Techniques for increasing your stakeholder engagement

I recently delivered a webinar about techniques for increasing your stakeholder engagement. In this webinar I hosted a mini training event, using techniques based on the latest learning from neuroscience to improve communication with stakeholders.

We need ways to communicate that generate an immediate, visceral response, triggering our stakeholders to take action and participate in our projects, programmes and business changes.

Techniques for Increasing Stakeholder Engagement

Here is the summary of these techniques:

Focus on Immediate Actions:

• Certainty: The brain loves certainty, so emphasize clear, immediate steps rather than distant future possibilities. This prevents mental overload and helps maintain focus and energy.
• Relevance and Engagement: Communicate what needs to be done now, provide context for why it’s important, but avoid overwhelming details about future steps.
• Brevity: Keep messages concise to avoid overwhelming the brain, which discards overly complex or lengthy communications.

Clear and concise communication:

• Use of Visuals: Visuals are easier for the brain to process compared to text, reducing cognitive load and minimizing misinterpretations.
• Context and Connection: Use visuals to show how tasks fit into the bigger picture, making the information more relevant and easier to understand.

Respecting Mental Energy:

• Simplified Information: Avoid giving too many messages at once, as the brain distributes attention evenly across all information presented. Prioritize the most critical information.
• Autonomy and Empowerment: Provide partially completed ideas or plans to invite contributions, respecting the expertise and autonomy of the audience.

Managing Expectations:

• Positive Mismatch: Highlight unexpected gains to keep the brain engaged and open to change. Avoid negative mismatches where reality falls short of expectations to prevent threat responses.
• Visual Plans: Create simple, visual roadmaps with clear decision points and timelines to provide a sense of certainty and structure. This reassures the audience and respects their need for a coherent plan.

Tailored Communication:

• Relevance to Roles: Make communications relevant to the audience’s roles or current tasks, ensuring they see the importance and are motivated to engage.
• Linking to Previous Communications: Connect new information to previous messages to create a coherent narrative and reinforce understanding.

Conclusion

By integrating these techniques, you will create engaging, clear, and relevant communications that align with how the brain processes information, increasing the probability that your stakeholders will take the action you need them to take.