Building A Consistent Narrative With Multiple Stakeholders
Working in the education space or development space in general can get very complex — more so when you are working with the government. Given the complexity of the problems it’s often difficult to figure boundaries or discern the narrative of an organization in the space. The rationale of why you are doing different projects under a program should be conveyed by a consistent narrative backed by data points. While this might seem intuitive, you’d be surprised by the number of organizations who miss out on this or don’t do it consistently.
In a multi-stakeholder environment, this is a far bigger problem. One of the major things binding them together is a common narrative, and their roles in it. As a facilitator in such an environment, you generally have four kinds of stakeholders you work with — the leadership, planners, the team, users. Let’s understand how can we build a common narrative with all of them.
Quick disclaimer before you dive in — this article heavily draws context from the Indian development sector.
- The Leadership
The leadership constitutes stakeholders who don’t take day-to-day decisions for the program you’re running. They are more interested in the the outcomes, outreach, messaging. To keep the narrative consistent with this group you can do the following:
1.(a). Setting a common goal that resonates with them
1.(b). Showing a clear path of how to achieve that through various initiatives
- (c.) Consistently communicating progress against the path along with data points
2. The Planners
These are the second-in-commands. They plan the details and get the approvals for your projects. They are the key movers.
2.(a). Making them champions of the narrative — This group has the most visibility and say across your project’s value chain. Them holding the narrative is far more stronger than any outsider doing the same.
2.(b). Helping them simplify the communication around the narrative — Building more visual decks around the narrative. Breaking the concept into different communication packets. Don’t fall into the trap of going into the details at the first go.
3. The Team
This group operationalises the plan. They also act as champions and early adopters for your product/project.
3.(a). Making them the charioteers of the story — The users see them as the group who’s put the narrative together, and rightly so. Give them the ownership of the ground-level communication because they know how to do it best.
3.(b). Build a lot of the communication materials that’ll go to the users
4. The Users
This groups receives and uses the end product.
4.(a). Evaluate whether they understand the narrative — Users understanding the purpose and how to use the product is critical.
4.(b). Listen to alternative narratives from them, and build that into the main one
Through all this your role is to bring in consistency to the narrative. It’s very easy for the narrative to be lost in the humdrum of daily activities, but consistency is going to be the key.
