Stakeholder Engagement in Change: Not Optional, Strategic Non negotiable, Fatal Mistake

You can tell within the first week which change programmes are going to stall: the ones that treat stakeholders as recipients rather than participants. That's not a glib observation, it's what I see repeatedly walking into boardrooms and workshops from Parramatta to Perth.

Change isn't a one way broadcast. It's an ecosystem of people, priorities, and power. Get engagement wrong, and you'll spend more time fire fighting than delivering the outcomes you promised. Get it right, and the Organisation moves faster, cleaner, and with far less collateral damage.

Why Engagement Matters, and Yes, I'll Be Blunt

Too many leaders assume that a well crafted memo, a nice slide deck, and an all hands meeting equal engagement. They don't. Engagement is doing the work that turns passive recipients into active contributors. It's co design, it's honest conversations, and yes, sometimes, it's uncomfortable.

Two contentious points that the Business needs are as follows, because strategy needs clarity: investing heavily in stakeholder engagement isn't a cost to be minimised; it's a strategic spend that reduces long term friction. Some will disagree, they'll argue for lean programmes, but I've watched projects saved by that upfront investment even though many executives hate the chaos of early stage consultation, frontline staff should be involved early, not after the bosses have "designed the solution". The intelligence lives with the people doing the work.

And a statistic worth bookmarking: Prosci's change management research shows that projects with excellent change management are six times more likely to meet objectives. That's not corporate fluff. That's measurable business value. If you still think engagement is optional, you are betting your outcomes on hope.

Decode the Landscape of Change

Before you invite anyone to the table, map the terrain. Organisational change sits on three broad planes: cultural, commercial, and technical. Each plane shifts at its pace, and each has its stakeholders:

Look outside as well as within. Regulatory changes, supplier behaviour, or an industry disruptor can render an internally perfect plan useless overnight. We advise clients to run a quick external scan before stakeholder engagement begins. It gets you the context. It limits embarrassing blind spots.

Identify Stakeholders and Their Real Motivations

Stakeholders aren't a monosyllabic group. Employees, unions, suppliers, customers, regulators, boards, community groups, they all have different stakes. Some want job security; others want speed to market, others want compliance and reputation protection.

Create a stakeholder map that goes beyond titles. Ask:

Quantify Impact and Influence, Separately

Two separate axes: impact and influence. Plot all your stakeholders on both axes. Create a matrix. Job done? Not yet. A static exercise; it changes.

Tip: get a small, diverse group, including a frontline voice, to validate the map. It'll expose blind spots.

Craft a Pragmatic Engagement Strategy

This is where most organisations stumble: they treat engagement as a lovely add on rather than a workstream with deliverables. A pragmatic strategy means:

A clear sprint and learn approach for engagement: One alternative, a massive, inflexible communication plan, delivers your polished content too late.

Set Clear Comms Objectives

We label every comms objective using three scales on an axis. Scaling one going up: informs, consults, co designs, mobilising.

Messages should answer three questions for stakeholders:

Dialogue demands live formats. Consistent updates require written channels managers can repeat. Remember: managers are the multiplier. Invest time training them to have the conversations you want.

Tailor the Message, Genuinely

Tailoring isn't font changing. Tailored messages respect those differences and speak directly to them. Be honest about downsides as well as upsides.

Implementing & Managing Engagement the Practical Bits

Turn strategy into an action plan. Identify:

Here's a checklist of the tools, tactics, and very careful gambles we use to create that change before the change:

A Note About Regulators and Industry Bodies

Don't treat regulators as an afterthought.

An Implementation Checklist

Submit to the above where you find it useful. We do a lot of this kind of work. Our clients increasingly approach us after a failed change effort. Too many organisations treat engagement as an optional extra. That's a risk.

Sources & Notes:

• Prosci. Best Practices in Change Management. Prosci Research, 2020.
• Australian Institute of Company Directors. Director Sentiment Index / Governance insights. Australian board and director surveys from AICD.