Stakeholder analysis: a strategy game that never gets old

The world is not a WeWork co-working space. It turns out this is a good analogy for stakeholder mapping and analysis. Stakeholders are middle-managers, top managers, particularly vocal employees, representatives of a lobby group or the press, customers and investors. Unsplash, the platform for free pictures, does not feature them. It shows happy freelancers mingling in a co-working space.

Not what I was looking for.

Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash

Identifying crucial stakeholders — ranging from executive champions to those that can jeopardize a project’s success, can be likened a bit to detective work.

It’s a crucial endeavor as it can make or break any strategic project — be it a multi-year restructuring program or next year’s budget planning exercise.

There are a few very helpful matrixes one can apply to take stock. I personally like the “power-interest grid” which features:

1. Four different groups of stakeholders
2. Clear instructions for each group (e.g., ‘manage stakeholders with high interest and a lot of power closely’)
3. A ‘name tag’ for each category — latents, promoters, apathetics, defenders.

Graph created by author based on the power-influence grid. 11 April 2023.

I applied the interest-power grid during my most recent change management contract and my clients liked it. It’s a visual, it’s easy to understand, groups can be moved from one quadrant to the next. It looks a bit like a chess board.

The power-grid interest grid is popular with C-suite clients.

It takes senior managers 5 minutes to review it and provide input as to whether all relevant stakeholders were correctly categorized or not.

They can also share any insights regarding required action. For example:

• how to best keep the compliance and risk department informed (assuming they belong to the “defenders” group)?
• Ways to engage the “promoters” (a full-on activation campaign featuring workshops and a town hall?).

The grid is sufficient for a first review of all relevant stakeholders — it provides a sense of orientation. Action steps can be derived. Once you are more familiar with the various stakeholders, you can also consider adding more layers of complexity and review their level of commitment:

1. Enthusiastic
2. Helpful
3. Compliant
4. Hesitant
5. Indifferent
6. Uncooperative
7. Opposed
8. Hostile?

Tracking the level of commitment of stakeholders is worth it when working on a short, intensive and high risk project.

The rationale for doing so: When working on a high risk project — let’s assume, a post-merger phase — it’s advisable to monitor any at risk groups more closely, including their level of commitment. Circumstances can change, information can be leaked to the press, diverging corporate cultures can clash. Note this already veers into reputation management and some external (PR and reputation management) firms are quite skilled at it.

If scenario 2 (post M&A integration) does not apply, I’d say: keep it simple. Apply the power-interest grid.

Strangers can indeed turn into allies: a group’s affiliation can change during the course of a project.

“Defenders” may become “promoters” when provided with useful information or when assigned a key role within a project (or when they start reaping the benefits of a change — say the new software saves them time).

Your client knows best which strategies work best for which stakeholder group.

As a change management expert, you can suggest various generic engagement formats like workshops, townhalls or 1:1. But your client has inside knowledge and knows employees and middle management best.

Conducting a stakeholder analysis and mapping during the due diligence — phase of a project provides a great foundation. This is one of the first exercises I undertake. I invest a lot of time into it, in particular, when I don’t know the main actors well enough (yet). It may seem like a “fluffy” exercise, and it is not. Once you know which groups wield the most influence, which ones to win over, you can create a plan.

It’s like a strategy game.

And who doesn’t like to play strategy games?

My questions for you:

1. Do you map your stakeholders?
2. Which is your favourite tool?
3. Do you recall any projects where stakeholders changed their level of support or opposition during its course?

Curious? Find out about my change management expertise at www.clulbrich.com

Sources:

Quality Gurus: “Stakeholder analysis”. Published online. Link.

Leeron Hoory, Cassie Bottorff for Forbes: “What Is A Stakeholder Analysis? Everything You Need To Know”. Published / updated on 08 August 2022. Link.