Don’t Just Send the Survey: Rethinking Stakeholder Engagement
When organizations set out to develop a strategic plan, redesign services, or gather feedback, the default tool is often a survey. And for good reason: surveys can be fast, relatively inexpensive to administer, and scalable. But here’s the problem: surveys are only one part of the puzzle. If we rely too heavily on them, we risk reducing stakeholder engagement to a transactional task instead of a meaningful process that builds trust, fosters collaboration, and uncovers insights we can’t get from multiple-choice (or even open-ended) survey questions alone.
We often say: don’t just send the survey. Stakeholders deserve robust engagement strategies that meet them where they are, capture nuance, and create opportunities for shared ownership. The goal isn’t just to collect data; rather, it’s to design processes that invite dialogue, strengthen relationships, and surface perspectives that might otherwise go unheard.
This post explores some of the ways organizations can move beyond surveys to create richer, more intentional engagement. From infusion activities and focus groups to short-form surveys and embedded conversations, the strategies below are adaptable to nearly any planning or feedback process.
The Limits of Surveys – and Why They Still Matter
Let’s be clear: surveys aren’t the enemy here. A well-crafted survey, distributed with purpose and care, remains one of the most efficient tools for gathering broad input. They’re especially helpful when you need to quantify trends, compare perspectives across stakeholder groups, or invite feedback from large and dispersed audiences.
But too often, surveys are:
Too long. A 20-minute survey is more likely to frustrate than enlighten.
Too generic. If questions feel disconnected from lived experiences, responses won’t yield actionable insights.
Too transactional. Stakeholders don’t feel heard when their only role is clicking boxes.
The takeaway? Keep surveys short, intentional, and targeted. They should be one piece of a larger ecosystem of engagement, not the entire strategy.
Equally important is recognizing when surveys are most effective in relation to other methods. For example, surveys often work best as a starting point – a way to map the landscape, identify broad themes, and highlight areas that deserve deeper exploration in focus groups, interviews, or infusion activities. Other times, surveys are valuable as a follow-up, confirming or testing ideas that surfaced in more qualitative conversations. And in some cases, surveys can run concurrently with other forms of engagement, offering both quantitative and qualitative perspectives at the same time.
Think of surveys as the connective tissue of an engagement process:
Use them before other activities to set the stage and surface initial questions (explanatory sequential deployment)
Use them during to capture real-time reactions and widen participation (concurrent deployment).
Use them after to validate findings, prioritize options, or measure shifts in perception (exploratory sequential deployment).
By situating surveys in this broader flow, organizations can take advantage of what surveys do best (breadth, comparability, and scalability) while also addressing their limits by layering in dialogue-driven methods that capture nuance, context, and emotion.
Infusion Activities: Bringing Engagement into the Everyday
One of the most powerful shifts we encourage clients to make is to think about engagement not as a separate, standalone event, but as something that can be infused into existing spaces and routines. We call them infusion activities, and they are especially effective because they meet stakeholders where they already are – whether that’s at a staff meeting, in the student union, or a stakeholder event.
Passive Tabling. Think of this as a low-barrier entry point. Set up a table in a high-traffic space with a simple prompt (“What’s one thing you’d like to see improved about our service options?”). Provide stick notes, markers, short comment forms, and/or “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” stickers. People can stop by for a couple of minutes, share a thought, and move on. It’s easy, visible, and accessible.
Active Tabling. Take tabling events a step further by stationing staff or volunteers at the table to recruit participants and facilitate short, informal conversations. A two-minute dialogue can uncover stories, frustrations, or ideas that never surface in surveys or passive engagement methods. Offering a small giveaway (free coffee, a swag item, or a prize wheel spin, for example) can help draw people in and build excitement.
Discussion Opportunities. Leverage existing meetings or gatherings by carving out time for facilitated conversations. For example, a 15-minute breakout at a staff retreat or a roundtable during a meeting. These conversations can be guided by one or two focused questions, making them easy to integrate without overwhelming agendas or asking for a huge time commitment.
Infusion activities make engagement visible, approachable, and participatory. They also signal that feedback isn’t just collected. It’s invited into the everyday fabric of organizational life.
Interviews: Depth and Context
Where surveys provided breadth, interviews provided depth. One-on-one or small-group interviews are especially valuable when working with key stakeholders, decision-makers, or those whose voices are often overlooked.
The benefit of interviews is twofold:
Rich narratives. Stakeholders can share stories, explain context, and surface connections that structured tools miss.
Relationship-building. Taking the time to listen builds trust, which pays dividends in implementation and future collaboration.
For organizations concerned about capacity, interviews don’t have to be long or formal. Even a 30-minute structured conversation can provide significant insights. The key is intentionality: selecting the right facilitator, preparing guiding questions, ensuring a comfortable environment, and actively listening.
Focus Groups: Collective Insights
Focus groups bring together a small group of stakeholders (usually 6-10) to discuss a set of prompts. While similar to interviews, the group dynamic adds value: participants build on one another’s ideas, debate different perspectives, and surface collective themes.
To maximize their effectiveness:
Be clear on purpose. Focus groups aren’t brainstorming sessions; they’re opportunities to understand experiences and perceptions.
Create balance. Skilled facilitation ensures all voices are heard, not just the most vocal.
Keep it manageable. Ninety minutes or less with 10 or fewer participants is usually sufficient.
Focus groups are particularly helpful for testing assumptions, refining emerging ideas, or exploring themes identified in surveys. They offer a middle ground between breadth and depth.
Designing Intentional Surveys
When you do send a survey, make it count. A few practical tips:
Keep it short. Five minutes or less should be the goal.
Prioritize clarity. Use plain language and avoid jargon.
Focus on what you’ll use. Don’t ask about things you can’t or won’t act on.
Add open-ended space. Even one question (“Anything else you’d like us to know?”) can surface valuable insights.
Intentional surveys show respect for stakeholders’ time and demonstrate that you’re serious about listening.
Building a Culture of Engagement and Partnership
The strategies discussed in this blog are tools, but the larger goal is to create a culture where stakeholder engagement is experienced, valued, and ongoing. That requires:
Consistency. Engagement shouldn’t be a one-off event tied to a single project.
Transparency. Share back what you heard and how it’s informing decisions.
Accessibility. Offer multiple entry points so people can participate in ways that suit them.
When stakeholders see that their input matters – and that it leads to real outcomes – they’re more likely to stay engaged. And that’s when the process shifts from data collection to shared ownership.
At the end of the day, meaningful engagement is about partnership. Surveys have their place, for sure, but they’re just one (perhaps overutilized) tool in a much larger toolbox. By infusing feedback opportunities into everyday spaces, leveraging interviews and focus groups for depth, and designing short, intentional surveys, organizations can create processes that are both rigorous and relational.
The next time you’re planning a new initiative, ask yourself: Are we just sending the survey? Or are we building a process that truly invites stakeholders into the conversation?
Because when stakeholders feel heard, not just surveyed, the results speak for themselves.
If you’re ready to move beyond the survey and design engagement strategies that build trust and ownership, let’s talk.
