Why Your Stakeholder Engagement Strategy Isn’t Working – and What to Do Differently.

Your stakeholder engagement strategy must target the right people in the right sequence. This free 45-minute session introduces a network-based approach to engagement, grounded in published research, that produces lasting behaviour change rather than just awareness.

What you will learn

• Why most engagement fails structurally: the difference between a stakeholder list and a stakeholder network, and why treating them the same produces predictable failure.
• The informal influence problem: how to identify the informal leaders in your stakeholder environment — the people other stakeholders actually take their cues from — and why they are almost never on your stakeholder register.
• The sequencing insight: why engaging the right stakeholders in the wrong order produces the same result as engaging the wrong stakeholders, and how to design an engagement sequence that creates momentum rather than resistance.
• The three stakeholder types: connectors, gatekeepers, and blockers — how to identify each type in your network and how to work with (and around) each one.
• A practical first step: a 90-minute network mapping exercise your team can run this week to start building a picture of your stakeholder system.

Who should attend

This session is designed for leaders and senior practitioners who are responsible for stakeholder engagement in complex environments and who are experiencing the frustration of real effort producing limited results. It is relevant across sectors because the network dynamics that determine engagement success are structural, not sector-specific.

Why attend

1. It is grounded in published research. The framework presented in this session is drawn directly from our published research. This is not a proprietary methodology invented in a workshop.
2. It is immediately actionable. The session closes with a specific exercise your team can run in the next week. You will leave with something concrete to do, not just a concept to think about.
3. It is 45 minutes. Structured to respect your time. Starts on schedule, ends on schedule. The last 15 minutes are reserved for your questions about your specific situation.
4. It is free and online. No travel, no cost, no commitment to anything further. Register in 30 seconds and join from your desk.
5. It is specific. Not a broad overview of stakeholder management theory. One problem. One framework. Real examples from health, government, and professional services contexts.