Importance of good stakeholder relationships

Hi all,

I hope everyone is enjoying their internships so far!

Things have been a bit slow at the Office of Heritage up until now, just a quick recap on what I'm doing there; Every year the Heritage Council produces a promotional calendar of Heritage properties across Western Australia, so my job has been to choose places, work with owners and photographers on getting suitable images, writing a short blurb for each property, then work with designers to produce the final product.

So things have been slow as we are working with the National Trust of Australia and the Department of Local Government, so having to wait for replies takes time, unfortunately I have also been really sick this semester, so things were on hold for a little while! But the past week has been great and things are really swinging into action!

One of the biggest things I have learnt so far is the importance of stakeholder relationships; to date I've had to liaise with regional advisers on what places they think could be suitable for the calendar; I've liaised with most employees in the Office of Heritage to see if there are any particular places they would like to feature due to reasons like wanting to get the shire's attention or wanting to work with certain architects etc; I've also liaised with many different photographers, many of which have taken pictures for the calendar previously.

My supervisor always reminds me how important it is to have good stakeholder relationships; we try to maintain these relationships by communicating regularly with owners of properties featuring in the calendar, one of my favourite things to do at my internship so far is telling owners that we have chosen their property to feature as they are always so happy and excited! We also get permission from shires and the Department of Environment and Conservation (even though we don't have to) just to maintain good communication and relationships. These are to just name a few, but most of my days consist of emails and phone calls communicating to important stakeholders not because we have to, but because we want to maintain good relationships.

It is clear that my supervisor has a great relationship with the organisation's stakeholders, which she preserves by going that extra length to be friendly or to help them out. There have been many times where I have seen the benifit of having good stakeholder relationships; we have had regional advisors in Toodyay taking pictures of ceilings and fittings; National Trust members in Beverley taking pictures of doornobs; and even had a shire member in Geraldton drive to a bridge, park his car on it to look like someone was driving over the bridge, and take a picture! To see people go so out of their way for my supervisor amazes me, but just shows that it pays to communicate regularly and to always be welcoming and friendly (all of which she alway does!)

Many suggest that stakeholder management is the heart and soul of corporate public relations, from which all else follows and from my time at the Office of Heritage so far, I definitely agree.

So the 12 places have been chosen now and all images have been selected, now I have to finish the blurbs, work with the designer and get everything approved!

Happy interning!