Why accurate record-keeping is a must and how it can save your butt

When it comes to project management, we know that good record-keeping is a must. We track budgets and deliverables, milestones and hold points. We have project control groups and RFI registers and every process to ensure we meet our timeframes.

But how are you capturing your stakeholder interactions? That time you stopped to chat to a landowner fixing a fence, or how about that community call you received while driving?

It is just as critical to record all stakeholder interactions, particularly community interactions, into a single database. Chances are you have multiple people working on your project who, at various times, will speak to community and other stakeholders.

Who’s talking to whom? What’s been promised? What’s been said? How did they walk away from that interaction? Were they angry, neutral, excited?

All this information ensures your project team can deal with community stakeholders consistently, can follow-up on commitments and undertakings, track community sentiment and awareness, and manage consultation fatigue.

Nothing can impact your project’s reputation more quickly than poor stakeholder relations.

There are some great CRM products on the market, with a host of bells and whistles to assist with stakeholder and community reporting and tracking. But these products can be pricey and not for everyone.

At a minimum, your project needs a centralised database, even if it’s just a spreadsheet, that allows your team to maintain accurate stakeholder records. If they are likely to meet community or other stakeholders, updating this database needs to be part of their role.

Just like any CRM, it will only be as useful as the data that is entered into it.

At Onward, record-keeping is an essential element of our engagement planning.

Ask us how we can support your project’s community engagement.