Engage Stakeholders

Engage your key stakeholders in the process.

Free Consultations

Strategies to Engage Stakeholders & Create Buy-in

In developing their planning processes, most organizations recognize the importance of getting buy-in and a shared sense of ownership from critical stakeholders, clients, community members, partners, donors, volunteers, and staff. People like to be asked for their opinions. Your strategic planning process can be an ideal time to seek and get stakeholder input from those who can play an essential role in your plan’s success.

We are prepared to explore with you who you need to hear from in your planning process and how best to engage them in a meaningful yet efficient manner. Our stakeholder outreach often includes one-on-one in-person interviews, multiple discussion groups, staff and board retreats, online and paper surveys, and phone interviews.

We’ve learned there is tremendous value and greater receptivity to sharing when our consulting team conducts the stakeholder outreach on your behalf as the impartial gatherer of information. You’ll be looking for honest, direct feedback. We can get that for you.

While short-term action plans can sometimes be created in isolation, truly strategic plans are always better when those who care, or should care, about your organization’s future are given a voice.

Why Strategic Planning Often Incites Fear & Loathing

Any fear board members feel about strategic planning is often related to what they experienced in the last strategic planning process – too long, too many meetings, and yielded little more than a plan that sits on a shelf. It should come as little surprise then when board members say:

“We’ve got a lot on our plates right now. Let’s talk about that next year.”

Moreover, many organizations have a strategic plan in place and just aren’t following it:

“We finished the plan. Then, everything changed, and the assumptions upon which it was built are no longer valid.”

“It was a five-year plan, but we found that we accomplished a lot more than we expected in the first year, and we quickly discarded things that didn’t work, so we stopped referring to it.”

Our commitment is to help organizations put in place a process that results in the plan they need and will want to use without wearing out the planners along the way. In short, your strategic planning process should energize. Learn more.

Swipe to Scroll

What Our Clients Say

We're always pushing to take our organization to the next level, and Starboard has helped us reach new heights in our leadership and management, employee engagement, and talent management. My experience has been that Starboard works hard to add value in every way possible. As a result, I always hear positive feedback from employees following Starboard's engagements with us.

– Larry Barker, CEO of Machias Savings Bank

We hired Starboard to lead us through our first ever, professionally led strategic planning process. We were at an important juncture in our growth and direction and had to make some really big decisions. We definitely hired the right firm to guide and support us! The Starboard team were great facilitators, professional, yet at the same time, down-to-earth. We couldn't have hired a better firm to work with us. The results have been fantastic!

– Ken Schmidt, Past President & CEO of Penobscot Community Health Care

Scott helped me see through the fog to focus on the most pressing issues creating tension, challenges and structuring the organization for success in a new environment. My regular connections with Scott kept me on track, focusing on moving the needle’ on the items that required my attention.

– Aaron Dority, Executive Director Frenchman Bay Conservancy

Scott's style is direct, empathetic, and thought-provoking. He has provided critical knowledge, experience, and connections that have allowed us to build a stronger Board and take advantage of opportunities. Coach, cheerleader, and catalyst are three words I would use to describe his work with our organization.

– Cynthia Randall, Executive Director of Cornerstones of Science

The interviews that Starboard conducted with our partners and key funders proved to be an invaluable part of our strategic planning process, as was their expertise in helping to shape a plan that guides our work every day.

– Claire Berkowitz, Executive Director of the Maine Children’s Alliance