A slight shift in gears this week. I ran a stakeholder mapping module for my client this week and felt it is a useful tool for all of us.

The term stakeholder is traditionally associated with work and business. But stakeholders in the broader sense exist at work and outside work. Members of our friends and family circle, acquaintances, doctors, and lawyers are stakeholders in our lives. Just as heads of business units, colleagues in other departments within an organisation are internal stakeholders. And clients, government organisations, and suppliers are external stakeholders of an organisation.

I use stakeholder mapping as a communication tool both at work and in life. It gives me an instant clear picture of where to focus my attention in a given context. At work, it helps me organise myself to plan my communications. In life, the stakeholder map is useful too. It helps me carve out time for stakeholders appropriately.

For this article, my focus is stakeholder mapping in the context of work.

Communication is a crucial skill for success both at work and in life. Though we communicate daily and take it for granted, we make a complex tool deceivingly simple. But this crucial skill can easily get us into trouble through our assumptions, misinterpretations, beliefs and more.

Any opportunity to eliminate assumptions, misinterpretations, and more is a worthwhile exercise in better, effective communications. And stakeholder mapping is one such tool. Though traditionally used for project management, it has a wider purpose in any situation that involves stakeholders.

Steps to stakeholder mapping:

1.      Identify your stakeholders

The first step is to identify who your stakeholders are. Write down the names of all your stakeholders for your context. If you are going by function - marketing, or finance, write down the names of the heads and team members you interact with. Include anyone with a vested interest in your context. Anyone who is impacted or has an interest in your context is a stakeholder. Which includes the cleaning service if you are planning an event for example.

2.      Decide stakeholder’s ‘power’ or impact for your context

Power needs to be weighted correctly. For example, you work in a matrix system where you have a direct reporting line to your boss but a dotted line to a leader in the Head office. Both leaders have power but to varying degrees. Power can also be absolute or perceived. There may be stakeholders who perceive their power to be greater than reality. Again, identifying their ‘real’ power is critical in mapping.

3.      Decide stakeholder’s interest level for your context

Not all stakeholders have the same level of interest in your context. Some may be more interested than others depending on the context. For example, your boss may not be interested in every project you initiate once you have proven to manage your projects and tasks well. But a new initiative you manage which impacts the marketing department may have the marketing manager very interested. ‘Low’ interest for your boss, ‘high’ interest for the marketing manager. 

Now that you have identified your stakeholders and noted their ‘power’ and ‘interest’ level, let’s map them out.

The matrix below will house the names of your stakeholders (eg John, Alice, Kumar, etc) according to their power, interest dynamic.

From here, you can develop your communication and engagement plan for each stakeholder category. The matrix contains a possible communication frequency for each category. This is a guide. Your context will determine which frequency of communication is best suited for your stakeholder categories.

Some caveats to keep in mind:

1.      Incorrect mapping of stakeholders can make you focus your energy on the wrong stakeholders making you ineffective and inefficient. Therefore, mapping the power and interest of each stakeholder correctly is important.

2.      The difference between absolute power and perceived power should be clarified otherwise, your energy may be focused on the ‘wrong’ stakeholders. Stakeholders who ‘shout’ the loudest are not always the most ‘powerful’.

3.      Tune your communication style to match your stakeholder category:

a.      Form allyships with your promoters

b.      Give and gain clarity from your defenders

c.      Be proactive with your supporters

d.      Keep your bystanders interested

4.      Note: bystanders can potentially become blockers if they gang up.

Stakeholders can make or break the outcome for your context if you do not ‘manage’ them well. Stakeholder mapping is one crucial way to ensure that you curate your communications (and energy) to ensure the right outcome for all stakeholders.

As always you can reach me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com