Building Trust with Stakeholders

Following the prioritization of stakeholders and issues, stakeholder engagement proceeds with the establishment of trusting relationships. Developing trusting relationships typically requires an organization’s members to overcome legacies and misunderstandings stemming from poor local knowledge, cultural insensitivity, perceived instrumentalism, and frequent personnel turnover. Similarly, local stakeholders must frequently overcome their suspicion of foreigners, pre-existing socio-political conflict, closed social systems, and cultural insensitivity.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the key elements of trust and the “social license to operate” (SLO)
  • Indentify the strengths and weakness of various strategies to build trust and the social license