Post by Gerrit Goedecke

A good professional relationship has a simple test: would you still meet for coffee years later? Yesterday in Perth, I did exactly that with Renee Wilkinson from Purple. We caught up over coffee, compared notes on what has happened since I left Australia, and I even got to see the new Purple office. It took me back to the early days of the Ashburton Salt Project. When we started looking at a large greenfield project in Western Australia, we knew the technical side mattered. Engineering, logistics, capital and operating costs. All important. But we also knew something else: we did not know the place well enough yet. We did not know all the stakeholders, all the history, or all the unwritten rules that matter when you start working in a new region. That is where Renee came in, back when Purple was still Cannings Purple. She supported us from the start of the project until I left my role in Australia last year. And a lot of what I know about real stakeholder management, I learned from working with her. Not the textbook version. The practical version. Who to speak to. When to listen. When to wait. And not to arrive with a fully formed answer before understanding the actual question. We also spent many hours together in planes and cars across the Pilbara. Long roads, red dirt, road trains, and luckily a fairly similar taste in music. That matters more than people think. A long regional WA drive is a very honest test of a working relationship. Imagine sitting in a car for hours with someone and having nothing to talk about. That would be a very specific form of torture. So I was really glad we managed to catch up on this trip. If you can recommend someone professionally and still genuinely look forward to coffee years later, that says something. Renee is one of those people I would call again without hesitation. Do you have people you worked with years ago and would still call first today? #StakeholderEngagement #Australia #WesternAustralia