De-risking private investment in the Territory through genuine engagement
The link between private investment and rebuilding the Territory’s economy was a focal point at the recent Property Council NT Budget Breakfast. With the Northern Territory Government focused on funding crime reduction, law reform and improved health care, eyes were on the private sector to invest in getting major projects out of the ground in the Territory.
The idea of a Territory economy built on a backbone of successful major projects isn’t a new concept for Territorians – but the social and environmental expectations and requirements for project approvals are regularly evolving. We’ve seen a handful of major projects in recent years meet significant delays and roadblocks due to community and stakeholder objections. Sometimes this is simply because projects are at odds with the values of stakeholders or community members, and other times misinformation (or lack of information) and poor relationships are a large contributor.
It's unrealistic to expect your project will have 100% support from every stakeholder and community member. However, what isn’t unrealistic is developing respectful and genuine relationships with your web of stakeholders to build understanding based on facts, providing opportunities to ask questions and considering how concerns can be understood and addressed early.
Not only is the concept of providing information, listening to concerns and addressing feedback a regulatory requirement for project approvals, it helps to establish social licence and acceptance in the community. Even if it means not everyone is overwhelmingly on board with your project, you will have provided them with the facts, genuinely listened to what they have to say, and addressed concerns where possible. This significantly reduces potential roadblocks and costly delays at the final hour, or worse, once you’ve started construction.
These actions or efforts are defined as best practice community and stakeholder engagement. Getting this right requires a skilled practitioner (or team of practitioners) who understand the frameworks that guide best practice and who understand local community and stakeholder values. At True North we follow a 5 step process informed by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2).
1. Understand the project
Any good communication and engagement program starts off on a foundation of solid understanding about the project or proposal. You need to know:
Where is the project proposed?
What does it entail?
What are the timeframes?
What is complex or hard to explain about the project?
What might be controversial about the project?
Who will be impacted either directly or indirectly?
Who will have an interest in this project?
What is the history of the proponent locally, nationally and if relevant, internationally?
Have similar projects been proposed here before?
What is the social, environmental and political context for this project?
2. Build a communication and engagement strategy
You need to have a plan of attack, and this is articulated in the communication and engagement strategy. It will be informed by the understanding you’ve built on the project and its context, and will:
include a detailed stakeholder matrix and analysis
identify the most appropriate engagement methods for each stakeholder
consider the barriers to engagement and how to overcome them
select effective communication tools suited to different stakeholder groups
set out a timed action plan.
3. Implement your strategy
The key to successful implementation of a communication and engagement strategy is adequate resourcing and staying the course. Comprehensive engagement is demanding and it’s important you have enough hands on deck, and the right hands. This includes a fully resourced team of engagement practitioners, as well as the relevant subject matter experts, who can adequately answer complex questions.
Sometimes when a project is controversial, it can be tempting to change course or reinvent the wheel mid engagement in hopes of getting a different result. Continuous review and improvement are important, but doing a 180 without good reason can be confusing, look disingenuous and often won’t change public perception. If your approach is well considered and comprehensive, stay the course and stick to your action plan.
4. Continually review and improve
That being said, at the end of an engagement period, you should evaluate how you went. Was the strategy adhered to? Did you reach everyone you needed to? Did stakeholders ask to be engaged in different ways or did they request information you didn’t have at the time?
Your learnings should always be considered and incorporated into your next communication and engagement strategy. This makes sure your project builds on its progress and remains committed to fostering strong relationships.
5. Close the feedback loop
When stakeholders and community members meet with you and provide feedback, they’re giving you their time and knowledge. Make sure they know their efforts are meaningful by reporting back to them on how their input has been considered. You should also make next steps clear to emphasise the project’s commitment to ongoing relationship building – engagement shouldn’t be a one off.
We’ve tried and tested this 5 step process on major projects in the Territory over 21 years and have a team with more than 60 years of experience. Our local knowledge and experience can help guide you and your team towards success by using engagement as a core component of de-risking your investments in the Territory.
