Knowledge Matters™

I’ve been thinking about stakeholder management a bit lately; some of it in the context of project management and the PMBOK® , some in the context of Business Network Analysis™ Techniques , and some because I am just interested in it. Today I had a Eureka moment , and the Stakeholder Management Target™ is the result. (I like targets, perhaps because of my former calling!). The idea is a bit raw and needs some work, but here is the essence of it. The Stakeholder Management Target™ (version 1) is illustrated below.

You should note there are four sectors as positioned by the cross-hairs. The sectors are defined by stakeholder ability to influence organisational processes and their interest in the outcome of an organisational initiative. The concentric circles of the target represent stakeholder concern or interest in the initiative.

As depicted the target has a large red centre, meaning stakeholders are concerned with the initiative for some reason. The sectors are the same size meaning equal attention is given to the stakeholders in each sector. However, I suggest, this attention is wrong.

In sector one stakeholders either own the change processes or have the ability to significantly influence them. On the other hand they have a low interest in the outcomes of the organisational initiative; perhaps because the outcomes have no effect on them, or perhaps because they don’t need to expend any resources. These stakeholders should be kept informed of the progress of the initiative, and their support enlisted to solve process difficulties, which should be forthcoming because it is low risk for them.

In sector 2 stakeholders have low process influence and generally low outcome interest. Some individuals may have concerns because of personal agendas and interests and will seek to become involved. The point is these stakeholders in the end analysis have low process influence and low outcome interest from an organisational perspective. We need to monitor their input to ensure it doesn’t become a distracter and drain undue resources.

In sector three stakeholders have low process influence but high outcome interest. These stakeholders should be actively engaged. They are end users of the initiative, and can be used to form coalitions and lend weight to direct the activity.

Sector four stakeholders have high process influence and high outcome interest – these are the organisations and people that absolutely must be managed. They must be involved in all decisions of consequence, if only because they have the power to derail the initiative.

Consider now the diagram below.

Using the Stakeholder Management Target™ as a guide, I suggest the objective of stakeholder management is to:

• squeeze and compress the inner circle to decrease the number of ‘concerned’ stakeholders overall;
• squeeze and compress the middle circle to decrease the number of ‘may be concerned’ stakeholders;
• push the vertical axis to the left to move most of the ‘concerned’ and ‘may be concerned’ stakeholders into sector 4; and
• push the horizontal axis downward to move the ‘concerned’ and ‘may be concerned’ stakeholders into sector 4.

It may seem counter-intuitive to move the ‘concerned’ and ‘may be concerned’ stakeholders into sector 4, but I submit this is the sector where we should be focussing our efforts in any case. Accordingly it makes sense to have these stakeholders in this sector.

I suggest spending some time examining where your stakeholders fit into this framework will pay dividends, because where we put the bulk of our effort matters! I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Regards, Graham