Plan | Department of the Premier and Cabinet

Planning is an essential step to work out how you will implement your engagement activities.

Planning for an engagement will help you:

define your engagement objectives, techniques and how you will provide feedback
create a step-by-step roadmap of responsibilities, tasks and supporting communication tactics and tools
revisit your purpose if the project ‘loses its way’
demonstrate how it will add value to the project
motivate teams and gain commitment to the engagement process
get management commitment to the project with a signed document.

Key steps in the planning stage

The key steps in the planning stage are as follows:

know your purpose - a clear statement about the decision to be made
define your engagement objectives
identify what is negotiable and non-negotiable (what can and can't be influenced)
undertake a community and stakeholder analysis
determine appropriate engagement tools and techniques
consider the parameters and limitations of your project and engagement
identify potential risks and mitigation strategies
plan how you will report back and close the feedback loop
decide how you will know if your engagement was successful (evaluation).