SD2 Partners - Step 2. Identifying Options & Enabling Decision-making



Home Introduction Our Work Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Who We Are Glossary Links Contact Us	This will provide our clients (and other partners involved) with an outline of viable options, and will set out the steps required to enable an informed decision. Identifying Options There is more than one way of engaging with stakeholders, ranging from individual informal contacts, to information campaigns, consultations, structured dialogue processes and collaboration in partnership programmes. There is a wide variety of processes and mechanisms to choose from, and we advocate making form follow function. Each potential option can serve certain objectives, and these need to be clarified in each case to enable well-informed decision-making to occur. In addition, options need to build on existing networks and engagements. We will work closely with the client team to ensure that any process capitalizes on previous achievements. Options vary as regards levels of formality and institutionalisation, duration, costs, etc. It is useful to distinguish between three principal options of stakeholder engagement, each of which can be designed in a variety of ways: Stakeholder Consultation: Often, companies invite stakeholders to a consultation where the company presents a strategy or policy, and stakeholders are invited to share their views. Stakeholders can be consulted individually or in a joint event with all relevant stakeholders present. As with a political "hearing", the company will be expected to share the mechanisms by which stakeholders' views will be taken into account, but it is not necessarily expected to engage in further debate. A consultation will benefit from, but does not necessarily require, a neutral facilitator; a company representative can also conduct it. Some companies have set up permanent institutions of stakeholder consultation, for example, by creating Stakeholder Advisory Boards, often dedicated to specific topics. Such Advisory Boards are consulted at regular intervals to pro- vide feedback on corporate strategies and policies. Stakeholder Dialogue: Ground rules for successful dialogue include that all parties speak, listen, and engage in exchange and debate regarding the issues at hand. Again, a company can engage in dialogue with individual stakeholders, or conduct a multi-stakeholder dialogue with all relevant parties present. The latter has the benefit of revealing ongoing debates, agreements and disagreements between various stakeholders. Stakeholder dialogues require careful preparation, often including internal preparatory meetings, preparing background documents and documenting the process, which might be stretched over several meetings. There is no need to generate consensus (although it might develop naturally), but stakeholders will expect clear information about how the dialogue process is linked into corporate decision-making. Dialogues require neutral facilitation in order to ensure adherence to ground rules, generate a sense of fairness and relieve company representatives from multiple roles. Partnerships with Stakeholders: Engaging in joint actions, projects, or programmes with external stakeholders, such as community development projects, requires joint decision-making on the basis of dialogue and consensusbuilding. Hence, partnerships have high transaction costs – they take time, staff and money to be developed and implemented effectively. Such investment should be carefully considered in terms of the likelihood of success as well as potential costs and benefits. Partnerships require neutral facilitators or 'partnership brokers' who are able to work with the group of partners over a longer period of time, enjoy the trust of all parties, and are able to suggest viable options in terms of partnership governance and management. Depending on the longevity and size of a partnership programme, some level of (semi-)permanent institutionalisation might be required, such as forming a project unit with specific management and budget. In order to facilitate informed decisionmaking in the context of such options, we take the following steps: establish objectives for the stakeholder engagement in the light of the analysis developed in Step 1, identify and assess strategic options of stakeholder engagement: match objectives and issues with suitable processes, current engagements, stakeholders' requirements and resources needed; provide an overview of potential risks and benefits of each option; identify performance indicators for each option. The result is a comprehensive overview of options, which can then be used to support informed and high quality decision- making.	The Stakeholder Engagement Manual (Vol 1 & 2) outlines a wide variety of models of engagement, based on reviewing different stakeholders' views and experiences. (AccountAbility / UNEP / Stakeholder Research Associates, 2005).
	Figure 2 Enabling Decision-Making
	Enabling Decision-Making In order to support the decision-making process within the company to determine the stakeholder engagement strategy, we work with the company team to: create a list of options, ranked by the client's boundary conditions under which the project started: prioritised options lead to proposals for action, identify consequences of selected alternative(s) in order to systematically integrate medium and long term effects into decision-making, use scenarios to test options, challenge the organisation with these scenarios to test its resilience to hitherto unexpected, unidentified and unimagined possible future situations, support the presentation to the Board in order to facilitate a strategic decision on stakeholder engagement. It is important to note that successful engagement often implies that stakeholders themselves are part of developing the engagement process. Companies should therefore try to remain open and flexible throughout, and refrain from sticking rigidly to their chosen option.	Example: Developing a Company's Sustainable Agriculture Strategy In 2003, a pesticides and seeds company engaged in an internal and external stakeholder consultation process in order to develop its sustainable agriculture strategy. A consultant with an NGO background helped to develop the first draft, which was then circulated among relevant people within the company, worldwide. A lively discussion ensued, focusing on the definition of sustainable agriculture, and about the case studies used to support the strategic suggestions. The draft went through several revisions and was then presented at a meeting with key internal stakeholders. This meeting was also used to introduce the subsequent process of engaging external stakeholders in developing the strategy. Public affairs staff with relevant external networks, regional management, and consultants with an NGO background identified external stakeholders. A workshop with about 40 internal and external stakeholders was held, where the draft strategy was discussed and more concrete suggestions on the company's future policies were developed in mixed groups. All stakeholders very well understood the need to make the business case for every suggestion, pointing out opportunities and business ideas. It was made clear that suggestions were to be taken into the internal discussions. No promises were made in terms of taking them up: external stakeholders were consulted, not being asked to sign up to the strategy. Yet the process of internal decision-making was explained in full, including expected barriers and challenges. After the workshop, the draft strategy was revised and put to internal consultations again. It was then presented to and agreed by the company board.
	OUTPUTS OF STEP 2: Options comprehensive overview of strategic options of stakeholder engagement, accompanied by risk/benefit analysis, and performance indicators Decision-Making optimum preparations for a strategic decision on future stakeholder engagement by the Board