Digital Era II

Odd One Out
Uploaded by momoryuji on 18 Jan 09, 8.06AM GMT.

This is the first lesson I remember from my experiences with policy development that really made a lasting impact.

When you sit down to develop policy on an issue, good policy makers start a process of engagement with stakeholders. Thankfully this is not something that only government departments do nowadays but it’s good practice within industries as well even if the process might not always include a formal consultation – which, let’s face it, it doesn’t always need to.

The first step when it comes to engagement is a sort of mapping of your stakeholders so that you can identify industries, organisations and groups that your policy will have an impact on – either positive or negative, depending on their positioning.

I was quite surprised when I started working in policy and external relations to learn that the number one group that gets forgotten are the people that the policy is actually made for.

Best example? It’s this word of mouth story (even though I don’t know how true it is) of a government department that mapped out all of their stakeholders for a new policy initiative aimed at improving circumstances for children. Stakeholders not appearing anywhere? The children.

This might seem like a no-brainer but I do get how something like this can happen by being exposed constantly to your own industry and established stakeholders (like trade associations and third sector organisations) which might take your mind off the alternative people that you really need to have in the room.