Stakeholder Engagement & Boundary Spanning Leadership

Can you share your favorite tips?  One of mine is to have working meetings where all voices can be heard and that everyone felt they accomplished something from the meeting. I find that when they feel like their contributions are meaningful and their time has been utilized well, they are more likely to be engaged going forward. This does mean that we cancel meetings when we don't need them and can accomplish updates by email.

One of mine is to invite stakeholders to our monthly program meetings to present their work/activities/needs, while they see ours in the meeting, which often time results in collaborations. We found people like to participate in our team-building activities and build a relationship.

I like to dedicate time during the meeting for stakeholders to learn about what is going on with other organizations. We do this two ways: 1) allowing stakeholders to sign up for a "partner highlight" on our agenda, which is 5-10 minutes of them sharing who they are and what they do, and 2) saving 10-15 minutes of round table time at the end of the meeting for folks to share what they are currently working on or other news (although I might move this to the beginning of the meeting so we don't miss folks who have to leave the meeting early).

I love the idea of "partner highlight's" that Rachel  mentioned. I have started doing this in my HCV elimination planning meetings and it has been really beneficial as an ice breaker, a way for partners to connect, and an opportunity to learn from others. Another thing that I have found success with stakeholders is being genuine and transparent. Often, people are more reserved with partners, which I find creates a sense of mistrust and distance. 

We have also used the 10-15 minute round table approach at advisory group and stakeholder meetings (at the beginning, which means we catch everyone...but also means we really need to hold people to brief updates so it doesn't end up being half the meeting!).  We've also found using closed loop communication to be really helpful.  Even if we haven't been able to make a ton of progress on a given action item, letting stakeholders know that we are still working on it (and how) keeps everyone on the same page.

I find that really taking the time to understand what the stakeholder's role/interest is in a particular area is pretty important. I've been disappointed in the past bringing in a stakeholder that I thought would contribute only to find out they were not the right group for the impact I had hoped. 

I also found that trying to find common ground with stakeholders first and then using this as the leverage point to work on more challenging topics is a good way to start the process off in a positive way but still allows the more challenging work to ultimately fit in.  

I convene meetings of our HAI advisory committee and there are some roles I find really difficult to fill. I am not sure we have ever had a health insurer representative and until recently our healthcare consumer representative was also vacant for a long period.
 
Lauren , I like the idea of having a round table at the start of the meeting and now I'm thinking of even moving the open forum/discussion portion of the meeting to the beginning as well. We don't usually get a lot of engagement by that point and I wonder if we might get folks when they are more energized?

Lisa , I can relate to understanding roles/interests. I think sometimes it's difficult for stakeholders to parse out, for example, on our HAI advisory committee, whose interests to represent especially those employed with healthcare facilities/systems. 

I like the idea of having 5-10 minutes at the beginning of a meeting to have a new stakeholder introduce themselves and explain why they're interested in joining the group. And having time for round table discussion at the end where I really focus on ideas that the stakeholder may have to get them invested and involved. 

I think it depends on what type of stakeholder groups. For internal groups within our Division, I really like 'getting to know you' short activities. In our TEAMS world, it can be something as simple as typing in your favorite summer activity or choose a 'gif' that matches how you feel today. This is more for staff meetings, but has helped the team get to know each other and connect in a virtual world.

For external stakeholder workgroups, we like to engage key stakeholders to provide updates and present a highlight or topic of interest. We did this frequently for our antimicrobial resistance workgroup that included stakeholders from multiple disciplines and sectors (nurses, MDs [infectious disease, allergy, etc), pharmacists, veterinarians, public health professionals, licensing/certification) and it kept a lot of people engaged. It was one of the most attended meetings I attended and it was exciting to see all this positive energy and learn something new each time! We now engage this group annually as well to take part in developing a work product (statewide antibiogram with text interpreting results). Our stakeholders actively contributed and were excited to share their expertise and knowledge.  Another key component was having an internal planning group for this stakeholder meeting so we were well prepared and ready to take turns facilitating the discussion.