Campus Dining Today Spring 2021 - 28

" Engagement is the cornerstone of our
program - students want authentic,
genuine engagement, to be active
participants in the process, and our
success depends on their ownership. "
SHAY LITTLE
Vice President for Student Affairs
Georgia Southern University

Formalize your plan in terms of who you are going to
talk to, why you want to talk to them, and what you are
going to do with the information.
Finally, determine the outreach methods you believe will
be most effective toward gathering the insights needed.
Make sure the plan is comprehensive and cast a wide
net. It's always better to over-franchise stakeholders into
the conversation early.
In terms of approach, make engagement manageable
both for yourself and the stakeholders involved. Consider
the balance between maintaining good communication
and not adding burden with too much outreach. Be
educational in your outreach regarding the impact or
possibilities associated with stakeholder choices. In the
long-run, this will reduce agenda or political wrangling;
and stakeholders will be more apt to build consensus
around the " right " choice. Make it as easy as possible
for stakeholders to understand any complicated
issues-while you're deep in the data, stakeholders
are not. A best practice is to always make outreach
communications succinctly topic oriented, finding the
right combination of trend verses detail and using
infographics to make a point is worth a 1,000 words.
The alignment of outreach methods and engagement
objectives is essential to success and you have a
variety of options. Personal interviews and small group
discussions are effective for early exploration and
gaining directional feedback on issues. They can help
you uncover organic insights on varying viewpoints,
better understand how stakeholders are thinking about
the topic, lead to new ways on how you personally see
the issues/solutions, and feed any future quantitative
outreach. Seek out thought-leaders and influencers to be
part of the discussions, limit participation for meaningful
input, be willing to meet them at their own place/time,
and always speak to the value of their input.

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CAMPUS DINING TODAY | Art & S ci e nce of Engagement

Use discussions to find potential partnering opportunities
and flush out possible barriers. Use compassion in addressing
sensitive topics without leading with potential obstacles to
success. Broader approaches like town halls and survey research
instruments work best as follow-up outreach, but never as a
starting point. Be careful in using quantitative outreach methods
as they are a focused " decision-making tool. " Generating data
that doesn't directly inform business or brand strategy is a
meaningless exercise.

I N F O R M , E M P OW E R , A N D C E L E B R AT E
When the engagement plan has been successfully executed,
quickly capture the momentum and publicity associated with the
engagement process. Get back to stakeholders right away, thank
them for participating, make a big deal of it, and let them know
they have been heard. Asking for input then not following up
leads to apathy about involvement in future engagement efforts.
To the extent possible, share the knowledge gained to build
support for " activating the results " and set the stage for resource
alignment. Use the results of engagement to be creative and enlist
the support of groups who have a stake in the game.
Build financial and operational partnerships around common
objectives. Be careful that promises made in the engagement
process are fulfilled and those requiring a financial commitment
are affordable, because backtracking after the fact is painful.
There are many occasions when the preferences or the " wish list "
resulting from the engagement cannot be operationalized (e.g.,
service hours, sustainability, new concepts, etc.) and the best
policy is transparency and education. Speak plainly and openly
about the obstacles, the challenges, and the impacts and the
options. Leave the door open. Finally, empower stakeholders to
help move engagement driven strategies forward. The biggest
engagement successes come from crafting strong alliances, and
along the way celebrating each other's assets and strengths.
Campus Dining Today Spring 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Campus Dining Today Spring 2021
