ABSTRACT

Organisations often begin to engage when in trouble; but once they realise that engagement is effective in achieving better outcomes they begin to do it as a matter of course. Smart Engagement includes doing engagement as a matter of course, of making it part of core business practice. Three prime motivators of engagement are: crisis; systems; and strategy. Engagement needs to happen early. Trust is very hard to build in a crisis. It takes more time and costs more money to be reactive than proactive. Building rapport quickly, the engagement professional was invited to site and, after examining the risks and opportunities posed by the proposed project, met some of the local leaders on an informal basis. Smart Engagement as an engagement process designed and implemented with stakeholders that result in accepted, accountable and sustainable outputs and outcomes.