Workshop on Community Relations, Crisis Management and Negotiation

Program overview:

Effective community relations can only be achieved when an organization recognizes its interdependence with the other institution. When the management recognizes the many ways, its organization can impact on the local community and the extent of reciprocal dependence, it will help to establish social balance. The practice of good community relations assists the organization in securing its needs from the community while it also provides what the community expects. Also, it helps to secure the company’s investments, increase sales of products, the value of stocks, and improve the general operating climate of business

This program is designed to assist participants acquire in-depth insights and hands-on knowledge on how to best create shared value for communities and businesses alike.  It will not only dispel myths relating with community engagement but will also focus on how to manage community stakeholders effectively to ensure a ‘win-win’ and to prevent conflict whenever possible.

For whom:

This program is designed for Executives involved in strategic and operational functions, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Practitioners at all levels, community relations personnel, Business Operations Managers. All Personnel involved in communications, business strategy, community relations, governmental affairs will equally benefit from this program.

Learning objectives:

At the end of the program, participants will be able to:

• explain the role of organizations in managing community relations;
• discern the different areas of meaningful impact organizations can have in the communities;
• create meaningful stakeholder engagement techniques;
• analyze and report impact and why this is important;
• develop stronger relationships with the communities where their businesses operate which will likely contribute to the ‘social license to operate’;
• improve on brand image and business reputation via the application of methods and concepts learnt during the course; and
• create increased recognition by community stakeholders as a collaborative partner

Course Outline:

Day 1: Community Relations: Overview

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vs. Community Engagement
• Understanding the Importance of Community Engagement
• Defining the Corporate Community Involvement Mission
• Identifying Key Stakeholders
• Stakeholder Expectations of Our Organisation
• Assessing Impacts and Pre-empting Risks
• Reputational Impact

DAY 2: Integrating community involvement into the business

• Integrating Community Involvement into the Business
• Environmental Issues
• Health and Safety
• Local Procurement
• Education
• Capacity Building
• Reputation Management

Day 3: Practical steps for community engagement

• Developing Engagement Programmes
• Community-Driven Projects
• Social Contribution Projects
• Corporate Giving and Foundations
• Engagement Techniques
• Corporate Communication with the Communities
• Presenting our organization to the communities

we operate In

• Budgeting
• Practical Exercises in Community Dialogue

DAY 4: Crises Management and Response Techniques

• Identifying and Conducting the Crisis Audit
• Performing a Risk Level Analysis
• Developing a Response Process
• Incident Management Techniques.
• Working through the Issues
• Establishing an Emergency Operations Center
• Building Business Continuity and Recovery

Day 5: Fundamentals of dispute resolution

• Overview of the dispute resolution process
• Methods of dispute resolution including:
  • Litigation, Arbitration, Collaborative law
  • Mediation, Conciliation, Negotiation, Facilitation
• The Negotiation Process
  • Dealing with Difficult Negotiations
  • The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system

Action Plan

• Improving what we do – action planning
• Negotiation case study

Training Methodology

• Lectures, discussions, exercises, case studies, audio-visual aids will be used to reinforce these teaching/learning methods.