Principle #2: Private-Public Partnership Communication - Define all stakeholders.
Another element of successful partnerships is to understand who the players are in the game. A baseball team is made up of the players, coaches, trainers, managers, administration, marketers, operations, owners, etc. The first step in the art of communication in a partnership is to understand to whom communications need to be directed. Let's use a baseball team for example. For the pitching coach to direct his instructions on how to pitch to the accounting department may make the pitching coach feel good and the accounting department may find it interesting, but it does no good in helping solve the pitching problem.
So, who is the stakeholder? Simply put, it is all parties that will be impacted by the transaction. A formidable number of the public-private partnership failures have occurred not out of intent but rather out of omission. A stakeholder was not considered. Lawsuits fly. The media has a feast. The partnership spends their time, energy and money trying to patch the dam. In many of these cases this could have been avoided if only a careful analysis of who would have been impacted by these actions had been done prior to a R.F.P. being issued. This review of stakeholders must be done many steps prior to a R.F.P. being created. It must be done at the very start. An exhaustive stakeholder list must be created to include all parties, even those who are antagonistic towards the process. Don't filter out the challenges. There are going to be the good, the bad and the ugly. All stakeholders must be addressed.
The stakeholders can be defined, in most cases, under six categories.
The Employee
The organization is not brick and mortar. It is real people, with real needs, with real fears and concerns, and with real families. The scope of the employee stakeholder list must be carefully considered to include: employees in departments directly involved, indirect departments, current third party suppliers, and the resulting organizational structural changes due to the privatization. The private sector must make the same analysis. The governmental sector should have, as part of their R.F.P. requirement, a section on what effect this transaction would have on the private sector contractor's employee relations.
Government Officials
Our form of government is the best in the world. It is founded upon a system of representation of the people by an elected body. Ideally, it is the responsibility of those officials to represent the needs and desires of the constituents they represent. The governmental body must be involved, informed and allowed to input in order for them to fulfill their elected obligations.
There are several stakeholders within this group such as elected officials who represent the employees affected by the privatization, committees, subcommittees, elected party leaders, non-elected government officials and department heads. These stakeholders may be on the federal, state, county and city level. These officials may include policy making, enforcement, budgeting, regulatory, social services, or the numerous other support agencies. The privatization may affect all or part of each of these.
Community Leaders
Community leaders may be the most overlooked, but may constitute the most powerful opinion molding segments. These are individuals who may have direct or indirect interest in the privatization initiative. These can include the Chamber of Commerce, neighborhood governance groups, environmental activists and civic social groups. They usually are concerned citizens who have a point of view or a platform position. They may be formal or informal leaders. Their interest may be founded upon valid or invalid information. No matter who, what or why, they can derail an initiative if their concerns are mishandled.
The Media
Don't make the ultimate mistake and ignore the media's need to stay informed. The media serves the public and plays a vital role in the success of your project. The media, electronic and print, can help make your privatization effort difficult, tolerable and occasionally the media can be a positive help. The media is composed of people. The art is how, when, where, how much, what and to whom do you communicate.
The Suppliers
The outsourcing privatization will affect your current suppliers or vendors who are providing you services or materials. They will all undoubtedly be affected to a varying degree by your decisions to outsource or privatize. Remember, they are still your suppliers and you still need their cooperation until the actual privatization transaction occurs. How do you keep them motivated?
The General Public
The public is composed of either those who sincerely care about your privatization effort; could care less; want to care if they knew more; want to be told they should care; informed; inventors of information; activist and objectors. People can move from one group to another as the privatization process goes along. The key is where do the majority end up at the end of the process.
Summary
The stakeholder identification process is critical. It should be documented and reviewed with a wide spectrum of trustworthy individuals who can provide input prior to any official announcement of a privatization effort. The ability to get this done and in what manner will differ from state to state depending upon open record laws and other regulations concerning meeting processes.
Once a stakeholder list has been defined then a strategy must be developed to deal with each of these groups. Do this prior to the R.F.P. being issued. Once an R.F.P. is issued you are consumed with the process. In many cases you are battling several brush fires at once. That is not the time to think about how to communicate with the stakeholders. You must have a plan.
Peggy.Robertson@dpb.virginia.gov
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