This session is ideal for people who already have some knowledge and expertise in change, who have a change toolkit and want to add to it, and want to:

• understand why and how to manage stakeholders;

• increase confidence in using a number of key tools;

• gain confidence in engaging a broad span of stakeholders;

• build a network and connect with like-minded individuals;

• push boundaries, build ideas and innovate.

People are at the core of most projects and change initiatives, however they create a great deal of the complexity that makes progress so difficult. Engaging stakeholders to understand their perspectives, their likes and dislikes, and motivating factors is the foundation to then build change initiatives that excite people or responds to their anxieties.

Often engagement of stakeholders is neglected or seen as a way of selling an idea or concept. Or we find ourselves spending a large proportion of our time engaging stakeholders but still experience slow or no progress. However, our experience of engaging stakeholders is that, done well, we can drive the energy and pace of an initiative towards a successful outcome.

In this session we outline the stakeholder engagement process and a range of tools that can be used to support this. We will explore and share experiences, gaining a collective and individual practical understanding of stakeholder engagement tools so that you have the confidence to use them as soon as you leave the session.

What previous participants said…

... left the session feeling more confident in my capability and felt that the session had provided an opportunity to look at [subject] in a multi-dimensional way. I felt enthusiastic to go back to work and try out the framework we had developed…

It really helped to see that despite the scale of a change we all faced similar issues, concerns and challenges. It gave me an opportunity to do some reflective learning and to think about some of the assumptions and limitations that I may be creating.

The Session:

Open space – We’ve moved away from traditional top down lecture sessions to more informal environments to create an energising and freewheeling exchange

Driven by participants – We know that the sum of the expertise of the people in the room will be greater than the sum of the experience of those at the front. The session therefore redefines who is an expert, and empowers people to share their expertise

Responsive, engaging and interactive – Effective learning comes from doing and collaborating with people in a safe environment. Our approach is to use a framework that helps participants to explore tools in a collaborative and respectful manner.