Human behaviour can be the hardest part of any infrastructure project
Margot Bawden works with infrastructure, planning, climate adaptation, and public sector professionals on the human side of complex project delivery.
SEE HOW WE WORK
Good engagement process is not always enough
Infrastructure projects, climate programmes, and local government reform share the same vulnerability. A process can look sound from the outside. But without meticulous attention to what stakeholders can genuinely influence, clear explanation of how their feedback has been applied, and an understanding of human behaviour under pressure, trust evaporates quickly. Rebuilding it takes months. That costs projects time and money.
People never arrive at an engagement in neutrality. They bring the baggage of their day, their upbringing, their bias, the bubble they live in, and the judgements they've already formed before anyone has said a word. How one person responds to an idea won't be the same as the person sitting next to them. Reading what's happening in real time, and knowing what to do with it, is a learned skill that most engagement practice never develops.
Margot has spent 20 years developing it.
It's what Margot B Communication is built for
Margot Bawden has spent 20 years on the projects where community trust was hardest to hold. She led communications and engagement for the Cyclone Gabrielle road and rail recovery in Hawke's Bay through the Transport Rebuild East Coast Alliance. Before that, she held a senior national programme role at Waka Kotahi NZTA, leading communications and engagement for a nationally significant speed management programme.
She has worked alongside chief executives, programme directors, engineers, and technical specialists at the moments when community trust is most at risk. She knows what it costs when those moments go badly.
Margot B Communications launched in 2025, built on two decades of work in the sector.
The Conditions for Trust Network
Most professional training prepares you for the technical side of project delivery. It rarely prepares you for what happens when community trust is already thin, when a stakeholder conversation goes somewhere unexpected, or when a capable professional freezes at the moment that matters most.
The Conditions for Trust Network is a structured professional membership for people carrying responsibility for delivery, reputation, and stakeholder relationships in infrastructure, planning, and public sector environments. Digital courses, quarterly group advisory sessions, practical decision tools, and optional one-on-one support.
Consulting
Your project needs communications and engagement support from someone who understands how these environments work. The political context, the community dynamics, and what happens when trust starts to slip.
Margot works directly with chief executives, programme directors, project managers, and technical leads across the full scope of communications and engagement delivery. Strategy and planning, community consultation, issues management, and embedded project support. You work with Margot throughout.
Facilitation
Some sessions carry more weight than others. A project team under pressure. Regional stakeholders with competing interests being brought together before anything goes to the community. A workshop where positions have already hardened and the subject matter is genuinely complex. A community session where trust in the process is thin before anyone has sat down.
Margot facilitates the sessions where the quality of the conversation directly affects the outcome of the work. She reads what's happening in the room, adjusts when it needs it, and keeps the process moving toward something useful.
Do you know what pattern you default to when you're under stakeholder pressure?
Most professionals have a pattern. It shows up under pressure, in the moments when the room is watching and the stakes are real. Understanding that pattern is the first step to working with it.
The quiz takes five minutes. Your result is specific to how you actually show up.
Take the free quiz
Tania Kerr, Former Deputy Mayor, Hastings District Council
We started with significant community opposition to our project. Working with Margot, we saw a complete turnaround. She established transparent communication channels, organised educational community events, and addressed concerns head-on with honest information.
Margot's strategic approach transformed vocal opposition into community support. Her ability to engage authentically with stakeholders and solve problems proactively is exceptional. She understands that successful projects require genuine community trust, not just good communication.
Have a project coming up?
Bring the context and the challenge. Margot will tell you honestly whether she can help and what that might look like. No obligation.
You're safe with me. I'll never spam you or sell your contact info.