Stakeholder Management for Social Service Professionals
About This Course
This two-day course equips social service professionals with practical tools to identify, analyse, engage and align stakeholders in complex multi-agency work. Participants will learn to map stakeholder landscapes, prioritise stakeholders, understand stakeholder needs and expectations, build trust, communicate tactfully, clarifyroles and decision authority, and manage differences constructively. Through realistic social service case studies, group practice and individual reflection, participants will develop a practical stakeholder engagement plan that can be applied to their work context.
What You'll Learn
At the end of this course, participants should be able to:
• Describe key stakeholder management concepts relevant to social service work, including stakeholder interests, needs, influence, concerns and expectations.
• Explain how trust, expectation management and feedback mechanisms support effective stakeholder engagement.
• Explain common causes of stakeholder misalignment, including unclear roles, competing priorities, decision authority, organisational constraints and stakeholder differences.
B. Key Skills (Practical Component)
At the end of this course, participants should be able to:
• Analyse and prioritise stakeholders in a social service-related case using stakeholder landscape mapping and power-interest analysis.
• Develop appropriate stakeholder engagement and communication responses that build trust, manage expectations and take organisational constraints into account.
• Apply stakeholder alignment tools to clarify roles, responsibilities, decision authority and conflict responsesin a multi-stakeholder situation.
Entry Requirements
• No prior formal training in stakeholder management is required.
• Attendees should have some exposure to working with internal or external stakeholders in social service, public service, community or partnership settings.
• Attendees should bring a laptop, tablet or writing materials for group activities and written assessment, as advised by SUSS.