In this republished episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, I sat down with not one but two guests: Elke Jeurissen and Cato Léonard, co-founders of Glassroots and co-authors of a book on stakeholder management. Their work revolves around a simple premise that many leaders find uncomfortable: today’s challenges are too complex to solve from inside one organization, one department, or one familiar network. Real progress requires engaging the right mix of stakeholders, inside and outside the organization, and creating the conditions in which they can build something together.
Elke and Cato describe stakeholder engagement as more than “managing stakeholders” in a series of bilateral conversations. Instead, they focus on bringing stakeholders together in one shared process, allowing different perspectives, mandates, and incentives to surface at the same time. The conversation explores what separates partnerships that deliver results from those that get stuck in endless meetings. One recurring theme is the necessity of a clear, shared goal: without agreement on what the group is trying to achieve, and why each participant is there, collaboration becomes talk without traction.
The episode also highlights what it takes to make multi-stakeholder collaboration work in practice. Professional process design, transparent project management, measurable checkpoints, and clarity on responsibilities help turn goodwill into momentum. Just as importantly, Elke and Cato emphasize the human side: trust doesn’t appear automatically, especially when businesses, governments, academics, and non-profits bring different cultures and languages to the same table. Trust is built by acknowledging the initial lack of it, asking the right questions early, and creating an environment where differing interests can be expressed without derailing the common objective.
Listeners will also hear why diversity is not a slogan but a strategic ingredient. If everyone brings the same “piece of the puzzle,” the group stays in its existing frame. The discipline of stakeholder mapping, looking beyond the usual peer group and identifying who can, will, and wants to contribute, can elevate the outcome to a higher level. Along the way, the guests reflect on the role of technology, transparency, and the speed of change as forces that make stakeholder engagement less optional and more essential.
This episode is a practical invitation to lead with curiosity and courage: to admit what you don’t have, reach beyond your comfort zone, and build the kind of collaboration that helps you go far, together.
