Stakeholder Management: Identifying and Prioritizing for Project Success, Study notes of Innovation

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Tools & Templates

Stakeholder Management

2 This project has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation

Purpose

Stakeholder analysis is the first step in stakeholder management: a process that helps you managing your time and resources to ensure your projects have success. By identifying who is involved in your organisation, you can leverage your resources and time in managing them. By doing a stakeholder analysis, you identify who your stakeholders are to map their power, influence and interests to know who you should focus on. When you gained a deeper understanding of your most important stakeholders, you know how and when to communicate with them to win their trust and support.

What is a stakeholder?

A stakeholder is a person, company or organisation that are involved in making important decisions that influence your organisation. Some of them have the power to advance your work, some of them are able to block you. Their position, interest, degree of involvement and role are all factors that enable them to make decisions. The resources that they bring are also important: money, knowledge, a network of other stakeholders, or expertise.

Identification

Start in a group by brainstorming and making a list of all people involved in your organisation. Questions that may help you with this are:

1. Who can influence the way we operate?
2. Who can impact/be impacted by our organisation?
3. Who can help us understand our issue/challenge
4. Who is interested in our success?

Prioritization

Now that you have a list of all people and organisations that are affected by your work, the next step is to map your stakeholders by the level of importance they have. Some people and organisations have the power to either counteract or cooperate with what you’re doing, and you need to work closely with them to restrict the damage or boost their impact. A tool to prioritize your stakeholder communication is the Power/Interest Grid.

4 This project has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation Low power, highly interested Very engaged people can work in your advance, if you allow them to become brand ambassadors to spread your message. Although their impact may not be as significant as the high impact people and organisations, it’s important to show consideration and communicate the progress of your project or goal. Patient families and influencers in this field can be very helpful with creating word-of-mouth and help in disseminating your message. Low power, less interested Acknowledge that they are in your stakeholder group, that can consist of family members of a patient and healthcare practitioners. Keep them up to date about the project, but don’t waste too much resources (mostly time and money). Excessive communication may be perceived as too aggressive.

Understanding

By empathizing with your stakeholder, you get a better sense of understanding of their viewpoint, actions so you know how to communicate and manage them. The best way to do this is by asking them those questions directly, via an interview or an open discussion. People are often happy to share their standpoint, and asking them for their opinion or worldview is often the first step in building a successful relationship with them. Key questions that can help you understand your stakeholders:

1. What interest do you have in our field or organisation?
2. What is your current opinion on our work?
3. How would you like to stay informed about us?
4. What motivates you?
5. Who influences your decisions?

Discussion

This stakeholder analysis can be used to define new goals, or sharpen your existing ones. Reflect on your stakeholder analysis, asking the following questions:

1. What observations or impressions do we have when looking at the grid?
2. What actions should we take to affect those things our organisation can influence?
3. How should we relate to those things in our circle of concern that we have little or no influence over?
4. How might we re-evaluate our priorities based on this stakeholder analysis?

5 This project has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation

References & Resources

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm https://toolbox.hyperisland.com/circles-of-influence https://www.toolshero.com/project-management/influence-mapping/