stakeholder engagement handbook · conference, wellington nz, 18 june 2015 government...

Stakeholder Engagement Handbook

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Table of Contents

Document Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 4

Overview – Planning and Implementing Stakeholder Engagement ................................................................................ 7

STAGE 1: THINK ...................................................................................................................................................... 12

1.1 Identify Stakeholders ................................................................................................................................... 12

1.2 Profile Stakeholders ..................................................................................................................................... 15

Stage 1: Think – Checklist ................................................................................................................................. 21

STAGE 2: PLAN ......................................................................................................................................................... 22

2.1 Match Needs to Approaches ..................................................................................................................... 22

2.2 Develop Plan Content ................................................................................................................................. 25

2.3 Identify Success Measures .......................................................................................................................... 31

2.5 Assemble the Plan ........................................................................................................................................ 36

Stage 2: Plan – Checklist .................................................................................................................................... 37

STAGE 3: ACT ........................................................................................................................................................... 38

3.1 Preparation .................................................................................................................................................... 38

3.2 Conduct Engagements ................................................................................................................................. 42

3.3 Follow Up ....................................................................................................................................................... 46

3.4 Review ............................................................................................................................................................. 47

Stage 3: Act – Checklist ..................................................................................................................................... 51

Appendix A: Common Engagement Channels .................................................................................................................. 52

Appendix B: Common Stakeholders for Information Management Projects ............................................................ 55

Appendix C: Stakeholder Profile – examples.................................................................................................................... 56

Appendix D: Meeting Agenda - example............................................................................................................................ 57

Appendix E: Stakeholder Engagement Register - template ............................................................................................ 58

Appendix F: Stakeholder Engagement Measurement survey - example ..................................................................... 59

Appendix G: Engagement Risk Register - template ......................................................................................................... 60

Glossary of Terms ................................................................................................................................................................... 61

Checklist for Developing & Implementing a Stakeholder Engagement Plan .............................................................. 63

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Information Security Classification

This document has been security classified using the Tasmanian Government Information Security classification standard as PUBLIC and will be managed according to the requirements of the Tasmanian Government Information Security Policy.

Document Development History Build Status

Version Date Author Reason Sections

1.0 22Apr16 Alison Fleming First publication All

Amendments in this Release

Section Title Section Number Amendment Summary

Issued:

Ross Latham State Archivist

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Document Introduction Context

As Records and Information professionals, providing a high quality records and information management service to our agency has always required us to understand and communicate well with our various stakeholders, especially our internal business users. The ability to effectively engage with stakeholders is more important than ever, as the nature of records and information management in the public sector is undergoing some fundamental changes:

• the distinctions between information, records and archives is blurring from a customer perspective, as the online world makes new information quickly redundant and older information suddenly useful again;

• the distinction between data and information is also changing, with a rapid rise in interest in open data/information initiatives1 and business intelligence based on complex analysis of business data - from this is arising a new concern about how to manage and provide governance over data and its uses, with many agencies unsure how this relates to records and information management and governance activities;

• different technology approaches (such as social media, messaging applications, geospatial systems, collection of real time data) are giving rise to new types of information and records;

• the rise of electronic records, combined with the relatively rapid changes in technical formats and deterioration in electronic media, are making the long term preservation of high value digital records a growing challenge.

This changing environment is in turn creating challenges for records and information management (RIM) professionals. The mandate of records legislation is not in itself sufficient to motivate business staff to undertake good record keeping practice: they want to know "what's in it for them", requiring RIM staff to have a strong understanding of business activities and challenges, and how RIM can make a valued contribution. In order to create and sustain RIM services and products that provide positive business benefit and motivate good practice, RIM staff must be able to explain the risks and benefits, and tailor the message and the services for customers. This will require ongoing engagement with stakeholders, learning to actively listen and to speak with them in ways they find meaningful and helpful.

‘Engagement’ is much more than one way ‘communication’ – it includes one-directional flow of information out, but also embraces the need to develop and sustain excellent working relationships so that important stakeholders have an active interest and involvement in relevant parts of our work, and that we likewise have a valued and constructive contribution to their work.

1 The Whole of Tasmanian government open data policy / initiative is before Cabinet for approval, as this Handbook is being

written.

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Purpose and Structure

The purpose of this Handbook is to provide a step-by-step approach to developing and implementing engagement with all stakeholders who are critical to the success of the Records or Information Management Unit or its projects. The approach is built around a three step iterative process: Think-Plan-Act. Each of these steps is explained in the body of the Handbook, along with checklists for use in planning and managing stakeholder engagement.

To illustrate how to develop each element of the plan in practice, a Case Study section has been developed for reference alongside the main Handbook.

A template for a Stakeholder Engagement Plan is also provided separately.

Scope and Audience

This Handbook is intended for use by Tasmanian public sector employees who are leading a Records or Information Management (RIM) Unit, or a project in this area.

Relationship to other TAHO Publications

This Handbook, as opposed to other TAHO publications, is designed to be a step-by-step guide to developing and implementing a stakeholder engagement plan. Strategically planning records management across an agency requires a considerable engagement with stakeholders. This handbook is a guide only, intended to assist agencies to gain competency in improving stakeholder engagement practices. If the agency already has a stakeholder engagement model in place then RIM staff may choose to use the existing model.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the Stakeholder Engagement Guideline document published by the Public Records Office of Victoria, which has been a valuable source in preparing this Handbook.

Further Advice

For more detailed advice please contact:

Government Information Strategy Unit Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office91 Murray Street HOBART TASMANIA 7000 Telephone: 03 6165 5581

Email: [email protected]

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References

Guideline PROS 10/10 G7: Stakeholder Engagement, Public Records Office of Victoria, 19 July 2015

Stakeholder Engagement: A good practice handbook for companies doing business in emerging markets, International Finance Corporation, Washington DC, USA, 2007

Stakeholder Engagement: A Roadmap to Meaningful Engagement, Neil Jeffery, Cranfield University School of Management, July 2009

Five Questions to Identify Key Stakeholders, Graham Kenny, Harvard Business Review, 6 March 2014

Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), published by TSO The Stationery Office (UK Cabinet Office), 2011

The 15-Minute Method to Writing an Unforgettable Elevator Speech, Kathryn Minshew, September 2015, https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-15minute-method-to-writing-an-unforgettable-elevator-speech

The Power of Why?, Heather Grace, Post to IITP TechBlog, 9 December 2015, http://techblog.nz/1040-ThePowerofWhy?utm_source=email When worlds converge: how the future information landscape will underpin trust for all stakeholders, Alison Fleming and Wendy Hamilton, presentation and paper to the New Zealand Government Information Systems Conference, Wellington NZ, 18 June 2015 Government Communications Planning policy and advice, Tasmanian Department of Premier and Cabinet website, last updated November 2012, http://www.communications.tas.gov.au/channels/communication_strategy

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https://hbr.org/search?term=graham+kenny

https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-15minute-method-to-writing-an-unforgettable-elevator-speech

http://techblog.nz/1040-ThePowerofWhy?utm_source=email


http://www.communications.tas.gov.au/channels/communication_strategy


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Overview – Planning and Implementing Stakeholder Engagement

What is a Stakeholder?

Stakeholders are “any persons or groups who are directly or indirectly affected by [an activity] or project as well as those who may have interests in the work and/or the ability to influence its outcome, either positively or negatively"2.

Records and information management (RIM) needs to be everyone's business in the agency - because everyone creates, manages, shares and makes decisions on information and records. That means virtually everyone within our agencies will be a stakeholder. There are also stakeholders outside our organisation who have an interest in, or influence over, our records and information activities.

For convenience we consider stakeholders with common interests collectively as a stakeholder group. Individuals often have more than one interest, and so may belong to multiple stakeholder groups (for instance a manager may both create records and also be part of the executive team who set strategy and budgets – they might belong to stakeholder groups called “Senior Executive Team” and “Business Users”).

What is Engagement?

Stakeholder engagement is an ongoing process used to build and maintain constructive relationships with stakeholders using a range of activities and communication approaches.

It is based on some core values: • Stakeholders should have a say in decisions that will affect them • Stakeholders will be provided with all the information they need to make a meaningful contribution • Participation includes the promise that the stakeholder's input will contribute to decision making.

Stakeholder engagement is not the same as 'delivering our message' or 'convincing them to agree with us'. Instead it implies a willingness to listen; to discuss issues of interest to stakeholders, and to be prepared to consider changing what we aim to achieve and how we operate, as a result of stakeholder input.

2Stakeholder Engagement: A good practice handbook for companies doing business in emerging markets, International Finance Corporation, Washington DC, USA, 2007, pp10

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Engagement can involve all sorts of interactions, for example:

Example of engagement

Type of engagement

Pres

enta

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Repo

rt

Web

Pos

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orks

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rum

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Pers

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roup

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Freq

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ly A

sked

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(FA

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Road

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(pre

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al

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One way Two way/ interactive

Informal Formal

Individual (one to one)

Group One off / irregular

Ongoing In person

(face to face)

Indirect Figure 1: Examples of Engagement Types

See Appendix A (page 52) for greater detail about each of these engagement approaches.

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Why Engage?

Because records and information management is everyone's business across the agency, effective planning and delivery of information management activities can only be successful with the understanding and active support of a wide range of people across the agency. To achieve this requires considerable and effective engagement - this is not an option, it is a necessity.

When to Engage?

Engagement should be a continual, normal part of our ongoing RIM business activity, allowing us to maintain awareness of what the business is doing and how it is changing, so that we are able to provide informed advice that is valued and services that are tailored to our stakeholders’ needs.

Sometimes additional engagement will also need to occur in relation to a significant information management initiative or project (e.g. the implementation of a new Electronic Content Management System or Retention and Disposal Schedule). When delivering a specific initiative, engagement with key stakeholders will be necessary at key points throughout the project.

Drivers

What drives the need for records and information management professionals to engage well with their stakeholders? Here are some examples we might need to respond to:

• Changes in our business (eg changes in information-related legislation, new IT systems or technologies, internal restructure, a new Agency head, major government information breach etc) which require tailored responses and information services to support the change

• Lack of business interest in or understanding of records and information management and its role in supporting business activity

• Unmanaged information risks (e.g. poor data quality, information silos that prevent collaborative team work and fully informed customer service, lost records)

• Proposal for a new or replacement RIM product or service • Lack of agency compliance with statutory or social obligations in relation to information (e.g.

security, privacy).

Responding to challenges like these first requires understanding what is happening in the agency’s business, then how information management can help improve things in ways the business values.

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Benefits

There are benefits for all parties involved in good quality engagement.

As records and information management professionals, it should help us to:

• Improve our understanding of our agency business, allowing us to talk in language that is meaningful to our stakeholders and address real issues that concern them

• Understand how information is currently used, and identify future information and record keeping needs

• Identify potential information risks for the organisation • Manage stakeholder expectations • Plan records and information management training and support • Line up information management activities and project proposals with the agency’s broader strategic

direction • Quickly gauge and react to resistance, misinformation, concerns and issues • Build stakeholder trust in the RIM team • Break down silos (eg with IT, architecture, audit staff) to increase a 'one team' approach for

supporting agency business • Improve the quality of our information services and project delivery • Improve senior management understanding of, and support for, RIM activities • Support the agency to comply with statutory obligations related to records and information.

For our stakeholders it should:

• Give them a continuously improving RIM service • Help them easily obtain answers to their questions • Increase their confidence in the RIM team's ability to make a useful contribution, leading to

increased opportunities for us to get involved in key projects and business activities • Increase understanding and competence of staff to undertake processes associated with records and

information management • Increase access to, and re-use of, agency information, internally and externally • Provide greater transparency and accountability about RIM activities and decisions (agreed

priorities, a clear understanding of expectations and commitments, business 'buy in') • Promote co-operation across agencies and within the organisation regarding the inclusion of strong

RIM practices in key projects and activities.

Exercise: Have a RIM team discussion about what the drivers and benefits for good RIM stakeholder engagement are in your agency

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Overview of the 3 Stage Approach

Stakeholder engagement is not a random exercise: to be effective we need to plan, so that we can then focus on engaging with the most important stakeholders, in ways that will be most likely to achieve the results needed.

This stakeholder engagement model lays out a simple series of steps to help guide our planning (we will examine each of these steps in the following sections):

Figure 2: Stakeholder Engagement Model

IDENTIFY

PROFILE

ANALYSE

Stage 1: THINK

Key questions for each stage: • Who are our key stakeholders / stakeholder

groups?

• What do we need to know about them?

• How can we prioritise them so we can focus our engagement activities?

• What different ways can we engage?

• What is the best way(s) to engage each key stakeholder/group?

• How will we be able to measure the success of our engagement efforts?

• What risks might engagement pose and how might we reduce these?

• Documenting our approach and key messages

• How do we maximise the success of each engagement?

• How do we keep track of activities and results?

• How do we measure & learn from our engagements to improve our services, planning, policies and future engagement?

PREPARE

ENGAGE

RECORD

Stage 3: ACT

REVIEW

MATCH NEEDS

DEVELOP

SUCCESS MEASURES

Stage 2: PLAN

ASSEMBLE PLAN

IDENTIFY RISKS

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STAGE 1: THINK

Whether we are thinking generally about the stakeholders of our RIM team, or specifically about a particular RIM project, we always need to start with some research. We need to think about:

• who we want or need to engage with • what objective(s) we need to achieve as a result of engagement activities • what the most effective ways to engage are, in order to achieve these objectives.

1.1 Identify Stakeholders

First we need to understand who our key stakeholders are: those individuals and groups we need to engage with. Stakeholders are either internal or external to the organisation, and often have very different (sometimes even conflicting) interests, but we use the same basic approach to identify them.

Stakeholders mostly fall into three main categories. Sit down with your team, and/or invite colleagues from a cross section of business areas and levels to provide input, and start by asking these simple questions:

1) whose interests are AFFECTED (directly or indirectly, negatively or positively) by our work or the finished result of our project? (includes both internal and external users of our services and initiatives)

2) who is actively INVOLVED in supporting delivery of our work or project? (includes people we are dependent on for specialist skills and knowledge)

3) who can INFLUENCE the success of our work or project? (includes decision makers, those who set policies or standards we must work to, and those whose positive support is critical).

There is no perfect size for a list of stakeholders, and the more complex and broad in scope our agency and work is, generally the more stakeholders will need to be engaged. Also note that over time (or as a complex project progresses), stakeholders can also change in importance, so we will need to review our list from time to time.

TIP: Involve people early! If you want to encourage helpful feedback and get people involved, don’t wait until you have everything worked out and perfect – send them early drafts, invite them to preliminary workshops, help them feel they are truly helping to shape the finished thinking, if you can. If it looks too complete you may accidentally send the signal that everything is already done and decided, and they will feel reluctant about commenting.

1: THINK 2: PLAN 3: ACT

1: THINK Identify Profile Analyse

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1.1.1 Internal Stakeholders

Internal stakeholders are members of our organisation - including managers, staff and contractors - who we need support from in order to achieve success in our role as Records and Information specialists. Since every organisation is different in size, function and scope, every stakeholder list will be different.

Here are some common internal stakeholders for a RIM team:

Stakeholder category

Type of stakeholder interest Typical internal examples

Who is AFFECTED by our work or project?

Who do we provide products or services to (e.g. information policies, training, systems, advice, processes etc) enabling them to create, manage, share and conserve business information, and comply with information management policy?

• Employees • Contractors

Whose systems or work are related to our work or initiative?

• Business owners of IT systems • Project Managers of projects with RIM

implications

Who expects to be able to find, view or use agency records in the future?

• Staff across the organisation who rely on information generated by others

Who is actively INVOLVED in supporting delivery of our work?

Who do we need to partner with? (e.g. they maintain systems or supply products or services related to information management, or provide specialist staff or equipment for records/information management projects)

• IT specialists • Business Unit managers • RIM champions in business teams

Who do we need one-off or less frequent services from?

• Human Resources unit • Internal Project Management Office • Communications Team • Central procurement function • Internal legal function • Building services • Training team • Finance team

Who else can INFLUENCE the success of our work or project?

Who is required to endorse or otherwise approve records/information management strategies, policies, products, services, project business cases, budgets?

• Information/Records Manager’s manager • Agency Head/Chief Executive • Agency Executive Management Team • Project Governance Group/Steering Committee • RIM Advisory Group/User Forum • Chief Financial Officer • Chief Information Officer/IT Manager • Internal Audit Committee

Who is responsible for the internal business strategies and policies that records/information management must align to?

• Organisational strategy and planning unit • Information Privacy Office/Unit • Risk Management Committee

Who do we need to learn lessons from in order to improve our likelihood of success?

• Internal Project Management Office • User Forum

See Appendix B (page 55) for suggested possible stakeholders for common RIM projects.

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1.1.2 External Stakeholders

External stakeholders are those outside our organisation. They may include agency customers/clients and other consumers, RIM service suppliers, organisations representing the interests of others, and regulatory bodies. Who they are will depend a lot on the nature of the agency and its functions (yours and theirs).

RIM teams tend to have limited external stakeholders with whom they must directly engage, but some of the most common are:

Stakeholder category

Type of stakeholder interest Typical external examples

Who is AFFECTED by our work or project?

Who do we provide products or services to (e.g. information policies, training, systems, advice, processes etc) that enable them to create, manage, share and conserve business information, and to comply with information management policy?

• Volunteers • Researchers • General public

Who is dependent on or has a significant interest in the outcome of our work (e.g. access to good quality information, maintenance of privacy)?

• Agency clients/customers • Staff in other organisations using our data

or information • Staff in other organisations supplying us

with data or information • Researchers/Historians (or their

representatives) • General public

Who is actively INVOLVED in supporting delivery of our work?

Who do we need to partner with (e.g. to maintain systems or supply products/services related to business information, or to provide specialist staff or equipment for records/ information management activities/projects)?

• Outsourced suppliers of specialist services (e.g. software support, specialist training, security, buildings, digital or physical conservation, couriers, archival storage providers)

Who do we need to get occasional or transactional services from?

• External legal advice • Suppliers of physical items (e.g. boxes,

equipment, vehicles)

Who else can INFLUENCE the success of our work or project?

Who is required to endorse or otherwise approve records/information management strategies, policies, products and services (e.g. the Records Management Strategy)?

• Parent Department

Who is responsible for the external strategies and policies that records/information management must align to?

• Tasmanian Archive + Heritage Office • Office of the Privacy Commissioner • Parent Department • Commonwealth Government agencies • Ombudsman's Office

Who do we need to learn from, in order to improve our likelihood of success?

• Professional Records/Information Management bodies (e.g. RIMPA)

• Tasmanian Archive + Heritage Office • Other government agencies

Figure 3: Common records and information management external stakeholders

See Appendix B (page 55) for examples of possible stakeholders for some common RIM projects.

TASK: Create a list of individual & group stakeholder names

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1.2 Profile Stakeholders

It is not enough just to identify a list of stakeholders - we need to know some basic information about each, to help us decide the best approach to engaging with them. Here are some things it may be helpful to know:

1) Basic details:

• group name or individual role title • actual person/contact name & contact details

2) Their interest in our services, initiative or project:

• what is their business activity? • what issues and concerns are currently challenging them? • what do they need from our work (e.g. what problem can we solve for them, what

challenge or opportunity may our work provide them with?)

3) Our interest in engaging with them:

• what is the likely impact of our work on them? • why do we need to engage with this stakeholder - what outcomes do we need from them?

(e.g. budget approval from the Agency Executive Team, a positive audit result from the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office; involvement of subject matter experts in designing or testing new processes, and so on)

• do we need our relationship with them to be different from what it is now, in order to deliver our work successfully? (e.g. we may need a much closer and more collaborative working relationship with IT staff, whereas we may already have a good relationship with the local RIM professional association).

Being able to clearly identify what we need from each stakeholder is a critical test - if we cannot clearly define what we want from them, we will not be able to identify how to engage with them in a way that delivers either of us any value.

Note that there may be little or no need to engage with some stakeholders – for example those who receive very little ongoing service from us, those not affected by or involved in any initiative we are planning, or those whose work is not of special interest to us or in areas where we could help them. These stakeholders can usually be removed from our list, as we need to be practical and not expend our limited engagement energy on them for little return. We often feel we know many of these basic details already, but sometimes we don’t, or we make incorrect assumptions. A really valuable way to start positive engagement is to discuss directly with them (where appropriate) what they need from us, what we will need from them, and how they are currently feeling about our work and its impact on them. Involving the RIM team in a discussion about this also ensures everyone can share what they know, and is ‘on the same page’ in understanding our stakeholders.


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As you discuss each stakeholder, capture key information – a simple Stakeholder Profile table will help with this. Appendix C (page 56) contains two examples of Stakeholder Profiles – it doesn’t matter what format you use, so long as it helps you quickly capture any key information consistently across stakeholders.

Now refine your list of stakeholders by asking: are there individuals or groups who have very similar or identical needs or concerns? If so they can often be combined together into a single larger stakeholder group, for the purposes of effective engagement. Conversely, are there groups that on the surface seem to have the same interests but are in fact different because they have different levels to which they are affected, involved or can influence our work? For example, do staff from individual business units actually receive different services from us, or work in different ways (e.g. desk bound vs field workers)? If so list business units individually, otherwise they could be grouped as "General Users/Staff".

Stakeholder Profiles can tend to encourage us to go on collecting lots of detail rather than moving forward to actually planning and engaging, so watch out for this. As these Profiles usually have too much detail in them to be helpful in giving an overview of our stakeholders, we keep them as a useful reference but extract a high level summary of the key information into a Stakeholder Register for inclusion in our Stakeholder Engagement Plan. We will later add more information to this Register as we analyse these stakeholders further.

The Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of a Stakeholder Register for stakeholders in a Digitisation Project.

1.3 Analyse Stakeholders

We have already started the process of analysis by profiling our stakeholders - by collecting and documenting key stakeholder information. There are three further questions we need to consider for each stakeholder:

• what level of influence will they have over our work or project (on a scale of high/medium/low)? For example, can they withhold funding or critical resources that mean we will fail - or does their opinion really not make any difference? (E.g. a senior manager responsible for resource decisions for your team will have a major impact on your ability to deliver current and future services; a supplier of archival boxes for the Repository, operating in competition with other suppliers of identical supplies, has little ability to influence our success)

• what level of impact will our work or project have on them (on a scale of high/medium/low)? Consider whether it will require them to change the way they work, undergo training, provide feedback, participate in design forums, do testing, provide advice, have extra meetings, read extra documents etc


TASK Document first details about stakeholders in a draft Stakeholder Register (columns A, B, C, D, E & I)

TASK Capture details about each key stakeholder in a Stakeholder Profile

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• what is their current attitude to our work or initiative (are they positive, neutral or negative)? Why are they neutral or negative & what would change that?

We use simple scales like High/Medium/Low or Positive/Neutral/Negative to categorise influence, impact and attitude. We do not need to agonise over these, as all we need is a general estimate relative to other stakeholders, to help us later to better target our engagement activities.

Add these measures to the profile information already documented, to complete the Stakeholder Register. This will become a key part of our Stakeholder Engagement Plan.

1.1.1 Analysis Techniques – Influence vs Impact Mapping

Unless we have very few stakeholders, it is helpful at this point to use visual techniques to help analyse our stakeholder information, so we can identify key stakeholders and the level of engagement needed.

Mapping stakeholders’ ability to influence the success of our project or work against the impact our work is likely to have on them, is a good way to do this. We include both internal and external stakeholders on these maps. They are done at a point in time – what is the situation NOW? – and will need to be redone as time passes, or an initiative progresses through different stages.

An Influence vs Impact Map will look different for every organisation and project. For instance, a RIM team could have an Influence vs Impact Map like this, in relation to their ongoing RIM services:

Using a visual approach like this is an art, not a science! As we place stakeholders into quadrants we will need to make judgements about where precisely to put them. It is useful to do this as a team, as it helps everyone have the same understanding of our different stakeholders and their interests and engagement needs.

Low Likely impact on the stakeholder High CHANGE IMPACT

PO

WE

R &

INFL

UE

NC

E

Low

Influ

ence

on

succ

essf

ul o

utco

me

Hig

h

Agency Exec Mgmt Team

Dep Sec Corporate Services

TAHO

Legal Team

Finance Team IT Team

General public

EDRMS Supplier

Agency Employees

HR Team

RIM champions in bus teams

Ombudsman’s Office

TASK: Add simple estimates of Stakeholder influence, impact and attitude to the Stakeholder Register (columns F, G & H)

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To illustrate this in practice, the Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of Stakeholder Influence vs Impact Map for stakeholders in a Digitisation Project.

To create a map, start by selecting a stakeholder and deciding their influence. Can they stop your work (high)? Do they have little impact on your success (low)? This tells you which row to place this stakeholder in on the Map. Then decide the likely impact of your work on them: will it require significant change to their work processes and/or affect a large number of staff (high)? Will it have only minor or no effect on their work (low)? This will tell you which column to place this stakeholder in, and the row/column combination allows you to then place them on the Map. Note that sometimes things feel less precise than H/M/L and so some stakeholders may sit across some lines on our Map – that is fine, we only need a general indication.

Generally the more we move towards the top right, the more deeply involved in our work/project planning and delivery these stakeholders will need to be to ensure the impacts of our work are managed well and accepted into the business. We also need those with high influence to consistently support us.

Influence/Impact Maps can be labelled with the likely level of engagement intensity that will be required, as follows:

Figure 4: Engagement Intensity

These labels will guide us later in what frequency and types of engagement to undertake, as we will see in the next section. In general:

• Very high/High – these are the stakeholders who we need to engage most intensively and frequently with, and involve most deeply in our thinking and planning. We are likely to use terms like ‘collaboration’ and ‘partnership’ for these engagements

• Medium – these stakeholders need to know what is happening and have a chance to input. They need to be ‘actively consulted’ through engagement

• Low – these stakeholders need only be kept informed from time to time • None – we should not devote much time at all to these stakeholders • Medium/High & Medium/Low – stakeholders in these sections tend to need different levels of

engagement at different times (e.g. the Executive Management Team may be High whilst we are seeking budget approval, then drop back to ‘Medium’ during delivery; we may need high engagement with an external supplier and legal team during the purchasing and contract negotiation phases of a project, but much less after that).

Low CHANGE IMPACT High

PO

WE

R &

INFL

UE

NC

E

Lo

w

H

igh

Very High

High

Medium/ High

High

Medium

Medium/High

Medium/ Low

Medium/ Low

Low/ None

TASK: Create an Influence/Impact Map and use it to identify engagement levels for each stakeholder

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Where a stakeholder straddles a boundary, use your judgement to decide which engagement intensity they may need, you can always adjust it later. Remember this is about now – it will change over time so we will need to revisit this Map as things progress (for example, Senior Executives are usually High Influence when a project is in the initiation phase and seeking approvals; after that their influence is often much lower.)

So having placed our stakeholders on our Map we can link them to a level of engagement intensity as suggested by their position, and capture this in our Stakeholder Register.

To illustrate this in practice, the Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of Stakeholder Influence vs Impact Map for stakeholders in a Digitisation Project. 1.1.2 Analysis Techniques – Mapping Stakeholder Attitude

Stakeholders may be critical to our success, but they may not feel we are critical to theirs. Identifying our stakeholders’ current attitude towards our work, from positive to negative, will help us later when considering our engagement planning. Note that a positive or negative attitude may be unrelated to the level of actual interest in what we are doing: those with a High level of interest may be positive or negative. It is unrealistic to expect all stakeholders to be extremely positive – a number will be neutral and that is usually fine. However, ideally we want those who are highly influential or highly impacted to be in as positive a frame of mind as possible. We also need to guard against an inclination not to engage with those who may have given us negative feedback in the past, as they are still important stakeholders with valuable insights we need to learn from. Also note that you may have stakeholder groups that contain a range of attitudes. In this case you may want to break that group down into smaller groups to differentiate those with different attitudes further, as they will need different engagement approaches.

Concentrating on the most important stakeholders (those who are medium or high in either Influence or Impact) make a simple map of their current attitude towards our RIM work or project. For example, doing this for an RIM team could result in diagrams like these:

POSITIVE NEGATIVE Medium and High IMPACT Stakeholders:

Agency employees


EDRMS Supplier Legal team

Ombudsman’s Office HR team

Finance team


POSITIVE NEGATIVE Medium and High INFLUENCE Stakeholders:

Attitude towards project

Agency Exec Mgmt Team


IT Team Legal team

EDRMS Supplier Middle managers’

network

TASK: Use your Influence/Impact Map to identify engagement levels for each stakeholder.


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This suggests we will need to pay higher engagement attention to the IT team, legal team and Agency employees, since these people are negative and also influential and/or impacted. We can also see some allies at the positive end, the RIM champions in business teams and also the Middle managers’ network, who we should utilise to help our engagements succeed. In general stakeholders who are:

• positive and also highly influential will potentially help us most and become our champions • positive and also highly impacted have the most to gain from working closely with us • negative and also highly influential could reduce our chances of success by blocking decisions

and resources for our work or project • negative and also highly impacted could reduce our chances of success by resisting

involvement or change.

As we will need to work harder on engaging with negative and neutral stakeholders, in our Stakeholder Register we mark the level of engagement intensity required as:

• Very High if this Stakeholder is Negative, and medium/high influence or impact • Medium/High if this Stakeholder is Neutral, and medium/high influence or impact

[Note: if, as a result of earlier Influence vs Impact Mapping, you have already marked a level of engagement intensity against a Stakeholder, use the higher of the two levels indicated].

To illustrate this in practice, the Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of Stakeholder Attitude Maps for a Digitisation Project.

TASK: Create a Stakeholder Attitude Map

TIP: The Power of ‘Why?’* When people ask for something by a specific date, be sure to ask why – that way you find

out how important and how urgent the task is, and can prioritise it appropriately if

you get short of time.

Also turn it around: when you ask others to do things for you, explain why. Once they understand what you are

trying to achieve and why it is important, they are more likely to see the value in doing the task.

*See http://techblog.nz/1040-ThePowerofWhy?utm_source=email

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Stage 1: Think – Checklist

Task Complete?

How Included in Engagement plan

1. IDENTIFY INTERNAL & EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

• List those affected

Stakeholder Register

• List those actively involved

• List those with influence

• Group where appropriate

2. PROFILE STAKEHOLDERS

• Create empty Stakeholder Register

• For each Stakeholder / group capture:

• Basic details (name, internal or external, contact details)

• Their current issues and challenges where relevant

• Level / type of Interest they have in our work

• Level / type of Impact on them of our work

• Level / type of Influence they have over our success

• Cross check information with each Stakeholder where appropriate

3. ANALYSE STAKEHOLDERS

• Map Stakeholder Influence against Impact Influence vs Impact Map

• Map Attitude of Medium/High Influence and Impact Stakeholders Attitude Maps

• Based on Maps, add likely level of engagement intensity to key Stakeholders



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STAGE 2: PLAN Now we know who our main stakeholders are and know enough about them to start planning our engagement approach. If RIM resources are really limited we may need to pick just a very small number of stakeholders to concentrate engagement on – who will make the most difference to success of this particular work initiative (for example if we are redoing our training material, senior executives won’t be interested). This stage is about identifying the best ways to engage, given the needs of our stakeholders and the engagement outcomes we are trying to achieve, and then ensuring we prepare the communication items we will need for those engagements.

2.1 Match Needs to Approaches

Let’s assume that we have a significant initiative, project or ongoing service relationship about which there is value in engaging. We have examined the influence, impact and attitude of our stakeholders in order to identify the intensity of their engagement need on a scale from Very High to None. We will ignore None from now on, as by definition we are not planning any engagements at that level!

2.1.1 What Engagement Approach?

In the Overview section at the start of this Handbook (page 7) we listed many actual ways of engaging (email, meetings and so on). We call these engagement channels. These relate well to the levels of engagement intensity, to give us a general guide when planning the approaches to take for each stakeholder group:

Engagement intensity

Common general engagement approaches*

Example engagement channels to choose from

Low

(keep informed)

One way, formal, group,

irregular, indirect

Web/intranet post, Mail out, online newsletter, FAQs, presentation at

whole agency staff meeting or external event (e.g. professional group),

presentation to business teams, general survey

Medium

(actively consult)

One or two way, formal

or informal, one-to-one

or group, regular

occurrence, in person

Presentation at group meeting, monthly project status report, minuted

meeting, corridor chat, consultation workshop, informal meeting,

request for input/feedback/service, online training/education, survey,

interactive Roadshow presentation to business teams, targeted survey

High/Very High

(collaborate with)

Two way, formal &

informal, mostly one-to-

one, ongoing, in person

Formal (minuted) meeting, online project collaboration workspace,

formal and informal requests for advice/feedback, surveys, personal

coaching, membership of project or work team, detailed questionnaire

Figure 5: Engagement Approaches

1: THINK 2: PLAN 3: ACT

2: PLAN Match needs

Develop content

Assemble Plan

Identify success &

risks

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* Note that a mix of approaches may sometimes be appropriate – for instance using mostly indirect channels to keep people informed, but occasionally meeting briefly with them to answer any questions.

By sitting down as a team we can generate some initial thoughts on what forms of engagement are most appropriate for each stakeholder group. Keep in mind how people typically engage in your agency:

• do people expect to be mostly formal, or is informal ok? • do people prefer short, very focused interactions or longer, more general ones? • do people like personal briefings and opportunities to input, or prefer being part of a group? • are there already channels we can use (e.g. existing external newsletters, Intranet weekly news stories,

regular business or manager meetings etc)? • is it time to do something different from the norm, to catch people’s attention in a new way? For

example, if information is usually very formally conveyed, in writing through managers, then attending individual team meetings in person for a conversation (with the managers’ permission of course) might allow different understanding and interest to develop for staff.

This thinking will help you choose a small number of engagement channels to use (some, such as Intranet posts and team meetings, might be used with a number of different stakeholders). Because we don’t have infinite resources, we need to make sure that the list is achievable, given the size and skills of our team – especially if that is in fact just one person!

2.1.2 When to engage about operational services?

Once we know what forms of engagement we will use for what stakeholders, we also need to think about when or how often we will undertake these engagements. Too often, and people will get sick of us; too infrequent, and we (and they) will lose touch with what is happening.

Engaging with our stakeholders about everyday services and ‘business as usual’ is critical to us doing our jobs well. This should be happening all the time, even when no specific new initiatives or projects are happening in our team. Remember to focus on the engagement outcomes you are after when thinking about this.

Engagement activities that support normal RIM service delivery are most likely to happen on a regular time cycle, for instance:

• a monthly report to an Information Management governance committee, • a weekly or fortnightly meeting with the senior manager responsible for RIM, • a briefing every 6 months to the Executive Management Team, • a catch-up every 2 months with a representative of the Tasmanian Archives & Heritage Office, • an intranet story every 3 months about latest RIM activities.

These engagements are aimed at maintaining a regular flow of information and understanding, and keeping up a positive working relationship that can respond to unexpected challenges.

A key time to engage about RIM business is early in each annual business planning cycle, to ensure our RIM strategic planning about the nature and volume of our services and activities will be well informed, and synchronised with the plans of the various business units we support.

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2.1.3 When to engage about new initiatives or project activity?

Engagement activities that are planned specifically in relation to a particular work initiative (a small piece of one-off work usually undertaken within team resources, e.g. updating our Induction advice and training) or a project (a larger piece of one-off work with separate budget and governance, and sometimes additional resources e.g. implementing a new Retention and Disposal schedule) will have timings related to the schedule of that work. As a general rule it is very important to engage stakeholders early in the life of a project so that they have a genuine ability to provide input and to influence the direction of the project.

Some engagements will be specific to a particular phase of the work. For example, working with business representatives to train staff in the new system and processes will occur towards the end of the project. Similarly, updating an R&D Schedule needs business involvement in the early phases, and TAHO consultation to gain approval towards the end. In a project situation, surveying stakeholders about their requirements of a new EDRMS system; working with Finance on defining a proposed project budget; providing input to legal and procurement staff who are completing procurement and contract arrangements for any purchases the project requires; delivering a project overview briefing to the Executive Management Team – these are all engagement activities that typically occur in the early part of the project when we are trying to develop and gain approval for the project business case.

Other engagements will happen regularly throughout the life of the work. For example, a monthly report to the project governance board meeting, a regular newsletter or intranet/blog post to keep stakeholders informed about progress on an initiative, regular meetings with all key staff to monitor progress and identify roadblocks are good examples.

2.1.4 Creating the Engagement Schedule

We capture the above information in a table called an Engagement Schedule. This lays out for each stakeholder/ group the various types of engagement with them, the timing/frequency of those engagements, and who is responsible at our end. The Engagement Schedule can be a part of our general RIM Stakeholder Engagement Plan, or be specific to a Project Stakeholder Engagement Plan.

We can also think as a team about whether there are some specific events that (if they occur) trigger certain kinds of special engagement to need scheduling, for instance:

• a key manager starting or leaving (triggering the need for a briefing or training session), • complaints or issues exceed the acceptable level (triggering a possible survey or other approach to

gather more comprehensive feedback on what the problem is, or a need for better training, or some other suitable response), or

• in a project context, an overspend of the budget or overrun of the project schedule (triggering an exception report to the Project Sponsor).

If there is a reasonable likelihood that these types of engagements may be needed, but just uncertainty over exactly when, then they are also worth capturing in our Engagement Schedule, to remind us we will need to be prepared for these as well.

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The Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of an Engagement Schedule for the stakeholders in a Digitisation Project.

See Appendix A for a fuller list of Common Engagement Channels and when they might best be used.

2.2 Develop Plan Content

We know who we want to engage with and how – now we need to concentrate on preparing suitable content for our engagements.

2.2.1 Engagement Objectives

Let’s start by identifying at a high level what we are trying to achieve through our engagements: our Engagement Objectives. There may be one or two, but they should be short, quite specific to our team or initiative/project, and high level enough not to change too often over time.

If we are planning engagement in relation to our normal ongoing RIM service and every day activities, we might write something like:

“To ensure (a) that RIM staff have sufficient business knowledge and trusted reputation to successfully and efficiently undertake our work, and (b) that RIM stakeholders know who we are, why and how the agency is approaching records and information management, their role, and how we can help them.”

However if we are planning engagement as part of a specific initiative or project, we might write something more specific to that, such as:

“To ensure internal and external stakeholder groups receive accurate and timely information, in line with their level of interest, about what the <project name> Project will deliver and how it will impact on them, so we can manage expectations, build interest and enthusiasm, and provide opportunities for them to contribute appropriately.”

Notice that the tone is about working with / involving stakeholders for their benefit, understanding and assistance, rather than simply telling or informing them about our priorities and interests.

Drafting a statement of engagement objectives is a useful exercise to help the RIM team have a common understanding, and start thinking about engagement in a consistent way.

To illustrate this in practice, the Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of Engagement Objectives for a Digitisation Project.

TASK: Create a draft Engagement Schedule

TASK: Discuss an Engagement Objective for the RIM team, or for a project or small initiative you are doing

2: PLAN Match needs

Develop content

Assemble Plan

Identify success &

risks

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2.2.2 Engagement Principles

Underpinning good engagement is the mindset with which we approach others. It is a good idea to agree with the team and some of our key stakeholders a few simple principles for how we want to treat each other when engaging. However Principles on their own will mean little, unless we also understand the impact they should have on our actions, so we need to talk about that as well.

One way of doing this is to sit down with our team, and perhaps some key stakeholders if we think it appropriate, and discuss some general rules that we can all agree will be important in all our engagements and how they will translate into actions we might take before, during and after engagement activity.

Some agencies already have some value or principle statements you can refer to; otherwise you could start with something like this and tailor it to suit your situation:

ENGAGEMENT

PRINCIPLES

ACTIONS that might flow from these Principles:

Build rapport

• Use open, two-way dialogue • Seek understanding of issues first • Listen more than you talk • Speak in their language, not RIM jargon • Ask open questions that seek to understand and be mindful of others' point of view • Demonstrate active listening by rephrasing what you have heard and checking back, to make sure

you have heard correctly and understood • Using what you have heard to actively shape your follow-up after engagement

Stay focused on results

• Be clear what you are trying to achieve • Explain what you need from them and understand what they need or expect from you in each

engagement • Agree an agenda for each engagement and stick to it (i.e. a purpose, subject matter to cover,

decisions to be made) • Agree at the end of an engagement what will happen next, when, and who is responsible

• Check afterwards if the expectations of all parties were in fact achieved

Collaborate wherever possible

• Where impact is high, actively seek to involve those stakeholders early • Ensure genuine participation in discussions, including those that plan tasks and activities as well as

those that design changes • Ensure collaborating stakeholders have decision-making and sign-off/approval rights • Seek opportunities to be involved early and have genuine influence over significant work being

undertaken by other teams, where the outcomes are important to RIM

Deliver value • Be clear why they should engage with you - "what's in it for them?" • Prepare thoroughly so you will be ready to answer their questions and provide key information • Communicate in ways that are easy to understand and make it easy for them to contribute • Don't use RIM jargon • Don’t waste people's time

Be professional • Be clear what the lines of communication are

• Always act with integrity, honesty and transparency • Look for ways to enhance mutual trust and respect • Freely share relevant information

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ENGAGEMENT

PRINCIPLES

ACTIONS that might flow from these Principles:

• Be timely in providing relevant information, feedback and in attending meetings • Commit to ongoing engagement to build trust and credibility

Be responsive • Always do what you say you will (or if necessary at least explain why you couldn't) • Follow up with feedback on what has changed as a result of the engagement

Figure 6: Engagement Principles

If we adopt Engagement Principles, and actions that flow from them, towards the start of our engagement planning then everyone in the team can use these as a measure, when planning for engagements.

It can also be very useful to share the principles and actions with some stakeholders because it sets a professional standard of interaction and projects to our team and our stakeholders that we are serious about nurturing positive and useful lines of communication (we can do this through an Intranet story or Newsletter, if we don’t want to be too obvious by handing things out each time we meet a new stakeholder!)

This is particularly true when starting a project, as high quality interaction with our stakeholders will be critical to the project’s success, and there is usually limited time to recover if we fail to achieve this standard.

Also, if during the course of our ongoing engagement activities we discover that things are going astray (perhaps a key relationship is breaking down, or there is evidence we simply are not getting our message across, or are getting negative feedback about some of our activities), then reviewing our engagements against these Principles can be a useful way of identifying where issues may lie, or improvements are needed.

TASK: Identify several engagement Principles for the RIM team or a project you’re doing. Discuss the Actions that will flow from this.

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2.2.3 Key Messages

We now need to focus on being clear what we want to say, and what we need to ask. A simple way to do this is to generate Key Messages – a few short sentences that sum up the critical things we want to convey.

An easy way to start drafting our Key Messages is to sit down as a RIM Team and answer some standard questions:

for ongoing RIM services and activities: for a significant RIM project or initiative:

What does the RIM team do (in general)? Why is that work important (what value do

we provide to the business)? Who is affected by our work? What work are we currently focusing on (and

why, and with whom)? How do we work with business teams to gain

a strong understanding of what they do and win their confidence in us to help?

How do they have meaningful input into our planning, service development?

What help/input/support do we need from (each) stakeholder?

What is this project about? Why is it important (what challenges/risks

will it deal with and/or value will it provide for stakeholders)?

Who will be affected by this work? When? What have we done so far? What will happen next? What help/input/support do we need

from stakeholders? How can you be involved?

Here is an example of some Key Messages that a government agency RIM team might use about their services and activities:

1. Being able to efficiently create, find, share and re-use business information makes work easier, and makes our

business less risky – we can help you with this

2. We are currently working on helping staff to share information across teams so they can collaborate more

effectively, through setting up shared workspaces and file store areas and making it easier to bulk transfer

email into the Electronic Document and Records Management System

3. We are also working on improving the agency’s Intranet to make it easier for staff to find the ‘single source

of the truth’ about News, Policies, Plans and Projects. We expect this work to be completed by MMMYY

4. Our customers and external stakeholders expect us to keep their private information secure, but we had N

privacy breaches with customer information in 20NN. We will work with you improve information security

practices

5. The RIM Team supports all agency staff and contractors to create good records of important business

information, and keep them as long as they are needed, to assist the agency to manage its business efficiently

and be held accountable for its actions

6. We want to support you well, - and we know we need to work closely with you on how to do that best - so

we would like to talk over morning tea with your team sometime in the next 2 months (our shout!) to learn

what you do, what your challenges are and how we might be able to help.

7. You can call us anytime on Extn NNNN to talk or arrange a visit.

We are looking to incentivise business, rather than doing things ‘because the Archives Act says so’. Sometimes our key messages need to also cover why this time things will be different to what has happened before.

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Note that the exact messages may vary from one stakeholder group to another (you might phrase things differently or change the level of detail for managers as opposed to staff, or internal as opposed to external stakeholders), and some messages may only apply to some stakeholders.

For a small department or project we may be able to mostly use the same messages, or a subset of these, for all stakeholders. However for a large, complex department or project we may need to tailor messages for specific groups of stakeholders (both internal and external) depending on the services we provide or receive from them. To help us do that we could first map our internal and external stakeholders against the types and levels of services we provide or receive (or the project involvement they will have). Populating a simple table is an easy way to do this, for example:

RIM SERVICES PROVIDED SERVICES RECEIVED

STAKEHOLDER Pol

icy

deve

lopm

ent

RIM

Tra

inin

g

Mai

l ser

vice

s

ED

RM

S su

ppor

t

etc

Rec

ruit

men

t ad

vice

Per

form

ance

de

velo

pmen

t

Fina

ncia

l ad

vice

&

repo

rtin

g

Pol

icy

and/

or

lega

l adv

ice

etc

Finance Human Resources

Policy & Planning

Legal Customer Service Centre

TAHO etc

We have already analysed our stakeholders and know their influence, attitude and so on: combining this information with an understanding of the service interaction we need to have with them will allow us to identify if there are any specific messages for a particular area of the business. For instance, the Finance unit may lack confidence in our ability to manage a large Project budget successfully, so it may be important to reassure them by mentioning what we intend to do to ensure that task is done well; operational business units may be concerned we will make EDRMS changes that affect their business processes without warning, so a message about careful consultation and training prior to any changes might be important for them.

Once we have settled on our Key Messages, they should underpin all our engagements: our verbal and written communication should refer to relevant parts of them often, and everything we say and do should be consistent with these messages. Over time (at least annually, and at key milestones during a project) we must review and update these messages to ensure they remain current.

The Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of Key Messages for a Digitisation Project.

TASK: Agree a small set of Key Messages for our team or initiative/project

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2.2.4 Presenting our messages

We know what messages we want to convey and who to; now think about how best to present these. One of the most important things to remember is that people are time poor, so getting our information across in plain English that is easy to understand, and keeping the message short and concise, will be really important.

Here are some things to consider:

Standard paragraphs/reusable content: We will probably need some prepared information ‘bites’ that we can reuse in a range of engagements. These often include statements about our purpose (of the RIM team or project), business objectives, current activities, values and/or principles, key messages, timelines/milestones, RIM team staff and contact details. Do a good job of this once at the start, then copy-and-paste whenever required, not only to speed things up but also to retain consistency. You can still make quick minor adjustments for each audience. Similarly making a set of relevant photos for repeated use in reports, presentations, etc will be useful.

Check the agency branding and communications guidelines and use them: Most agencies set standards in terms of the branding (logo, layout, colour palette), especially for formal or external items. If there is an agency Communications Team they may have published some useful advice on good communication (or you can easily find that by searching the internet). Use graphs and pictures to support your message: It’s worth remembering that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ for most people. Graphs are especially powerful for illustrating relative sizes of things, or trends over time. Are there one or two simple graphs that could tell our story for us? It’s easy to see what these ones are trying to convey:

Adjust your language for your stakeholders: We are often quite fond of the word ‘records’, however it is important to use language that staff and stakeholders can understand. Many RIM professionals are moving away from ‘records’ as sounding too much like jargon (or having negative connotations or simply being too narrow) compared to the wider field of business information that must be our concern. “Information” or “knowledge” are common preferred alternatives.

Prepare an ‘Elevator Pitch’ – this is 2-3 sentences that sum up the essence of what you want to say in only 15-20 seconds (approximately the length of time you might have an important stakeholder’s ear during an elevator ride, though they can be used anytime!). Writing and memorising one of these is very useful for when an unexpected opportunity arises, especially with an important senior person (like the Agency Head).

updated <3m ago

updated 3-6m ago

updated 6-12m

ago

updated >12m ago

never updated

INTRANET PAGE UPDATES

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0

100

80

60

40

20

0

OFF-SITE RECORDS STORAGE (linear metres)

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Kathryn Minshew3 provides some good tips for preparing one of these in 15 minutes:

• Take 5 minutes and write down everything you want to say • Take another 5 minutes and do the same exercise, but using only a square sticky note – what would

you prioritise/leave out? • Take another 5 minutes and test it by saying it out loud – make sure it sounds natural, and is in plain

English. • Once you are happy, put your sticky note somewhere you can see it often and start weaving it into

everyday conversations. NOTE: you may need to tweak it a little for different audiences - what you want to say to senior management, and in what tone, may differ somewhat from your pitch for staff.

The Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of some reusable communication items for a Digitisation Project.

2.3 Identify Success Measures

How will we know that our engagement efforts are achieving the outcomes and results we intended? Too often we just assume this, and then wonder why our hoped-for results don’t occur. Unless we measure the results of our engagement activity we won’t be sure we are meeting our stakeholder’s needs, or when and with whom we should alter our engagement approach.

This does not need to be complicated! Here are some simple examples of things you could measure and ways of doing it:

Examples of Measures

Examples of What to Assess Examples of How to Assess

Stakeholder participation in engagement activities

Number of attendees at briefing, workshop, meeting etc

• trend over time of attendee numbers for ongoing engagements

• attendees by location or group

Level of feedback received • count number of individuals responding to a survey or request for feedback

Increase in Stakeholder understanding

Ability of stakeholders to describe an issue, business change impact etc

• survey employees (online, in person, a sample or everyone)

• system reports about user uptake of new functions post training

• feedback meeting to get views of stakeholders • manager feedback (formal or informal)

3 The 15-Minute Method to Writing an Unforgettable Elevator Speech, Kathryn Minshew, September 2015, https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-15minute-method-to-writing-an-unforgettable-elevator-speech

TASK: Develop a few useful reusable written, graphic or verbal ‘bites’ to support key messages/ information

2: PLAN Match needs

Develop content

Assemble Plan

Identify success &

risks

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Examples of Measures

Examples of What to Assess Examples of How to Assess

Change in stakeholder behaviour • increase or reduction in number of service requests • compliance with requests, relevant standards etc • observation of behaviour

Effectiveness of engagements

Intended outputs from workshops and forums (plans, designs etc) being achieved as planned

• time required to gain acceptance of outputs as capturing the discussion, stakeholder interests, or action points accurately

• ongoing dispute about decisions already made because decision making process not clear enough, not enough feedback to participants about what has been done with their input

• unplanned re-work of plans, policy wording or other outputs produced through engagement (suggesting original engagement did not achieve the quality intended)

Stakeholders completing required tasks as requested

• timeliness, quality of work provided (e.g. by external suppliers, or internal service providers)

Changes in our RIM service delivery

• service improvements as a result of engagement discussion/feedback

Change in stakeholder attitude

Stakeholder attitude is more (or less) positive than previously (& why)

• surveys • observation

Stakeholders finding value in engagements

Stakeholder satisfaction with level, type and quality of engagements

• survey • willingness to continue meeting/level of absences or

delegating others to attend • feedback/review session at end of each one-off

meeting or periodically (e.g. 6 monthly) for ongoing meetings

• senior management feedback (formal or informal)

Stakeholders feel well informed • survey • informal feedback • volume and type of individual questions outside of

engagements (i.e. not covered by our planned communication)

Obviously it takes time to develop relationships and make progress on complex tasks, so we need to think not only about what measures will tell us we are succeeding, but how much time to allow before we step back and look at how we are doing.

We should now add these measures to complete our Engagement Schedule.

As usual a final sensible step is to cross-check by checking on standard formal expectations in your agency (for business case formats or project reporting templates, for instance) and by asking the stakeholders themselves whether our suggested engagement approach will work best for them, and what they think will indicate our engagements are being successful.

The Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of an Engagement Schedule, including success measures, for the stakeholders in a Digitisation Project.

TASK: Add success measures to complete the Engagement Schedule

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2.4 Identify Engagement Risks

A risk is defined as “an uncertain event or set of events that, should they occur, will have an effect on the achievement of objectives”4. In other words, something that might happen, and which if it does will affect your ability to deliver your services or project. Risks are things we can do something about – either act now to reduce the likelihood they will occur, or reduce the impact on our services or project if they do occur.

As with any business activity, there are risks associated with stakeholder engagement. It is important to understand where the main risks lie, and understand how to avoid them arising or manage their consequences if they do.

Common generic risks of stakeholder engagement include:

Risk Result Risk mitigation approach Handbook reference

IF we do not engage all relevant stakeholders

THEN

• stakeholders may fail to be aware of or gain advantage from the support we can provide

• influential stakeholders may block us from receiving resources we need to do our work effectively because they are unaware of our contribution

• stakeholders may continue with inefficient or poor work practices because they do not know about alternatives we can offer

• we may miss deadlines or opportunities because we are unaware of them

Identify and analyse all stakeholders carefully

Sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

IF we do not use an engagement approach that suits the needs of the individual stakeholder

THEN

• they may fail to understand information we are trying to convey • we may not understand what they need to tell us • stakeholders may lose interest in engaging with us

Match the engagement approach to each stakeholder’s needs

Section 2.1.1

IF we do not engage in the right timeframes

THEN

• we may engage too frequently with stakeholders and they may feel we are wasting their time and resist future engagements

• we may not engage frequently enough and so not be aware of issues they have or opportunities for us help them

• we may schedule engagements at times that do not suit them and so they may choose not to engage, or be distracted from achieving the engagement’s purpose

Consider timeframes for engagement that relate to business planning cycles or project milestones Be aware of practical considerations when scheduling engagements Analyse trigger events that mean a special engagement activity may be required

Sections 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 3.1.1

IF we are not clear about the purpose of each engagement

THEN

• we may fail to tailor our messages suitably for the audience • we may not gain the decisions or input we require from our

stakeholders • our stakeholders may have expectations of us that we cannot

meet or are unaware of

Clarify the purpose and objectives of each engagement Clarify the roles of each engagement participant if relevant Maintain the focus throughout the

Sections 2.2.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.2.2

4 Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, 2009 edition, published by TSO The Stationery office (UK Cabinet Office), page 77

2: PLAN Match needs

Develop content

Assemble Plan

Identify success &

risks

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Risk Result Risk mitigation approach Handbook reference

• no one may be sure who actually will make the decisions actual engagement

IF we provide inconsistent, unclear or incorrect information

THEN

• stakeholders may lose confidence in us • stakeholders may incorrectly follow, or ignore, important RIM

practices • we may incur extra workload to correct wrong impressions • incorrect decisions may be made

Match communication content to engagement type and level of audience Prepare reusable communication elements where sensible (eg key messages, graphs of important statistics)

Section 2.2.3, 2.2.4

IF we fail to treat engagement as a two-way communication where we actively listen

THEN

• stakeholders may resist future attempts to engage • stakeholders may withhold key information and support • information risks may increase or not be addressed because we

are unaware of them

Adopt appropriate Engagement Principles and identify together what these mean for our actions Agree Ground Rules for actual engagements where appropriate

Section 2.2.2, 3.2.3

IF we prepare poorly for an engagement

THEN

• participants may not have time to review and consult on papers because they receive them too late

• we may not overcome barriers we face (such as our own lack of confidence)

• the quality of engagement may be reduced by not having a good quality meeting room with the right resources, failing to invite all the right participants, not recording proceedings so that we can accurately follow up afterwards

Prepare carefully beforehand for each engagement Work with RIM staff to minimise barriers to them successfully undertaking engagement activities

Section 3.1.4, 3.1.5

IF we fail to follow-up after the engagement

THEN

• stakeholders may not trust us in future to do what we promise • stakeholders may choose not to do what they have promised

either • stakeholders may see little value in continuing future engagement

because it appears to have no effect

At the end of the engagement agree what will happen next, by when, by whom Monitor, to ensure follow-up does occur

Section 3.3.2, 3.2.5, 3.2.6

IF we fail to monitor our engagement activities

THEN

• we will not know if we are achieving the engagement objectives we intended

• we will not be able to review and improve our future engagements to achieve even greater success or overcome problems

• we may not maximize the value of our services to the organisation

Identify success measures for engagements Record engagement details Use surveys and other means to measure the success of engagements

Sections 2.3, 3.2.7, 3.3.1, 3.2

IF we do not manage expectations during the course of engagements

THEN

• our stakeholders may generate more work than our resources can deliver

• our stakeholders may expect services or service levels we are unable to provide

• our stakeholders will become disillusioned with us and withdraw from future engagement if we then fail to deliver what they perceive as reasonable requests

Ensure clear objectives in each engagement Clarify what actions will follow each engagement, by when, and who will do them: check these are realistic and doable

Sections 3.2.1, 3.2.3

Identifying risks is a task best undertaken by a group of affected people: certainly our RIM Team should be involved, but our key stakeholders should also be consulted. A group discussion around a whiteboard is a good way to start generating a list. Note that the above table lists generic risks, some of these may well apply and go

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straight into your Risk Register; others may not apply or may need to be made more specific for your stakeholders or circumstances.

Once a risk is identified, we assign it a measure of Likelihood (how likely is this risk to occur?) and Impact (if it does occur, how big an impact might it have?). We generally use simple scales (High-Medium-Low) to indicate these, as we only need an approximate sense rather than great precision. As a rough guide:

LIKELIHOOD of risk occurring (if we do nothing)

IMPACT if risk does occur

H (high) The risk is almost certain to occur Our ability to provide appropriate services, maintain professional relationships or deliver our project may fail, or at least be severely hampered

M (medium) The risk may occur Our ability to provide appropriate services, maintain professional relationships or deliver our project may be significantly affected, requiring a lot of extra work to recover to a healthy and positive situation

L (low) The risk is unlikely to occur Only minor impact on our ability to provide appropriate services, maintain professional relationships or deliver our project will occur, which can be put right with a small amount (or no) extra effort on our part

Assigning a rough indication of likelihood and impact for each risk helps us focus on those that are both more likely and higher impact. Things that will have little impact or low likelihood don’t usually need much attention, though it is good to note them in case they become more likely and/or might have a higher impact over time.

The risk discussion is also a good place to identify actions we can take to reduce the likelihood or impact of potential risks, and to be clear who “owns” this risk, that is, the person/role responsible for making sure the identified actions occur and for monitoring whether the risk likelihood and impact are increasing or decreasing.

All of this information is captured in a document called a Risk Register. See Appendix G for a template for an Engagement Risk Register (page 60).

Risks need to be reviewed regularly, perhaps monthly for a project, and 6 monthly for operational services. Major risks (high/medium likelihood or high/medium impact) should be included in progress/catch-up discussions with senior management (e.g. through a monthly project progress report). If a risk that is medium/high impact is suddenly escalating to high likelihood that should be cause for an immediate discussion with your senior manager.

TASK: Identify risks for your services or initiative or project & create a Risk Register

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2.5 Assemble the Plan

In all but the simplest situations it is helpful to collate the main elements of our stakeholder thinking in a single short document. We do this by creating a Stakeholder Engagement Plan.

The purpose of the Plan is to capture our knowledge of our stakeholders and how we plan to engage with them. This allows our whole team to reach a consistent understanding about who our main stakeholders are, what they need from us, what we need from them, what role each team member will play in supporting good engagement, and how we will know if we are succeeding or not. It also provides the basis for future reference when we want to update our plans, based on feedback from previous engagements and other input.

A typical Stakeholder Engagement Plan contains the following sections:

a) Overview of our activities/project b) What results we want to achieve through our engagements (high level) c) Our engagement principles d) Our key messages e) The Stakeholder list, profile details and analysis f) Our key engagement risks g) Engagement schedule h) How we will review and monitor the success (or not) of our engagements i) Key reusable communication items (optional).

Once completed, it is useful to have the manager that the Project or RIM Manager reports to, or someone in a similar role, review it with ‘fresh eyes’. This can also help gain their support.

The Case Study section of this Handbook contains an example of a complete Stakeholder Engagement Plan for a Digitisation Project, to show you how a simple Plan comes together from the work already done.

As you can see from the Case Study, we have already completed most of the suggested content and need only transfer it into the Plan document.

TASK: Assemble a completed Stakeholder Engagement Plan

2: PLAN Match needs

Develop content

Assemble Plan

Identify success &

risks

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Stage 2: Plan – Checklist

Task Complete?


2.1 MATCH STAKEHOLDER NEEDS TO ENGAGEMENT APPROACHES

For each Stakeholder / group:

Engagement Schedule

• Identify the services delivered to or required from the stakeholder group

• Identify the level of engagement intensity needed (H/M/L)

• Identify channels appropriate to intensity needed

• Identify timing & responsibility for each engagement

• Check with stakeholders (where appropriate, possible)

2.2 DEVELOP CONTENT

Stakeholder Engagement Plan

• Document overall engagement Objectives

• Discuss and adopt Engagement Principles and related Actions

• Identify & document Key Messages (10 maximum)

• Prepare reusable written, graphical, photo or verbal content (if useful)

2.3 IDENTIFY SIMPLE SUCCESS MEASURES & TIMING FOR MEASURING

2.4 IDENTIFY ENGAGEMENT RISKS Risk Register

2.5 ASSEMBLE PLAN

• Transfer content to Stakeholder Engagement Plan template

• Senior Manager review if possible

2: PLAN Match needs

Develop content

Assemble Plan

Identify success &

risks

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STAGE 3: ACT

Now that we have thought through who our stakeholders are, what they need from us and we from them, and how best to engage with them in a way our resources will sustain, how do we approach actually engaging?

3.1 Preparation

What can we do to maximise the likelihood that our engagements will be successful (that is, that both we and our stakeholders will get something helpful out of the engagement, and feel it was a valuable use of our time)?

Here are some things to consider (they are mostly common sense!):

3.1.1 Scheduling Engagements

At the start of each month (or whatever period suits your situation) look at your Engagement Schedule and identify the engagements planned for the next 2 months. Each of these need to be scheduled – where meetings are involved these needed to be scheduled at times agreed in diaries; where emails or reports are to be sent out it may be worth considering the best time of day and day of week to maximise the likelihood the intended audience will read them.

Most people lead very busy lives these days, both at work and outside of work, and the more senior a stakeholder is the busier they will be. Try to:

• find out the constraints of stakeholders you will need to meet regularly with (for instance do they prefer to arrive early, stay late, pick up kids on Wednesdays, work from home Fridays, etc) and avoid scheduling important meetings at times that will not suit them

• people are generally mentally fresher earlier in the day so try and schedule morning meetings for complex or important decision-making discussions if you can

• get into diaries as early as possible so they have plenty of notice; for regular weekly or monthly meetings send out invites for the whole year (or project duration) in advance

• when sending out email updates, reports or intranet posts you may find people more receptive on Friday afternoons than other times of the week.

If you are asking someone to get involved in ongoing or time-consuming engagement (e.g. as part of a collaborative team developing requirements or new processes) be clear about the likely time commitment.

3.1.2 Clarity of purpose

For meetings, briefings, presentations and other engagements, be very clear about the purpose of the engagement. Is it:

• for you to tell them something, or • for them to tell you something, or • for you both to work together on developing something through collaboration.

1:

2: PLAN 3: ACT

3: ACT Prepare Engage Follow-up Review

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They need to know why this engagement is important, what it is about, and what you expect of them, so make sure the invitation or request includes a short but clear title that captures this. Send an agenda out, if appropriate. If this is a presentation, report or other written update it may be helpful to follow the approach of starting by summarising what you are going to say, then present the detail, then summarise the major points of what you have said.

Also make sure that, if you expect people to come prepared, you have given them the relevant reading material in sufficient time for them to digest (and if appropriate consult their staff or colleagues on) before the meeting.

Appendix D (page56) contains an example of an effective meeting Agenda.

3.1.3 Clarity of roles

Ensure people are clear about the context in which you are going to be engaging with them. This includes the role you are expecting them to undertake. For instance, do you expect to be able to represent the views of others (e.g. subject matter experts on behalf of a business team) or later report back to others? Who is actually going to make the required decisions (us, them, both of us together, none of us because we are advising someone else who will decide)? There’s a lot of difference between being asked to provide input or opinion vs being asked to make a decision or commitment: people need to come prepared and participate appropriately for their role.

3.1.4 Providing the right information beforehand

One of the core values underpinning engagement is that “Stakeholders will be provided with all the information they need to make a meaningful contribution” (refer Context, page 4). What information will your stakeholder(s) need before your scheduled engagement? Often the answer will be ‘none’, but if you expect them to provide input based on the views of others they will represent, then they can only do that if you give them adequate information in time to discuss it with others. Similarly senior managers may need background information on key details before being asked to make a complex decision, so provide it before the meeting. Remember people are busy so keep it short, comprehensive, and where you can include some diagrams rather than all words. 3.1.5 Anticipating and overcoming barriers

Even though we may be keen to engage, our stakeholders or our own team may be reluctant for various reasons. It helps to anticipate potential barriers, so we can plan how to overcome them.

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Potential Barrier

Potential Causes Ways you can work to overcome this barrier

Stakeholders don’t want to engage because they are not interested in ‘record keeping’

• Out-dated assumptions of what RIM is about

• Lack of understanding of how important good records and information management is to the agency doing great work, providing great service and fulfilling its mandate and obligations

• Change your language: talk more about ‘information management’ as this is usually of more interest and may have fewer negative connotations than ‘records’

• Go and work at a desk in a business unit, so that you are immersed every day in the conversations of the business unit. This will help you learn about the business first hand so you can talk in their language and provide relevant helpful input, as well as making you a familiar and approachable colleague

• Identify and demonstrate ways RIM services and advice can help solve their business challenges (for example by providing document-based workflow to speed up processes or make them more consistent; improving the file plan in the EDRMS to be more intuitive for users)

• Develop a RIM operational business plan that is endorsed by senior management, and is synchronised with the rest of the business unit plans so that they note the contribution to RIM engagement required

• Discuss putting basic RIM KPIs into all individual performance plans

RIM team lacks credibility with business as people who offer real value to stakeholders’ work

• RIM team not able to demonstrate understanding of the business

• Lack of visibility of the RIM team to the business

• Lack of visibility of RIM topics at strategic management level

• Not following up after meetings/doing what we said we would

• Focus on business doing things ‘because you have to’

• Present things as being about compliance LESS (e.g. you must do this because the legislation says so or it’s in our RIM policy); instead present things much MORE in terms of the business value to be gained from doing them (e.g. the efficiency, cost saving, consistency, risk reduction and so on that will flow from adopting the approach you suggest)

• Once again, learning about the business and its challenges will help you talk to business staff in the language of their work, and help you see what you can do to help them succeed

• Practice active listening: have meetings to learn, not to speak

• Actively look for ways to collaborate with business. Have them as key participants in your work projects, proactively engage with business teams, seek opportunities to be on their project teams where the project has high information needs or impacts

• Enlist a senior manager as a champion at the executive level and find creative ways to regularly show them some key facts and figures on what is happening re information (e.g. in areas such as training, security & privacy risks, Intranet usage, data publication, data sharing, paper storage costs – things that are of interest to the Executive), information risks, business opportunities that the RIM team have helped with or could do in future

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Potential Barrier

Potential Causes Ways you can work to overcome this barrier

Business resistant to change / disruption

• People are busy and work under high pressure, and often with limited budgets

• A long time in one role leaves people and organisations stuck in their ways without a mindset that change is healthy and helpful

• People can be fearful of the time needed, or their ability, to learn new skills

• People recruited without RIM skills

• Talk about the positives of the changes you propose whenever you can, not just the compliance angle or negatives – help them want the business value it will give them

• Plan and discuss the practical support (training, service support etc) they will get to help them through the process

• Minimise the work they have to do to adopt the change, where you can (e.g. helping to prepare data or documents for migration)

• Discuss putting basic RIM skills as a core competency in every role description

People want to engage but don’t have time to meet as other priorities must take precedence

• Responding to a crisis

• Under resourcing of business unit team creating work pressures

• Higher priority project has precedence

• Assess the importance of engaging at this particular time (can our timeframe shift)?

• Use the Elevator Pitch

• Ask if there is someone else they would be happy for us to engage with instead

• Request Executive Management Team clarify relative priorities of all funded projects, so that managers have common understanding of where time and resources may be required

• Ensure communications emphasize how RIM will support the business to achieve their goals

• Ask for 10 minutes only, and stick to it – then demonstrate through action that engagement can be short and focussed, and result in real benefits that make it worthwhile

Lack of capability or confidence in RIM team to engage with people

• Newly appointed or inexperienced RIM staff

• Lack of personal confidence

• Lack of communication skills

• Worried they don’t have the answers to every question that could be asked

• RIM staff perceive themselves as being powerless

• Involve RIM team in developing the Stakeholder Engagement Plan so everyone understands why this is important for the whole team – especially the Key Messages

• Arrange training in giving presentations, running meetings, active listening, written communication, etc where appropriate

• Practice sessions

• Coach staff that they are RIM subject matter experts, and build their confidence through training and practice – perhaps pair less experienced/confident team members with a more able person they can learn or get support from, let them sit in on and observe formal presentations and meetings (eg User Forums/Project Boards) they would otherwise not get to see

TASK: Schedule & prepare for engagements

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3.2 Conduct Engagements

3.2.1 Prepare content

For engagements involving reports, business cases, emails, intranet stories, blog updates, presentations and other forms of written communication, you now need to prepare that content. This is where our previous planning should help us in deciding what to write or say:

• Who is the audience for this engagement: what services do we provide to them or need from them, what is their attitude towards RIM activities, where are they likely to be ‘coming from’

• What is the specific objective of this particular objective – for us? For our stakeholder? • What (if anything) do we need to tell them at this time? Refer to the Key Messages developed earlier

as a starting point • What do we need to learn from them at this time? Every engagement should as a minimum include

some way for the audience to provide feedback, ask questions or find further information (even if it is just an email address or phone number)

• What concerns are they likely to raise? Do we have answers to likely questions? • What will happen next? People like some sense of when the next update will occur or what will be

done with their input • Is there any pre-defined format we should be using? Does our agency have standard templates for

reports, presentations etc • Are there any rules relating to two way engagement? (e.g. If you are using an online forum where staff

or external stakeholders can post questions or feedback, should this be moderated? What timeframe will replies need to be made in? (Communications or IT people can usually help with these)

• Are there any constraints that people need to be aware of, such as the necessity in some agencies of formal adoption of rules and regulations at executive level before they become operational policy and processes.

Now write your content. If you need help with this, try asking the Communications Unit staff in your agency. There is also a lot of material on the internet about how to create interesting presentations, good quality reports and so on if you need more ideas. Remember people are busy so keep it short, comprehensive, and where you can include some diagrams rather than all words.

If this is a face-to-face engagement (e.g. a meeting or verbal report back) it is still be worthwhile to think about the coming engagement and mentally prepare for our part in it. Going through the bullet points above is a good way to do this.

3.2.2 Review content

Now is the time to review what we have prepared. It is usually sensible to ask someone to act as a ‘peer reviewer’, to help us do the best possible job of engagement. This could for instance be a colleague in the RIM


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team, our manager, or perhaps someone from the Communications Unit – it needs to be someone with some experience in engagement activities and who you trust.

Ask them to read your written material, or if you are preparing for a face-to-face meeting then share with them your thoughts about how you intend to conduct the engagement.

We should also review our work against the Engagement Principles we developed for our Stakeholder Engagement Plan (page 26).

Whatever engagement principles we adopted, they should flavour our approach to all our engagement. When we engage, we send signals to our stakeholders, whether we mean to or not – so we need to always act and speak in ways that are positive and consistent. We want to build our reputation as helpful, useful, supportive, professional and relevant through all our engagements.

Now is the time to review our earlier conversations about how these Principles should translate into actions in our own context. Think about the engagement you are preparing for – how do the actions we discussed as arising from these Principles apply on this occasion? (Note: not all of the Principles, and their related actions, will be relevant to every engagement).

For instance, suppose we are writing a report to be sent to the Executive Management Team. We might consider the following:

Build rapport

• Have we sought to understand their issues and tailored our report to show that in what we are presenting?

• Have we used words that are meaningful to them, avoiding RIM jargon? • Have we demonstrated that we have actively listened and understood concerns

they have previously raised, and shown in this report that we have responded to them?


• Are we clear about the objective(s) of this report and have we stated that clearly at the start?

• Have we kept the content of our writing clearly related to the objective? • Have we explained at the end of what we have written what will happen next,

when, and who is responsible?


• Is the timing of this report appropriate in order to actively involve the executive early in our thinking and planning?

• Can we demonstrate how others have been genuinely involved in the planning and thinking to date?

• Have we covered how their input will influence our thinking?

Deliver value • Have we considered "what's in it for them" and included in our report how our

work is benefiting the agency in ways they value? • Have we kept our report as concise and easy to read as possible, so they don’t

waste their time getting to the point?

Be professional • Have we been honest and transparent in what we have presented? • Is the style and presentation of our written communication professional, and

consistent with agency or project standards?

If we are preparing for a face-to-face meeting with a business unit manager, we might consider:

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Build rapport

• Have we sought to understand their issues and shown that in the intended objectives and discussion topics of the meeting?

• Have we thought about the open-ended questions we will ask, to ensure we listen more than we talk?

• How will we demonstrate that we have actively listened and understood concerns they have previously raised, in terms of the questions we ask them and the information we convey during the discussion?

• Have we practiced rephrasing what we have heard and checking back, to make sure messages are heard correctly and understood, so that we will find it natural to do in the meeting?


• Are we clear about the objective(s) of this report and have we stated that clearly in the meeting invite? Have we explained what we need from them and what we understand they need or expect from us in this engagement (it will be important to re-state this very briefly at the start of the meeting)?

• Do we have an agenda of items that need to be covered, and have we had a chance to share that with the manager (e.g. as part of the meeting invite)?

• Do we have a sense of what might happen next and by when (we will need to make sure we discuss this at the end of the meeting, if appropriate)?


• Have we actively considered whether this key stakeholder (or their staff) should be involved early in our thinking and planning, and how that might happen?

• What reasons do we have for this collaboration/involvement being worthwhile to them?

• How would we/they know that their participation in discussions was genuine, and had influenced our thinking?

• What decision-making and sign-off/approval rights would be appropriate for them?

Be proactive • Have we anticipated what is important to them and the questions they may ask? • Have we provided all the information they would find relevant or helpful before the

meeting, or assembled it to take with us in case it is useful to reference at the meeting?

Deliver value • Have we anticipated their likely questions (on and off this topic) and prepared answers should they be needed (note: they may want to raise issues on other topics, while they have you as a captive audience)?

Be professional • How will we show that we are professional in our manner, speech, attitude (perhaps through our standard of dress, the language we use and so on)?

• What will demonstrate that we are acting with integrity, honesty and transparency?

3.2.3 Managing a face-to-face engagement

If we are meeting (whether with one or many people) and we are responsible for chairing or leading the engagement then we have some additional responsibilities:

Getting started

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Begin the engagement on time wherever possible, setting an expectation that people’s time is precious and lateness will not be rewarded. After welcoming people, start the engagement by restating the purpose and agenda, so everyone is on the same page. Set ground rules For two-way face-to-face engagements it’s often helpful to set some basic ground rules. Common ones are:

• mobile phones off and put away • state if questions can be asked as we go along or should be kept to the end • for meetings, state who is going to take notes or minutes

Maintain focus People get quickly bored, annoyed, disengaged if the conversation rambles way off track, or is too dominated by one or two voices, or isn’t about what they thought it was going to be about. When this happens they stop getting value and are less likely to want to engage next time.

It is part of our job to stay focused ourselves and help others to do the same. Keep meeting discussions, presentations and questions really focused on the key points. If it is a two-way engagement, make sure everyone gets a chance to be heard. Put approximate times on the agenda to set expectations that we won’t let a discussion that should take 5 minutes ramble on for half an hour (but we do need a little flexibility: there could be good reason to sometimes extend the allotted time if value is being achieved).

Sometimes something unanticipated but really important comes up in conversation, that we don’t want to ignore but may not have time for just then. Be prepared with a way to deal with this, for example have a ‘Parking Lot’ where you list things during the meeting that you will need to revisit later, and then agree at the end of the session how these will be dealt with (eg ‘can we schedule another meeting to look at these things?’, ‘we will go away and think about these things and get back to you’). Allow for different thinking styles and response times People absorb information, think of useful input and make decisions in different ways and timeframes. Some people only know what they think when they speak out loud: these people usually dominate conversations and are not always consistent in what they say (because they are working it out during the discussion), but they will usually give you some immediate input. Others need time to absorb and consider before they are willing to state an opinion – they are often much quieter in meetings and run the risk of not having their views considered, but their views will often be very valuable because they have thought harder about things. Therefore while it would be good for everyone to have a say in a meeting, it is normal that some people will say more than others. To help those who need more time, make sure people know how and by when to provide comment after the engagement, and make sure they know you would welcome this. Finishing the engagement End on time (or earlier). Many engagements result in agreeing one or more actions. Before the engagement ends, makes sure all involved know what those actions are, who will take responsibility for making sure they happen, and by when. This is a really good way of signalling that things will happen as a result of this stakeholder taking time to engage with you, but make sure you think carefully about the commitment you are making and the impact on your resources or you may make commitments you then fail to meet. In managing expectations,

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a useful adage is to ‘under promise’, so you can later ‘over deliver’. Don’t forget to thank them for their participation.

3.3 Follow Up

3.3.1 Record Engagements

Where relevant it is important to make notes about an engagement. This is particularly true of formal meetings where, at a minimum, a record of who attended and what decisions were made should always be made and circulated. It is also worth recording informal or unexpected discussions too, if they resulted in a decision you want to keep a record of. Similarly, engagement activities where questions are raised need to ensure these are recorded, along with who will provide the answers.

3.3.2 Feedback back to participants

Another core value underpinning engagement is “Stakeholder participation includes the promise that the stakeholder's input will contribute to decision making” (refer Context, page 4).

If people take the time to meet, provide feedback, answer a survey, read your newsletter, attend training or engage in some other way they need to know their input is heard and considered, that you are interested in them successfully applying what they have learned, that you will provide answers to the questions they have raised.

It is extremely important to acknowledge feedback and input, and to show that it has been used – or if it hasn’t, to explain why not. If you are responsible for recording the engagement details make sure the minutes or other record is circulated to all participants as quickly as possible, while it is fresh in their minds. Similarly if an engagement results in action points, always complete these, and do so on time. If that’s not possible, then explain why and when you will get it done, or what alternative activity you will do instead. If you don’t give them the confidence that engaging will make a positive difference, why should they keep engaging with you?

3.3.3 Register of Engagements

If we have enough stakeholders and activities that we need a Stakeholder Engagement Plan, then it will also be helpful to keep a Register of our engagements. Knowing who we engaged with, when, and what the outcomes were can help us with making sure we follow up all the actions agreed. It is also useful for letting others in the team know what has been done, and for helping us review our engagement activity.

Starting with the information in the Stakeholder Engagement Schedule, add extra columns in which to record when actual engagements happened, who was involved, and what resulted. This is how we create a Stakeholder Engagement Register. We can then also add extra rows to the Register for engagements that were not originally planned.

Appendix E (page 58) contains a template for a Stakeholder Engagement Register.

TASK: Log all engagements in the Stakeholder Engagement Register


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3.4 Review

The whole point of engagement is that we, and our stakeholders, achieve something valuable to the agency. It will not matter if our presentations are slick, our reports thorough and our conversations long and detailed, if they do not achieve the business objectives intended.

3.4.1 Gathering feedback on engagement quality

When creating our Engagement Schedule we included how we would measure the success of our engagements (see section 2.3 Identify Success Measures, page 31).

Some are one-off measurements about individual engagements (e.g. a survey at the end of a training session). Other measurements we would do at periodic intervals (e.g. assessment of staff compliance and attitudes towards the new EDRMS, or a formal Post Project review that might include some questions on engagement and consultation). This thinking will now help our review planning: the timing and responsibility for these activities all need to go on to our RIM team task list.

Measuring and assessing takes time and can feel unproductive. Stakeholders are busy and will not welcome endless enquiries about ‘how are we doing?’ However if we explain how vital it is for us to get their feedback, to be sure we are doing the best job to support and service them, and if we only ask occasionally but demonstrate we are open to feedback at any time if they need to give us some, that should help.

Another key is to keep the feedback process as simple as possible. Here are three examples of how to do that:

1) for Regular (e.g. monthly) meeting: every 6 or 12 months suggest the last item on the agenda be “review of meeting effectiveness”. Allow 10 minutes maximum for meeting attendees to discuss/rate whether these meeting are discussing the right topics, getting the right information provided, being effective in resolving issues, enabling good progress to be made, and generally are operating well. These kinds of general questions should hopefully flush out any concerns and things that could be done better.

2) One-off or periodic feedback from an individual (e.g. a business manager or supplier): use a ‘3 question’ approach – that is, ask them to answer these three questions:

• List 1-3 things I/we do well, that you would like us to keep doing • List 1-3 things I/we could do better, that you would like to see change • Any other comments?

This is generally quick for someone to complete and can be easily sent and returned by email. 3) Climate surveys: if you want to know how people are feeling about your services/projects etc, ask

them to place themselves on a scale from 1 (very negative) to 5 (very positive), with an option to comment if they want to about why; include Not Applicable and Don’t Know on your scale too. Doing this with your own team can also be enlightening!


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Appendix F (page 59) contains a template for a simple engagement review survey.

3.4.2 Using Engagement Feedback

Looking at review feedback and other success measures should naturally lead to team discussion to identify any necessary changes we need to make. These could include:

• directly changing the way we work. Through feedback we may find our support processes are not timely enough, our training not sufficiently targeted, our records policy too hard to understand and so on. We may then have to seek further input in order to thoroughly understand the exact problem, and we will likely need to schedule work tasks to redesign and improve our services in areas where weaknesses have been identified

• implications for our future strategic or operational planning. If through our engagements we uncover more major information risks or problems, or changes to our services, that require a significant response (such as a new system or major agency-wide training drive) that is beyond normal “business-as-usual”, we will need to factor that into our future planning and project proposals. [As noted earlier, we should always include engagement and consultation as part of our normal approach to developing new or updated business plans].

• changes to our engagement approach. For example if a measure of attendees at agency-wide briefings identifies some teams who are largely absent, we may need to plan extra effort to identify why (high turnover? invites not getting through? big workload for looming deadline? perception it may be of limited use to them? inability to attend at scheduled times? Meetings happening to frequently to be useful?) and plan approaches to catch them up or improve their engagement in future. This will have flow on effect on our frequency and types of engagements, and thus our Engagement Schedule.

3.4.2 Reviewing the Stakeholder Engagement Plan

While we will learn from and make small changes to our engagement approach incrementally as we go along, periodically we need to take our Stakeholder Engagement Plan out and review it as a whole. This is vital because over time stakeholder attitude, impacts or influence may change, and therefore our level and type of engagement may need to change. Also:

• we need to ensure we are understanding what our stakeholders need us to, and acting on it; and • we need to know our messages are getting to the right people and achieving the needed results.

We should undertake a review of our Stakeholder Engagement Plan when:

The feedback from our ongoing assessment measures tells us that we are not being successful in achieving what we set out to through our engagements (for example instead of getting more positive, all our stakeholders are becoming more negative)

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There has been a significant change in our work or stakeholder environment (for instance the arrival or departure of key stakeholders, an organisation restructure, a change in compliance obligations, a new policy or service/system, or a significant escalation of risk impacts or likelihoods)

Our project has reached a key milestone (e.g. we have finished procurement and are moving towards implementation with the business; our project budget is now approved so we are moving into a phase of more intense business and IT engagement)

It is 12 months since we last reviewed the Plan.

We don’t need to rewrite the whole Plan, but we should review:

• Who our key stakeholders are: o do we have newly arrived ones who need to be included (and possibly receive an induction

conversation) o if our mandate, priorities, project phase are changing then which stakeholders do we now need

to focus on? • For each stakeholder:

o has their Influence changed? o has our Impact on them changed? o what is their Attitude now?

• Redo the Attitude and Influence/Impact Maps, to check what level of engagement intensity is appropriate – has it changed?

• Review the Register of Engagements – did we do what we planned? If not why not? Maybe there wasn’t the need we thought there was when we originally planned, or we didn’t have enough resources to do all we hoped? Did we do more because a lot of unplanned engagements were required? What can we learn from this when we update our Plan?

• Review the Engagement Risk Register – have any risks escalated to the point where we need to change our mitigation actions? Have any reduced in likelihood or impact, so that we no longer need to take the mitigating actions we were taking? Are there new risks to be added?

• Look at the feedback collected from stakeholders about how effective they think past engagements have been – do any need to increase, decrease, or change as a result?

This discussion will likely lead to some changes to our Stakeholder Register and a new Stakeholder Schedule. As always, it would be sensible to cross-check our changes, with relevant stakeholders.

TIP: Build up positive credit before you need it It takes quite a bit of time to build the understanding and trust required for a relationship to be effective. Don’t wait until there’s a crisis before engaging – where possible start engaging when things are going well and build up

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Stage 3: Act – Checklist

Task Complete?

Documentation

3.1 PREPARE FOR ENGAGEMENT • Identify good meeting times

• Schedule engagements in stakeholder diaries well in advance Calendar invites

• Prepare communication items etc, tailored (where required) for specific audience. Send out pre face-to-face engagement if appropriate so people can come prepared

Agenda, Report, Presentation, Newsletter etc

• Clarify roles of those involved in engagement, e.g.: • Those providing input • Those representing others, and expected to report back to

others • Those who have decision-making authority • The Chair if required • The person who will note minutes/action points if required

• Identify potential resistance/barriers to successful engagement (and plan how to overcome)

• From Stakeholders • From RIM team

3.2 ENGAGE

• During engagements:

• Maintain focus (ours and theirs)

• Set ground rules if required

• Identify actions: what, who, when, where Minutes, Action list

• After engagement

• Always follow up every action

• Log engagement in Stakeholder Engagement Register Stakeholder Engagement Register

3.3 REVIEW ‘3 Question’ survey Attitude feedback • Create simple surveys or feedback emails that can be re-used

• Identify who will assess the success of engagements and when Task list

• Schedule a Stakeholder Engagement Plan review at least annually (or when other major change or challenges occur)

o Review key stakeholder list for additions & removals o Update Stakeholder Register o Redo Influence/Impact and Attitude Maps o Update Engagement Risk Register o Create new Stakeholder Engagement Schedule

Updated Stakeholder Register Influence vs Impact Map, Attitude Map Updated Risk Register New Stakeholder Engagement Schedule


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Appendix A: Common Engagement Channels Approach Description Best Use Example Stakeholder Groups

to use with Presentation Formal verbal update on the

status of a RIM service or project. May be accompanied by visual aids (eg PowerPoint slides, handouts). May be one way, or an opportunity for a structured two-way discussion.

Irregular updates to stakeholder groups with decision making powers or other influence.

Steering Committee/Project Board, agency Executive Management team, agency business teams or full staff meeting, external professional body, agency customer meeting.

Report Formal written (paper) update on the status of a RIM service or project. Format and style is usually standardised and detailed.

Regular updates to stakeholder groups with decision making powers or other influence.

Steering Committee/Project Board, agency Executive Management team, Project Management Office.

Web post/ online newsletter

Written (online) update on the status of a RIM service or project. Format and style is usually informal.

Regular or irregular updates to stakeholder groups with low influence over the service or project, and who are not highly impacted by it.

All agency staff (internal), agency customer groups, general public (external).

Mail out Written (paper or email) update on the status of a RIM service or project. Format and style may be formal or informal.

Regular or irregular updates to stakeholder groups with low influence over the service or project or service, and who are not highly impacted by it.

All agency staff (internal), agency customer groups, general public (external).

Minuted meeting Formal discussion between two or more people, usually with an agreed agenda, and some level of minutes recorded (even if just a follow-up email on what was agreed). Usually held face-to-face but can be by audio or video conference.

When 2-way, structured discussion about RIM activities or projects is required. Commonly used to support information gathering, decision making or identifying paths forward through challenges.

Those who can provide relevant information on the business activities of the agency (e.g. to help with functional analysis) or on agency systems (e.g. to confirm what records they contain and how they are used). Those with responsibility to formally oversee activities or projects and make decisions about them.

Corridor chat Informal discussion, occurring opportunistically in order to gather input, increase support, or resolve an issue.

Whenever an opportunity arises.

Stakeholders who may not otherwise be available (e.g. Chief Executive/agency head, senior managers) or where a face-to-face conversation is preferred as a way to manage quick items.

Online workspace

An online space where stakeholders can log in to access all relevant documentation (e.g. policies, plans, project documents) and/or place comments that others can see and respond to (e.g. a blog or wiki).

To encourage transparency by providing open access to all key documents and by allowing open discussion. Need to have the technical capability to support. Most useful when there are a large number of stakeholders.

Those with an interest in the RIM activities of the agency (e.g. agency customers); internal or external geographically spread stakeholders working on common activities with the agency RIM team (e.g. suppliers, cross-agency or cross-jurisdictional teams).

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Approach Description Best Use Example Stakeholder Groups to use with

User Forum/ Advisory Group

A formal committee made up of key stakeholders who meet regularly to discuss issues of mutual interest. Agenda and minutes recorded.

Ongoing consultation on current agency RIM practice, processes, services, systems or projects.

Those responsible for agency business systems or processes where updating RIM practice will impact them. RIM champions in business units (to discuss current issues and recommend future change).

Focus Group / workshop

A meeting designed to involve stakeholders directly in the development of a service or product. Workshops enable key issues to be identified and resolutions collectively worked through. Group made up of representatives of key stakeholders, where their comments are accepted as representative of their stakeholder group. Meets as need requires, usually structured (agenda, and minutes or report), sometimes with an external facilitator.

When seeking to collaborate in the development of a document, approach or activity. Can also be used to gather feedback group on a draft formal document such as a RIM Strategy or Records Management process.

Those who regularly use or maintain the system, process or policy under review. Those with relevant specialist knowledge (e.g. IT, legal, risk management, project management, security management, privacy management). Those with good knowledge of the agency business and future direction, who can provide practical input into the design process for a new service, product or system. Those championing RIM activities across the agency (to discuss current issues and recommend future change).

Request for input/feedback/ service

A formal request for written comments about a product, proposal, design, plan etc. Can be used internally or externally. Often requested by email, or increasingly through an online web form that forces some structure to the way questions are answered.

When feedback is required on a draft formal document such as a RIM Strategy or Records Management process.

Those required to endorse key documents such as Project Boards and Executive Committees. Those who will be affected by the requirements of the completed document (e.g. employees who will have to follow its directives).

Classroom training

Formal group training in a service or activity.

When material needs to be tailored to suit each group of learners, starting from a common base. When a lot of learner assistance is likely to be required.

When group learning will achieve better outcomes and stakeholders are able to attend a central venue at the set time.

Online education Formal individual training delivered via a web portal or other online system at a time/place convenient to the learner.

When material to be learnt can be well covered by an online approach, and there is capability to develop and support the online material to be delivered.

Geographically spread learners, learners not available at consistent/set times (e.g. shift workers), large numbers of learners with education scattered over a lengthy time period.

Personal coaching Informal development of skills and understanding. May be regular or irregular. Usually one-to-one.

When a significant gap exists for an individual stakeholder in their knowledge, experience or skills.

New senior manager joining Project Board or becoming a Project Sponsor. Induction of new RIM staff.

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Approach Description Best Use Example Stakeholder Groups to use with

Survey Formal and structured questions designed to obtain specific feedback about a service or product from stakeholders individually. May be issued in paper, or (more usually nowadays) online, with results often collated into a report that may be supplied back to stakeholder groups. Often done annually.

To obtain feedback on RIM activities (e.g. training effectiveness, level of understanding of coming changes from a project, use of specific RIM products or systems, satisfaction levels with RIM services).

Those who regularly perform RIM or related activities. Those who receive RIM-related training. Those about to be affected by a RIM project or RIM-related business change.

Steering Committee/ Project Board

Group made up of representatives of key senior stakeholder groups who have specific decision-making responsibilities in relation to RIM activities for the agency or a project.

To oversee a specific time-limited piece of work (a project), or an ongoing agency-wide responsibility (such as improving RIM maturity across the agency).

Senior business and corporate managers.

Business embedding

Approach to engagement that involves RIM professionals sitting alongside or in agency business or project teams in order to absorb understanding of their activities and issues, in order to improve relevance and value RIM service.

When RIM team is perceived as cut off from the business, not delivering value, lacks credibility.

Key business groups needing to make better use of RIM products and services to increase their productivity or customer service, who are sceptical of the RIM team and its potential to contribute value.

TIP: Formalise engagement responsibilities If as a manager you are serious about the importance of good engagement, make it a part of people’s position descriptions and also put it into their annual performance expectations.

That way you will be committed to helping staff build the skills they need, and they will be focused on doing tasks in this area well.

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Appendix B: Common Stakeholders for Information Management Projects

Project Possible Internal Stakeholders Possible External Stakeholders Implement/Update EDRMS5 or ECMS6

Agency Head / Chief Executive Agency Executive Management Team Agency executive in charge of records management Governance Board/Project Steering Committee Risk Management unit Security advisor Strategy and Planning unit Right to Information Advisor Purchasing unit Legal services unit Project management office Information technology unit Training unit Internal audit unit Communications team Business unit managers and subject matter experts Agency employees EDRMS/ECMS champions

Software vendor Consultancy provider for implementation, training, support, project management Other agencies with experience to learn from Independent technical assurance providers

Sentencing / RDS7 development

Agency Executive Management Team Agency executive in charge of records management Relevant business unit managers and subject matter experts Legal services unit IT unit (if electronic records involved) Internal audit unit

Public Records Advisory Council Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office Consultant/service provider Provider of outsourced services

BCS8 development Agency Executive Management Team Agency executive in charge of records management Business unit managers and subject matter experts Training unit Employees BCS champions Contractors

Consultant/service provider Software vendor

Scanning/ Digitisation Agency Executive Management Team Agency executive in charge of records management Relevant Business unit managers and subject matter experts IT unit Privacy/Security manager

Software vendor Digitisation specialist/service or equipment provider Tasmanian Archive + Heritage Office

Off-site storage tender

Agency executive in charge of records management Risk management unit Procurement unit Security advisor

Tasmanian Archive + Heritage Office Service suppliers

5 EDRMS = Electronic Document and Records Management System 6 ECMS = Electronic Content Management System 7 RDS = Retention and Disposal Schedule 8 BCS = Business Classification Scheme

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Appendix C: Stakeholder Profile – examples STAKEHOLDER PROFILE – basic details

Group Name or individual role title: DEPARTMENTAL BUSINESS UNIT MANAGERS

Their interest in our work: Minimising disruption/impact on their staff and work activities

What is their business activity? Managing the development and delivery of services and products to agency customers and stakeholders

What issues and concerns are currently challenging them?

Lack of budget; lack of staff; increased expectation of the community and the Executive

What do they need from our work? (what problem can we solve for them, what challenge or opportunity may our work provide them with)

Help them manage information glut, help them to change practices, identify valuable information

Current challenge – information governance

Current opportunity – information analytics

Why do we need to engage with this stakeholder? (what do we need from them)

They manage business units and agency delivery; they manage/prioritise staff activity and resources; they are information asset owners

Unless we understand their business and challenges, and can speak their language, we will be unable to provide effective support to them, or propose and effectively implement useful changes in practices or policies

Do we need our relationship with them to be different from what it is now, in order to deliver our work successfully?

Yes, most don’t know who we are and what we can do for them; also we don’t know enough about their work.

We need to actively engage with them and understand their RIM points of pain, and be able to spot where we could help by introducing/demonstrating practical solutions (and where we can’t help).

STAKEHOLDER PROFILE – basic details

Group Name or individual role title: DEPARTMENTAL SENIOR EXECUTIVE (Dep Secs, CIO, CFO)

Their interest in our work: Better informed decision-making

What is their business activity? Strategic planning and oversight of whole agency, managing Ministerial and central agency relationships (e.g. Treasury), leading change, achieving Minister’s objectives

What issues and concerns are currently challenging them?

Too much to do with too few resources, too much legislation to adhere to. Information glut rather than information governance, tend to manage issues reactively. Budget uncertainty because of possible political change after next election.

What do they need from our work? (what problem can we solve for them, what challenge or opportunity may our work provide them with)

Understand the value to the agency on investment in RIM

Understand the pace of technological change

Understand risks associated with information glut, lack of oversight and obsolescence

Current challenge – change

Current opportunity - we can work with them to improve their RIM and therefore improve business agility/insight and process efficiency

Why do we need to engage with this stakeholder? (what do we need from them)

Without their support we cannot attract resources for RIM activities that benefit the agency; we also need their support in order for us to introduce changes in practices, culture, policy or behaviours where that will be of benefit to the agency’s business

Do we need our relationship with them to be different from what it is now, in order to deliver our work successfully?

Yes, most don’t have any appreciation of how RIM could help the organisation be more efficient, reduce agency risks or provide great insights to support decision- making.

We need to actively engage with them and understand their information-related points of pain.

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Appendix D: Meeting Agenda - example

RIM Advisory Committee

Meeting date: 14 June 2017, 9-10am

Location: Room 407

Members: Alicia Snuffles, General Manager Corporate Services (Chair) David Sillytoes, Manager Legal (representing Risk & Audit Committee) Julia Dingbat, Financial Accountant (representing Finance) Jules Jackflash, Senior Planner (representing Strategy & Planning)

In attendance: Pat Livewire, Manager RIM Services Donny Newbie, (minutes)

Apologies: Timson Snodgrass, General Manager Communications

PURPOSE OF MEETING

This meeting will provide feedback on the draft Retention and Disposal Policy (pre-circulated) and decide the schedule for its implementation. The updated draft Schedule has been updated following discussion with all members and was circulated to you last week.

AGENDA

Item Approx time Attached pre-

reading

Presenter Action required

1 Apologies Note

2 Minutes of last meeting (17 May 2017) & follow-up on action points

9:00-9:10 Confirm

3 Draft Retention & Disposal Schedule 9:10-9:35 Pat L Discuss

4 Draft R&D Schedule Implementation Schedule

9:35-9:55 Pat L Approve

5 Confirm action points arising from this meeting

9:55-10:00 Approve

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Appendix E: Stakeholder Engagement Register - template

Type (int/ ext)

Stakeholder Name/ Group

Date Title/Topic Type of engagement

(mtg, email, present etc)

Which RIM staff involved

Which Stakeholders

involved

Follow up required/ Action Items

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Appendix F: Stakeholder Engagement Measurement survey - example

To: <inert stakeholder name> Date: <insert date> Subject: Are we working well with you?

Hi

The Records and Information Management team are really keen to provide exceptional value and service to all our clients, and work well with all our stakeholders.

As part of that commitment, it is important to us that we listen well and understand what you want us to know about your business and your challenges. It is also important that if we need you to understand something about our business and how we work with you, we convey that clearly to you in a helpful manner.

To help us gauge how well we are engaging with you, we would really appreciate you giving us some quick feedback. We know your time is precious so we’ve kept this really simple. Feel free to email back your thoughts or talk with us anytime, but they would be most useful to have by our team review meeting on Friday week (<insert date>).

________________________________________________________________________________________

Feedback on RIM Engagement with <insert stakeholder/group name>

Q1. List 1-3 things you like about your engagements with the RIM team, that you would like us to keep doing:

Q2. List 1-3 things we could do better in engaging with you, what changes would you like to see:

Any other thoughts or comments?

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Appendix G: Engagement Risk Register - template

Risk No

Risk Description (IF…THEN…) Date Raised

Likelihood Impact Mitigating Actions Owner Date last reviewed

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Glossary of Terms

Agency Refers to: (a) a department of the State Service established under the State Service Act 2000; or (b) a department or service of the State that does not form part of the State Service – and

includes any department which would be a department referred to in paragraph (a), or would be a department or service referred to in paragraph (b), but for the fact that it has ceased to exist, or has been merged with or superseded by some other body;

Local authority means any – (a) council; or (b) body corporate established by or under an Act or in the exercise of prerogative rights of

the Crown and having jurisdiction limited to a district, locality or part of the State;

May also be used to refer to Government Business Enterprises (GBE’s) and government owned companies.

Engagement channel Actual ways of engaging and communicating. Some common channels are email, formal meetings, presentations, casual conversations, reports, intranet posts, newsletters and so on

Engagement level Roughly identifies the extent of likely engagement required – usually as High, Medium, Low or None. Sometimes Very High may also be appropriate

Engagement objectives A short high level statement of what we are trying to achieve through our engagements

Engagement principles A set of value statements that capture how we want to treat each other when engaging, and

should guide our mindset throughout all our engagements

Impact The extent to which a stakeholder will be impacted by our work or project (for example changes to the way they work, training, providing feedback, participating in design forums, testing, providing advice, attending extra meetings, reading extra documents). Usually a rough measure of H(igh), M(edium), L(ow)

Influence The extent to which a stakeholder can influence the success of our work or project (for example by approving or denying funding, making or delaying decisions, providing or withholding key resources, delivering key work on time and to the required quality, or not). Usually a rough measure of H(igh), M(edium), L(ow)

Influence vs Impact Map

A simple map of the level of influence each stakeholder has vs the change impact our work may have on them. Useful to help identify stakeholders requiring the most engagement.

Internal stakeholder A person or group within our agency (eg managers, staff, contractors) who we need support from in order to achieve success in our role as Records and Information specialists

Elevator pitch 2-3 sentences that sum up the essence of what you want to say in only 15-20 seconds (approximately the length of time you might have an important stakeholder’s ear during an elevator ride)

External stakeholder A person or group outside our agency (e.g. customers, researchers, professional or community organisations, volunteers, other government agencies, Ministers, suppliers) who uses our services or products or has influence over our work

Key messages a few short sentences that sum up the critical things we want to convey

Metadata Data that describes the context, content and structure of records and their management through time [AS ISO 15489 Part 1 Clause 3.12]. Metadata is attached to records when they are created, and added to as a result of different processes, such as during transfer to off-site storage.

RIM Records and Information Management

Risk Register A spreadsheet that lists the identified risks that may occur in relation to normal operations or a particular project, along with its likelihood of occurring, potential impact, actions to avoid the risk arising or reduce its impact if it does, and the person/role responsible for ensuring the mitigating actions occur and for monitoring the risk.

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Stakeholder Any persons or groups who are directly or indirectly affected by an activity or project as well as those who may have interests in the work and/or the ability to influence its outcome, either positively or negatively

Stakeholder Attitude Map

A simple map of the attitude of stakeholders who are high impact or high influence. Useful to help identify stakeholders requiring the most engagement.

Stakeholder engagement

An ongoing process whereby organisations build and maintain constructive relationships with stakeholders using a range of activities and communication approaches

Stakeholder group Collective term for stakeholders with common interests

Stakeholder Engagement Model

A series of planned steps to guide the development and implementation of successful stakeholder engagement

Stakeholder Engagement Plan

A document that captures all the key information about our stakeholders, their needs, what we want to say to them, and how we are planning engagement with them

Stakeholder Profile A table, document or other record for capturing details about each key stakeholder

Stakeholder Engagement Register

A document that is used to log who we engaged with, when, how, and what the outcomes were

Stakeholder Engagement Schedule

A plan for each stakeholder/group of the various types of engagement we are planning to have with them, the timing/frequency of those engagements and who from our team is responsible for making sure they happen

Types of engagement Broad dimensions for categorising engagement approaches. These include one way, two way/ interactive, informal, formal, group, one-to-one, irregular/one off, ongoing, in person, indirect

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Checklist for Developing & Implementing a Stakeholder Engagement Plan

Task Complete?


1.1 IDENTIFY INTERNAL & EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

• List those affected


• List those actively involved

• List those with influence

• Group where appropriate

1.2 PROFILE STAKEHOLDERS • Create empty Stakeholder Register

• For each Stakeholder / group capture:

• Basic details (name, internal or external, contact details)

• Their current issues and challenges where relevant

• Level / type of Interest they have in our work

• Level / type of Impact on them of our work

• Level / type of Influence they have over our success

• Cross check information with each Stakeholder where appropriate

1.3 ANALYSE STAKEHOLDERS • Map Stakeholder Influence against Impact Influence vs Impact Map

• Map Attitude of Medium/High Influence and Impact Stakeholders Attitude Maps

• Based on Maps, add level of engagement intensity to key Stakeholders Stakeholder Register

2.1 MATCH STAKEHOLDER NEEDS TO ENGAGEMENT APPROACHES

• For each Stakeholder / group:

Engagement Schedule

• Identify the services delivered to or required from thestakeholder group

• Identify the engagement approach needed (H/M/L)

• Identify channels appropriate to approach needed

• Check with stakeholders (where appropriate, possible)

2.2 DEVELOP CONTENT • Document overall engagement Objectives

• Discuss and adopt Engagement Principles and related actions

• Identify & document Key Messages (10 maximum)

• Prepare reusable written, graphical, photo or verbal content (if useful)

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Task Complete?


2.3 IDENTIFY SIMPLE SUCCESS MEASURES & TIMING FOR MEASURING

2.4 IDENTIFY ENGAGEMENT RISKS Risk Register

2.5 ASSEMBLE PLAN Stakeholder Engagement Plan

• Transfer content to Stakeholder Engagement Plan template

• Senior Manager review (if required or useful)

3.1 PREPARE FOR ENGAGEMENT

• Identify good meeting times

• Schedule engagements in stakeholder diaries well in advance Calendar invites

• Prepare communication items etc, tailored (where required) for specific audience. Send out pre face-to-face engagement if appropriate so people can come prepared

Agenda, Report, Presentation, Newsletter, etc

• Clarify roles of those involved in engagement, eg: • Those providing input • Those representing others • Those expected to report back to others • Those who have decision-making authority • The Chair if required • The person who will note minutes/action points if required

• Identify potential resistance/barriers to successful engagement (and plan how to overcome)

• From Stakeholders • From RIM team

3.2 ENGAGE

• During engagements:

• Maintain focus (ours and theirs) • Set ground rules if required

• Identify actions: what, who, when, where Minutes, Action list

• After engagement • Always follow up every action

• Log engagement in Stakeholder Engagement Register Stakeholder Engagement Register

3.3 REVIEW ‘3 Question’ survey Attitude feedback • Create simple surveys or feedback emails that can be re-used

• Identify who will assess the success of engagements and when Task list

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Task Complete?


• Schedule a Stakeholder Engagement Plan review at least annually (orwhen other major change or challenges occur)

• Review key stakeholder list for additions & removals• Update Stakeholder Register• Redo Influence/Impact and Attitude Maps• Review Engagement Risk Register• Create new Stakeholder Engagement Schedule

Updated Stakeholder Register, Influence vs Impact Map, Attitude Map, Updated Risk Register, New Stakeholder Engagement Schedule

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stakeholder engagement handbook · conference, wellington nz, 18 june 2015 government...

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