Your Project is Private. The Opposition Isn’t.

Think the private sector is free from public outrage? Think again. Even a supermarket can get caught in controversy that pulls policymakers into the picture.

Many of our students work for firms with far more complex footprints:

• Energy: geothermal, utilities, high-voltage transmission, mining, nuclear, wind and solar
• Infrastructure: transportation (roads, bridges, airports), telecommunications, water systems
• Waste management: collection, transfer, recycling and landfill, hazardous materials, wastewater

One of these students, Scott, recently reached out for support as he and his team stretch themselves to apply Consent-Building in their work in the private sector.

Here's what he noticed:

"The projects have tangible local and individual benefits but they are not necessarily needed by the community. More interesting is that the community may have only limited influence on a project but they have the ability to cause significant and costly delays."

He's right. Getting things over the finish line in the private sector may not come with the spotlight, or the cynicism, that public professionals endure. But that doesn't mean private plans are safe from getting stalled or outright stopped.

The public knows how to pack a permitting room, pressure political figures, and build buzz against plans that will affect them. That's exactly why our Consent-Building approach was built for public professionals: they work in the most challenging environment there is for creating agreement. But private firms provoke public outrage too, and when they do, their bottom line and their ability to move forward are just as vulnerable.

A CEO can't be recalled. There's no process to put a company's plans on the ballot. Yet private-sector professionals still need to engage the public. Otherwise they risk delays, lawsuits, and the viability of the project itself.

Skeptical, seething stakeholders don't want a shiny brochure that sells them on the project.

They need something most marketing never touches.

Here's where it gets interesting. What's missing has everything to do with risk, but not the kind private firms usually assume. And not even the kind we help public professionals assess in their projects and their dealings with opponents.

What's missing is this:

Private firms almost never help the public understand the risk the company is taking, and the public is not.

If you work in the private sector, ask yourself: does anyone outside your firm understand what your company is putting on the line? If the answer is “no”, focus there to find how Consent-Building can shift public rejection of your company’s project to respect.