect to be active in any major decision making process that affects their lives whether the issue is allocating water resources, widening a road, designing a new rail system, initiating oil and gas exploration, or developing a plan for returning refugees to their homes. People impacted have a right to know about the project and to influence how those impacts are addressed.
As part of a government agency or corporation, more than ever before, you are responsible for finding ways to successfully engage your stakeholders in issues that matter to them. As a leader, you need their support to gain legitimacy for your decisions. People expect you to:
- Inform
- Consult
- Talk and listen
- Ask about needs and concerns
- Incorporate their suggestions and advice into your decisions and operations
CDR helps you initiate and sustain a constructive engagement process that:
- Identifies affected people
- Defines relevant issues
- Promotes genuine and direct stakeholder participation
Our tailored engagement approach is designed to develop new knowledge and enlarge perspectives, opinions, and understanding. You not only collect and share valuable information, but actively engage participants in proposing solutions to difficult problems, choosing priorities, and providing feedback. We also help you close the loop so that people know how their input affected the decision. How much participation and your approach depend on what kind of input is required for the decision to have legitimacy.
Thoughtful engagement gives your organization the foundation it needs to make wise, transparent decisions that reduce risk and promote public trust. It achieves results that both sponsors and their stakeholders want:
- Reduced project impacts
- Mutual benefits
- A better informed public
- A genuine exploration of alternatives
- Improved decisions
- Strengthened relationships
A successful engagement strategy helps you gain the social license to operate and move forward to action.
CDR public engagement services provide:
- Stakeholder mapping. We help companies and governments identify stakeholders and organize them into orbits of interest and influence. A comprehensive identification of stakeholders ensures you are hearing from the broadest set of interests and opinions that exist.
- Capacity building for engagement. We make sure your stakeholders have the capacity to engage on specific issues.
- Successful outreach strategy. We can help you get to the people you need to talk to so you can learn from them and they can learn from you. We make it easy for the public to talk with you because we go where they go. We help you understand what is on their minds.
- Sensitivity to vulnerable populations and their issues. One of CDR’s specialties is working across groups from different cultures. We take particular care to ensure that you consult with vulnerable populations—women, youth, indigenous peoples.
- Framing the right strategic questions. We stimulate thoughtful and informed responses from the public so your decisions and judgment benefit from their thinking.
- Creative conversations. We engage your stakeholders in conversations that range from 1:1 in-depth interviews to small group discussions to well-designed and managed public meetings that foster conversation and discourage debate or passive participation.
- Stakeholder education. We help you figure out what information the stakeholders really need to know so that the feedback they give you is informed enough to be meaningful.
- Tailored engagement. We provide a continuum of “people to people” processes and activities by which stakeholder concerns, needs, and values are identified and incorporated into governmental and corporate decision making. Your needs and those of your stakeholders may require more than a traditional public information campaign or conventional public hearing.
- Facilitation of stakeholder dialogues. CDR works with companies and governments to facilitate your stakeholder meetings. We offer support in the planning, design, facilitation, and follow-up of single and ongoing stakeholder engagement events. We have special expertise in helping governments and companies engage directly with community and other stakeholders.
- Impartial independence. Our independence reduces suspicion that participants will be led to reach already prescribed conclusions.
Examples of CDR public engagement services:
- Bujagali Dam public meetings in Uganda
- Cape Wind public hearings on Cape Cod
- Local involvement in the US 36 Environmental Impact Statement
Resource for public engagement:
- CDR staff co-authored a guide book on “constructive engagement” (collaborative discussion and negotiation) among industry, government, environmental, and community stakeholders to address environmental issues involving manufacturing facilities in the computer and electronics industry. To read Constructive Engagement Resource Guide: Practical Advice for Dialogue Among Facilities, Workers, Communities, and Regulators, visit: www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/pdf/resolve1.pdf
