How do you communicate and engage your stakeholders on resiliency issues?

I've learned that communicating and engaging stakeholders on resiliency issues starts with knowing who they are and what they care about. Understand their concerns, preferences, and how they like to get information. Stakeholders come in all forms—internal, external, supportive, or resistant, each with different levels of influence. Mapping out these stakeholders and tailoring your approach to their needs is crucial. For example, the way you communicate with senior executives should differ from how you talk to frontline staff or community groups. Getting this right can make a huge difference in your impact and engagement.

A unique and impactful way to engage stakeholders in resilience issues is through storytelling. Share real-life examples and narratives that illustrate the importance and impact of resilience. This approach transforms abstract concepts into relatable, human-centered stories, creating 'aha' moments that resonate deeply. For instance, recounting how a specific resilience strategy helped an employee or a community can vividly highlight its value, making the concept of resilience more tangible and meaningful to your stakeholders.

Have a think about what is going to resonate with the audience, is it a story about a recent storm and the operational impacts on a comparative business. Is that story going to resonate more with Engineering dept. whereas a cyber security event may have more impact with a remote Contact Center team. By understanding and addressing the specific needs of different stakeholder groups, leveraging storytelling, and fostering a collaborative, informed approach, you can effectively communicate the critical importance of resilience throughout your organization.

These are solid points. I would add that you need to build trust. If your stakeholders trust you, you'll have an easier time communicating even tough truths. How to build trust? Do what you say and say what you do.

Stakeholders like metrics, it's the proof that their business is either moving forward, getting stuck or falling behind. The way to build a resilient culture at a company is to have leadership clearly define what their vision is for the future. This way your employees can see how they fit in. Realizing that future vision will be an iterative process driven by metrics. The problem is, you don't know how long it will take. It will never be soon enough for most stakeholders. When the metrics say it's time to pivot; stop, think and learn from your mistakes so that you can move forward with confidence. Resilient leaders understand that setbacks are how we learn not to make the same mistakes in the future, when the stakes are much higher.

Clearly define what you aim to achieve with your communication. This might include increasing awareness about resiliency practices, gaining support for new initiatives, or encouraging stakeholders to take specific actions. Your objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).

By outlining the purpose and desired outcomes, stakeholders can understand the importance and contribute effectively to resilience initiatives. Consistent communication and transparency can further build trust and collaboration, ensuring alignment towards shared resilience goals.

Complete a critical self review about if the presentation or pack meets the set objectives of the session. Do your slides add to the conversation? Verify that each slide and each talking point directly contributes to your goals. Are the talking points aligned? Ensure your spoken narrative adds value, reinforcing key messages without redundancy. Build in storytelling as a powerful part of risk communication. Check that your talking points are logically ordered and flow smoothly. Is the technology appropriate? Use technological tools that add clarity and impact to your presentation, avoiding anything that could introduce unnecessary complexity or distractions.

Who is your best customer? Who would you like to rinse and repeat 1000 times? Define who your ideal customer is first before setting goals and objectives. Without focus, your message will get watered down, targets will be missed and employees will get discouraged and burned out. Not a great recipe for resilience. If you don't know who your ideal customer is, your objective should be to find that out first. Rather than set a sales goal, set a goal to evaluate all of your current clients and identify who your best customer is by (date). Once you know who your best customer is, you can set SMART sales goals. Moving forward with intent and confidence builds resilience in your team.

When setting objectives, think beyond raising awareness—aim for actionable outcomes. Clarity is critical: articulate what stakeholders need to know, feel, and do. For example, instead of a generic goal like "promote awareness about resiliency," refine it to "empower department heads to implement proactive risk management protocols within 60 days." Align goals with organizational priorities and emphasize how they contribute to shared success. Use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) criteria to maintain focus and accountability. Clearly linking communication objectives to broader business resilience goals ensures alignment and value recognition.

Storytelling helps messages stick. By sharing real stories, people can understand why resilience matters. Highlighting benefits shows why it's important, motivating others to take action.

Storytelling and visualizations are key to good communication. There are great techniques you can borrow from the movie industry (e.g., The Hero's Journey). Or the AIDA principle: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

One thing I found particularly effective is focusing on concrete examples: Message: Resilience turns challenges into opportunities. Illustration: Share a specific instance where a business overcame a significant supply chain disruption by implementing flexible strategies, resulting in new market opportunities and strengthened customer trust.

In a struggling company, storytelling and root cause analysis help leadership reflect on lessons learned. In 2007 at the start of the financial crisis, my company was sabotaged by one of my customers buyers. He was making secret moves to block all private label products from coming into his department. The results were financially devastating. When I speak with company stakeholders about growing sales and resilience, I share that story about risk vs reward. I learned to ask better questions that demand better answers. Sometimes in the excitement of closing a big deal, we let our guard down and your risk can outweigh the potential reward. Being resilient means learning from your mistakes so that you and others don't have to repeat them.

Resilience is a complex topic; translating it into clear, engaging narratives is vital. Focus on "WIIFM" (What’s In It For Me?) for each stakeholder group. For example, share a story about a competitor's operational failure due to poor planning, showing how resiliency mitigates similar risks. Use relatable language: instead of discussing “business continuity frameworks,” frame the message as “keeping the business running no matter what.” Balance logic (facts and evidence) with emotion (real-life impacts) to inspire urgency and buy-in. Stories humanize data, and when coupled with relevant visuals or analogies, they stick.

Select appropriate channels and tools based on your stakeholders' preferences and behaviors. This could include: Meetings and presentations for internal stakeholders. Social media, newsletters, and press releases for wider audiences. Interactive workshops and feedback sessions.

Write quick snapshot articles on Resilience topics for your workplace collaboration space. It is a great, low effort, way to build momentum and it enables you to channel those employees that have an interest in Resilience, Business Continuity and Crisis Management. Topics could include a summary of recent Business Continuity or Crisis events, relevant reports and creditable research, insights into industry best practice. End with a question or prompt to foster discussions and feedback, building a community of interest. Quick snapshot articles are a straightforward, impactful method to maintain dialogue on resilience within your organization, encouraging a culture of preparedness and proactive engagement.

Resilience is applicable to all aspects of life but in business, it's been my experience that business leaders like business stories that they can relate to. If your time with leadership is limited, get very clear on what the problem is and lay it out in a business case. Identify the problem, potential solutions and the pitfalls of inaction. A simple business case can be 2 pages at most and like the process for resilience, it should provide a clear problem statement, a desired future state, options for different methods of achieving that future state and metrics to measure progress. Finally, what is the cost of doing nothing at all? If time with stakeholders is limited, get clear with a business case before engaging in conversation.

No single method fits all; adopt multi-channel strategies to maximize reach and relevance. Senior leaders may prefer concise reports and dashboards; employees might engage better through interactive workshops or gamified learning. Leverage technology strategically—use video to personalize leadership messages, social media for rapid updates, or platforms like Slack for two-way communication. Crucially, enable feedback loops. For example, a quarterly survey can assess understanding and gather stakeholder insights. Regularly revisit your methods to ensure they evolve with stakeholder preferences and technological advancements.

Execute your plan according to the defined timeline and tactics. Monitor the effectiveness of your communication efforts through feedback, engagement metrics, and stakeholder responses. Be ready to adjust your strategy as needed based on this feedback.

Resilience Iterative Process: 1. Define a clear problem statement 2. Create a hypothesis to solve the problem 3. Test your hypothesis 4. Review the KPI's 5. Double down on what is working 6. Learn from your mistakes 7. Take corrective actions 8. Rinse and repeat Resilience is your ability to learn from mistakes and keep moving forward. If you are clear on where you are going, this framework will help you get there. VISION, IDENTITY, PROOF

Execution must balance flexibility with structure. Start with a pilot phase to test and refine methods before scaling. Monitor progress through KPIs aligned with communication goals—e.g., participation rates, message retention, or changes in stakeholder behaviors. Utilize feedback tools like pulse surveys or analytics from digital channels to gauge effectiveness in real time. Proactively address gaps or resistance by adapting tactics rather than rigidly adhering to the original plan. Iteration is key: successful implementation hinges on acting swiftly on lessons learned during the process.

Reflect on what worked well and what didn’t. Document these lessons and share them with your team to improve future communication efforts. Best practices could be shared through internal knowledge-sharing sessions, case studies, or even industry conferences.

I like a good case study. Too often, when you recall a business lesson you've learned, you might leave out important details when retelling the story. The act of writing out a short case study helps you relive the entire experience, remembering important details that might get lost in translation when retelling your story. If you want to share a lesson learned, share the full story in a simple 7 step case study: 1. Context & Background 2. Objective 3. Action Taken 4. Outcome 5. Lesson Learned 6. Recommendation 7. Conclusion If your business case is longer than 2 pages, use chat GPT to help you rewrite your business case in 1000 words or less.

Post-implementation, conduct a structured after-action review (AAR) with key stakeholders to evaluate successes, gaps, and unexpected outcomes. Emphasize sharing actionable insights broadly, transforming lessons into a resiliency knowledge base accessible to future teams. For example, create a digital repository of case studies, templates, and strategies that worked well. Celebrate successes to reinforce positive behavior, and transparently address areas for improvement. Sharing lessons builds organizational learning and demonstrates commitment to continuous improvement, enhancing credibility and trust among stakeholders.

Problematise the concept. Resilience is another weasel word, which means different things to different people, and as the literature demonstrates, can lock us into highly undesirable states. Just because it is fashionable, we ought not to assume that "resilience" is necessarily a good thing, or that people want to be resilient in the sense of having to tolerate or "bounce back" from damage.

My copyrighted communication cycle works in all conditions, for all management systems, for all types of communication: WHO(communicates)-WHAT(to)-WHOM-WHEN(and)-HOW. The challenge is that everyone knows Resiliency and issues related with it, but no one actually knows it (or wants to work on it). Hence, no communication is enough. Start with raising awareness through simple communication, regulations, sharing reports, cases and case studies and go up to sharing your own case studies (once you have achieved some success). At this point, I go up to the extent to advise 'blowing your own trumpet' - if you have done some good or achieved - let the whole world know (including your relevant interested parties/ stakeholders)

Every interaction, whether online or in-person, is an opportunity to reinforce your credibility as a resilience expert and to advocate for the discipline within your organization. By being proactively helpful and offering your expertise willingly, both in responding to direct queries and in volunteering insights that could benefit others. Keep in mind, that you will be remembered by how you made the person, who may be under stress and pressure, feel and not directly what you said. It’s the impact you have on individuals, particularly in challenging times, that truly defines your legacy as a resilience professional.

Think in solutions instead of problems. Problems get you to nowhere, solutions get you to knowhere. This is highly important in informing stakeholders because while it may be easier to list all the problems, it literally gets you nowhere without considering solutions to them simultaneously.

A critical but often overlooked aspect is embedding resiliency into organizational culture. Communication is not a one-time effort but a continuous conversation. Ensure resiliency messages align with the organization’s mission and values. Use leadership champions to model behavior and communicate authentically. Additionally, prepare for communication under pressure—establish pre-approved messaging for crises, ensuring speed and consistency when stakes are high. Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of informal networks; leveraging employee advocates or community influencers can amplify resiliency messages in unexpected and effective ways.