Stakeholder analysis and why it matters

Ever wonder why your execution gets derailed by another department that you think lives in a different planet?  Or a partner who seems to get it when you explain it to her that the memo needs to go out by lunch time and the following week she asks you what memo?  That's when most of us label everyone else to be incompetent and we tend to try to solve it ourselves, take charge, subdue and direct.

As leaders, getting things done is an important trait.  The thing to remember is that as leaders, you must have followers, therefore it's more important to get things done through people.  It gets more tricky in huge organizations with multiple wheels running, numerous departments with different priorities and aspirations (then you start to question whether the organization has a common goal), multitude of datelines and conflicting wants and needs.  You always tend to think that your stuff is the most important, you tell your staff to drop everything else without realizing the ripple effect.

Stakeholder analysis is crucial especially when kicking off a major initiative, whether it's selling off that asset that's not meeting shareholders expectation or reorganizing the group because of overlaps or lack of clarity in roles and expectations.  The easy questions to ask are who will be impacted with this new initiative, what's in it for me, what's in it for them, what are we trying to achieve.  You plot these in a boston matrix and rank their closeness to the project and determine who makes the decision and who needs to know about the project.

In a complex organization like the government, the stakeholders can vary from other ministries, state government agencies, the people, sometimes foreign government and you have to dive into details about who exactly gets involved at the department level.    Sounds like a lot of work?  Sure but I rather do this first than find out later that Department X is sitting on my contract award recommendation because Director Y is accusing me of blind siding him.

The tough part about the analysis is not so much of figuring out who's involved, whether internal or external to your group.  It's sitting down with them, sharing the common objectives, reworking the priorities and above all, getting their buy in.  The project may seem straight forward to you, would easily churn productivity, generate more cash flow and produce results that shareholders can be proud of.

Getting shareholders buy in is the pillar of any stakeholder analysis.  Kicking out an email and expecting someone to either agree or understand what you're trying to say does not work.  Face to face is always the best and human beings want to feel their needed.  Engage your stakeholders wisely and intimately and by making them feel part of the larger team, your execution will see minimal disruptions.

My son Syarique is the master of stakeholder engagement.  Our common interest is video games so when we visit the mall, he'd tell me to check out the new first person shooter that was supposed to be out - giving me the impression that he cares about my needs.  When we do swing by the video game store, he would storm to the nearest demo console and try out the demo games or would browse the latest Wii games titles.  He knows I'm happy at the PS3 section so he quietly executes his real plan - recognizes win-win situations.  Smart kid.