Embedding engagement into your organisation’s decision-making processes
Embedding engagement into your organisation will enable you to have more meaningful dialogue with the community and achieve greater impact on projects and business initiatives.
When employees feel engaged, they produce their best work and contribute to a positive corporate culture. They invest themselves and their futures in the organisation. Likewise, when stakeholders and communities feel engaged, they will trust you more – boosting your reputation and credibility.
In stark contrast, without community trust, major projects can be stopped or delayed – potentially costing significant time and money.
In 2009, when I joined a water retailer as the Manager for Engagement, I spent several years focusing on how to embed engagement within an organisation in a way that sticks. Since then, I have gone on to work with a range of public and private sector organisations to help them shift their culture so that community engagement becomes part of the way they do business.
What does embedding engagement mean?
So, what does embedding engagement mean? Embedding engagement refers to the process of making community and stakeholder engagement part of the way that organisations make decisions. When embedded, engagement is:
- Aligned with the values and culture of the organisation
- Integrated into the core systems and processes
- A critical part of how the organisation thinks about problems and works towards solutions
- Established in such a way that it becomes ‘the way we do things around here’
Essentially, embedding engagement is a process of:
- Creating a culture of engagement
- Integrating engagement into systems and processes
- Building capability and capacity to deliver engagement
Here are some steps to help you embed engagement within your organisation.
Key steps to embed engagement within your organisation
- Step 1 – Understand the current state of play – Start by assessing how embedded engagement is within your organisation? This step involves reviewing existing documents to understand how engagement is discussed and what has been said or committed to. Consult widely with leaders and staff, stakeholders and the community to understand their experience and views of engagement. You can also use a tool such as our community engagement audit, a step-by-step process to help you map and identify how embedded engagement is within your organisation.
- Step 2 – Determine your preferred future state – Determine where the organisation wants to perform in the short to long term. I tend to focus on a 2-to-3-year horizon; however, this can be more or less depending on your preference. The steps for determining the future state are very similar to understanding the current state. However, rather than asking “where are we now”, it asks “where do we want to be in the future”? It is also worthwhile at this stage to look outside your own organisation to see what other similar businesses that are leading in engagement are doing.
- Step 3 – Creating a strategy for change – Once you have determined where you are currently performing and where you would like to be, the next step involves developing a strategy for creating cultural and behavioural change towards your desired goals. Check out our Embedding Engagement Strategy Plan on a Page Template , which you can use as a starting point for developing your own engagement strategy.
Embedded engagement scale
The Embedded Engagement Scale is one of many ways to try and understand the extent to which engagement is embedded within an organisation and where it would like to be in the future. It outlines four levels of embedded practice from ‘no engagement’ to ‘exemplary’.
Use the scale to assess how embedded engagement is within your organisation and determine where you would like to be in the future. I have often used this to describe to decision makers the current state of play and to involve them in determining where they would like to be in the future.
Building blocks to embed engagement
There are six key building blocks to embedding engagement into your organisation. These are:
- Engagement Culture: The culture of engagement, internally and with the community.
- Commitment to Engagement: Formal commitment to engagement, including the presence of an engagement policy or charter, and how this commitment is reflected in corporate publications and strategies.
- Systems and Processes: The systems and processes in place to support engagement practices.
- Tools and Templates: The practical tools and templates for planning, implementing, reporting, and evaluating community engagement activities.
- Resources and Capability: The resources allocated to community engagement and the capability of staff to carry out engagement activities.
- Project Delivery: The effectiveness of engagement processes for significant projects.
To embed engagement, the strategy for change must work on each of these building blocks in parallel and on an ongoing basis. The actions you undertake within each building block may change or mature over time. However, maintaining an ongoing focus on each of these is essential for embedding engagement.
Pace of change
When embedding engagement, you need to meet the organisation where ‘they are at’. Choose a pace of change that is appropriate to the organisation. Pushing too hard when the organisation is unprepared or unwilling, or too little when it needs to stretch, can be counterproductive.
Creating change can happen at a greater or lesser speed depending on several factors, such as the level of:
- external pressure to engage
- willingness to change at a leadership level
- staff buy-in and support for engagement
- engagement skills, knowledge and capacity within the organisation
- strength of relationships and capacity to influence
Observe the pace of change and adapt as necessary to ensure it remains attuned and responsive to the organisation and any internal or external changes.
Why embed engagement in your organisation?
When an organisation focuses their efforts on delivering engagement practices without creating a broader culture of engagement, there is a risk that:
- There are low levels of awareness of what community engagement is and why it is important
- There is a lack of skills and capability across the organisation to plan and deliver engagement
- There are significant expectations on one person / team to deliver engagement
- Triggers are not in place to instigate engagement, so engagement can get called into projects late in the process
- There is an inconsistent level of commitment and approach to engaging the community across the organisation
- Decision makers may not follow through on incorporating engagement feedback
Embedding engagement does not make you immune to these risks. However, it does help to reduce the risks.
After years of embedding engagement within organisations, noticeable achievements include:
- A clear and integrated framework for planning, implementing and evaluating engagement from the beginning of a project and throughout the project lifecycle
- Greater levels of awareness, buy-in and championing of engagement throughout the organisation
- Delivery of fit-for-purpose engagement that is appropriate to the decision being made, the level of impact and interest in the decision, and the specific context and needs of stakeholders, communities and the organisation
Creating an engaging organisation requires dedication and ongoing refinement. The benefits, including deeper engagement and increased impact, are well worth it, enriching both personal and organisational growth.
By Viv Warren, Viv Warren Consulting