The Missing Voices in Public Affairs: Why Lived Experience Must Shape Strategic Communications
By Oluwayemisi Mafe
Communications professionals pride ourselves on understanding audiences. We conduct research, analyze stakeholder landscapes, develop audience personas, test messages, and measure engagement. We advise executives on reputation, help organizations navigate crises, and build strategies designed to foster trust.
Yet despite these efforts, one of the most valuable forms of expertise is still too often absent from the decision-making process; lived experience.
Across sectors from healthcare and government to corporate sustainability and community engagement, organizations frequently make decisions that affect people without meaningfully involving those people in the process. As a result, communications strategies may be technically sound but disconnected from the realities of the communities they aim to serve.
As communicators, we have an opportunity and arguably a responsibility to help change that.
Beyond Audience Identification
Traditional communications planning begins with identifying stakeholders and understanding their needs. This remains essential. However, many organizations stop at consultation rather than moving toward genuine collaboration.
Too often, affected communities are viewed primarily as audiences to be informed rather than partners to be engaged.
A public consultation is held after major decisions have already been made. A communications campaign is developed and tested internally before being released to the public. Policies are announced with messaging designed to explain decisions rather than involving stakeholders in shaping them.
The result is a familiar pattern and organizations wonder why stakeholders are resistant, disengaged, or skeptical despite significant communications efforts.
The challenge is not always the quality of the messaging. Sometimes the challenge is that the people most affected were never meaningfully included in the conversation.
In an era characterized by declining trust in institutions, increasing public scrutiny, and growing expectations around transparency, organizations can no longer afford to treat lived experience as an afterthought.
Lived Experience Is Expertise
For many years, expertise was defined primarily by academic credentials, professional experience, and technical knowledge. While these remain critically important, organizations are increasingly recognizing another valuable form of expertise; the knowledge gained through lived experience.
Individuals who directly experience a policy, service, system, or societal challenge often possess insights that cannot be captured through research alone. They understand barriers that data may not reveal. They identify unintended consequences that planners may overlook. They offer perspectives that help organizations anticipate risks, strengthen programs, and build trust. For communications professionals, this distinction matters.
When we include lived experience in stakeholder engagement processes, we gain access to a richer understanding of audience needs, concerns, motivations, and expectations. That understanding ultimately leads to more effective communications strategies. This is particularly relevant in sectors where public trust is essential.
Healthcare organizations seeking to improve patient engagement can benefit from involving patients and caregivers in communications planning.
Government agencies designing public information campaigns can improve effectiveness by engaging citizens who will be directly affected by policies.
Companies pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives can strengthen credibility by including communities impacted by their operations.
The lesson is consistent across contexts, people are more likely to trust organizations when they feel heard, respected, and included.
The Business Case for Inclusion
Some communications professionals may view lived experience primarily through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. While inclusion is certainly part of the conversation, there is also a compelling strategic case.
Organizations that integrate lived experience into decision-making often achieve stronger outcomes because they gain access to insights that improve both strategy and execution.
Meaningful engagement can help organizations:
- Identify potential issues before they become reputational risks.
- Improve the relevance and clarity of communications.
- Strengthen stakeholder trust and credibility.
- Increase adoption of programs and initiatives.
- Build stronger relationships with communities and partners.
- Demonstrate accountability and transparency.
In other words, inclusion is not simply about representation. It is about effectiveness. The most successful organizations increasingly recognize that people affected by decisions should not merely be recipients of information. They should be contributors to the process. For communications professionals, this represents a significant opportunity to elevate our role within organizations. Rather than focusing exclusively on message development and dissemination, we can help leaders understand the value of engagement, co-creation, and stakeholder partnership.
From Consultation to Co-Creation
If organizations are serious about incorporating lived experience into strategic communications, what does that look like in practice? First, engagement must begin earlier. Stakeholders should not be invited into the conversation only after key decisions have been finalized. Early engagement allows organizations to understand concerns, identify opportunities, and build trust before significant resources have been invested.
Second, organizations should establish structures that enable ongoing dialogue. Advisory councils, community panels, stakeholder working groups, and lived-experience committees can provide valuable perspectives that inform both communications and broader organizational decision-making.
Third, communicators should advocate for message testing that extends beyond internal teams. Communications materials often undergo extensive review by subject-matter experts, legal advisors, and senior leaders. While these perspectives are important, organizations should also seek feedback from the people they are trying to reach. If a message is not clear, credible, or relevant to its intended audience, no amount of creative execution will compensate for that gap.
Fourth, organizations should measure trust not just reach. Traditional communications metrics such as impressions, clicks, and media coverage remain useful. However, they do not always capture whether stakeholders feel heard, respected, or included. As trust becomes an increasingly valuable organizational asset, communicators should advocate for measurement approaches that assess relationship quality alongside communications performance.
The Future of Strategic Communications
The communications profession is evolving. Artificial intelligence is transforming workflows. Stakeholder expectations continue to rise. Public trust remains fragile across many institutions. Social issues increasingly intersect with business decisions. In this environment, technical communications skills alone will not be enough.
Organizations will need communicators who can facilitate dialogue, build relationships, navigate complexity, and bring diverse perspectives into decision-making processes. This requires a shift in mindset. Instead of asking, how do we communicate this decision? we may need to ask, who should be involved in shaping this decision? Instead of viewing communities as audiences, we should view them as partners. Instead of treating lived experience as supplementary information, we should recognize it as a source of expertise. Communicators are uniquely positioned to lead this shift.
Our profession sits at the intersection of organizations and the people they serve. We understand the importance of listening. We appreciate the value of trust. We recognize that reputation is built not only through what organizations say, but also through how they engage.
As stakeholder expectations continue to evolve, organizations that embrace lived experience will be better equipped to build trust, strengthen relationships, and achieve meaningful outcomes. The communications profession has long understood the importance of knowing our audiences. The next evolution of our practice is ensuring those audiences have a voice in shaping the decisions that affect them.
Lived experience is not simply a perspective to be acknowledged. It is expertise to be included.
Oluwayemisi Mafe, MCIPR, ACIM, MNIMN, ANIPR, is a strategic communications and public affairs leader with more than 15 years of experience helping organizations build trust, strengthen stakeholder relationships, and navigate complex reputation and policy issues across Africa and Canada. She specializes in corporate communications, public affairs, health advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and inclusive communications.