Case study: Ministry of Economic Development

The Ministry of Economic Development’s Organisational Development Strategy 2007-2012 (ODS) includes a key project aimed at strengthening both internal and external relationships.  The project has two work strands designed to help MED be more productive and effective in delivering policy advice.

• Dialogue and conversation skills:
  Tools are provided to build capability with a range of different conversation styles, balance advocacy with enquiry, and underpin collaborative approaches to policy development and engagement
• Stakeholder relationship management and engagement:
  Guidelines and tools are being developed and supported by internal 'consultant' resources to build capability and practice.

The overall strategy is 'owned' by the Chief Executive, and the relationships project is sponsored by two Deputy Secretaries. 

A number of interlinked drivers led to the decision that MED needed to focus attention on becoming a more collaborative organisation - one which valued meaningful engagement with both internal and external stakeholders.

• Stakeholders’ survey 2007:
  This generally rated the organisation well, and commented on staff professionalism. However, stakeholders identified areas where the organisation could strengthen stakeholder relationship management and engagement.
• Staff survey 2007:
  This was completed by over 80% of staff, and  identified areas for improvement around engagement, communication and relationship management.
• Senior leadership team: 
  The team was extensively involved in developing the ODS. Eight key issues impacting on the organisation were identified, with half of these relating to information sharing and relationships.
• 'Sharpening focus': 
  Another project within the ODS addresses the concern that when things get busy, gathering of new ideas and perspectives through networking and relationship-building tends to drop off.

The EDR team has been supporting this work within MED and developing collective capability around engagement and relationship management.  

The EDR team is a small team (currently two staff members) located within the Industry and Regional Development (I&RD) vranch of the Ministry.  I&RD branch works with a wide range of stakeholders:

• private sector and others who fall within the 'innovation system' (including: industry representative bodies/advisory groups; research, science & technology; education)
• those who facilitate economic and firm/sector capability development (local/regional government; economic development agencies; and delivery agencies/Crown Entities, such as NZ Trade & Enterprise, Tourism NZ)
• those who support the development/deepening of New Zealand capital markets
• other government departments. 

The EDR team's approach to this work is to consider:

• the overall organisational system
• the underlying drivers of current behaviour/practice
• where these link to other ways in which MED works
• levers for change. 

EDR aims to promote and support good engagement practice in what is, effectively, an organisational/cultural change process. There is a collaborative approach to identifying needs, and a coaching approach to helping policy teams find solutions to the challenges they face.   Because of the team's small size, the focus is on working with policy teams to develop their engagement capability – as opposed to acting as intermediaries with stakeholders. EDR further supports this with on-going research and development of good practice tools such as guidelines, methodologies and case studies.

EDR is currently piloting a range of approaches and initiatives within I&RD branch.  The resulting resources and tools will be available Ministry-wide.

The EDR works closely with the Organisation Development and Strategy Branch within MED. In particular the Human Resources, Communications and Knowledge Management teams, and these teams play a critical role in assisting the EDR in developing and embedding good engagement practices.

As part of supporting change, EDR is running the following pilot projects:

• Dialogue and conversation skills:
  • Work with the I&RD branch management team (Deputy Secretary plus third and fourth tier management) to build capability and skills, so they can model behaviour and disseminate tools, behaviours and practice to their own teams. Strengthened leadership and team building are other key objectives of this pilot.
• Stakeholder relationship management and engagement:
  • Focus on strengthening one key relationship (with parallels elsewhere in MED for subsequent roll out of lessons learnt).
  • Stakeholder mapping, prioritising and strategic planning.

Work on a sustainability pilot to test good dialogue practices was also run by the Economic Strategy branch.

All new policy analysts within the Ministry take part in a two-day policy development training workshop.  Recently, an interactive component on engaging with stakeholders has been added to this training – with positive feedback received from participants. 

The EDR team is also considering working with the MED’s Learning and Development team to put together a half-day workshop on engaging with stakeholders – which will be available to staff across the Ministry.

An engagement syndicate comprising engagement 'champions' has been established, involving policy analysts and representatives of other key functions from around MED, for example: HR, Knowledge Management and project management specialists.

The champions focus on promoting the importance of engaging with stakeholders within their own teams, building/sharing knowledge and also assisting EDR with other key initiatives.

Other major pieces of work underway include:    

• an intranet-based set of resources, including good practice guidelines, and tools to assist with engagement and relationship management 
• a series of events around 'hot' engagement topics
• a feedback tool for stakeholders
• work with policy teams on planning, implementing and debriefing engagement plans for key pieces of policy development.

MED – and the I&RD branch through its work with industry and regional clusters – has a major focus on the development of policy that will help to grow the New Zealand economy.  The EDR team and the Ministry believes that by focusing on better engagement and building/maintaining targeted,  long-term relationships with the organisation’s stakeholders, better policy outcomes will be achieved.  The approach and initiatives described in the previous section will, it is hoped, embed effective engagement within the Ministry.

Case study uploaded December 2008.