Stakeholder Workshop

What is a Stakeholder Workshop?

In our stakeholder workshop, we bring together the right people in order to incorporate in a structured process the diverse knowledge and experience of the various stakeholders as well as their needs, challenges and wishes in the important steps of your project. Projects which are targeting social problems, internal challenges, innovation processes are usually complex and are defined and assessed differently by different stakeholders with different mindsets, agendas and goals constituting multiple relevant perspectives. For a successful planning and realization of a project it is therefore important to involve the right persons, groups of persons or institutions who are affected by the project and its outcomes and/or can influence it. Stakeholders can range from target groups, employees, political decision-makers, partners, producers, representatives of the public administration, investors or donors, other organizations or any person directly affected. A stakeholder workshop helps you to understand different interests, to uncover alternative perspectives, to integrate multiple experiences and to involve and motivate the right key partners to achieve your project goals.

How does it work? - An exemplary project process …

Preparation:

• Analyzing and defining your project goals
• Identifying the key stakeholders that might have a direct or indirect influence on your project and finding and approaching the right kind of partners you need
• Analyzing those key stakeholders and how they relate to your project. And define whom you need to include in which activity.
• Planning and setting up the format and process for the stakeholder workshop based on a creative problem-solving framework

Stakeholder workshop session:

Depending on the format, state of process and the kind and number of stakeholder participation, the workshop can be held in one condensed afternoon session or will span over several rounds. In close consultation with you, we will lead your team through the whole workshop by setting it up and facilitating it. Our ambition is to create a welcoming atmosphere and provide a structured process to let all participants contribute in equal measures. Within the workshop formats we will brainstorm what partnerships you need, discuss involvements and interests and assign responsibility for each element of the project. It is important to understand the expectations, needs, hopes or apprehensions of your key stakeholders and to define their involvement in the process or project.

Why is it important?

For the successful planning and implementation of a project it is important to involve the relevant persons, groups or institutions from the very beginning. Bringing together your stakeholder helps you to gather knowledge and to receive different perspectives for a reflective and realistic set of objectives. It is absolutely mission critical to understand their interests and to build strong partnership and identification with the project goals in a common process.

What is our opinion?

No matter if you are an NGO, corporate business, governmental organization or start up – letting different stakeholders contribute to your project(s) and initiative(s) will only be an advantage. A mix of insiders, outsiders, experts and users works well to gather multiple experiences and perspectives to progress and succeed. The integration of users, target groups, partners or affected stakeholders is one of the fundamental components of Design as a problem-solving process. Furthermore we believe in transparency – whether it is internal or external. Including various stakeholders and sharing your ideas and aims will lead you to good and sustainable results.