Engaging your stakeholders is not just important, it’s an essential aspect of any successful project or organisational effort. In today’s interconnected world, your work impacts others, just as you are affected by their work. Stakeholders exist both within and beyond your organisation so understanding who they are is crucial.
At first glance, identifying stakeholders might seem overwhelming — there can be a lot of people involved! However, selecting the right stakeholders is key to ensuring you engage effectively. The roles you hold, the projects you manage and the goals you pursue all influence who your stakeholders are.
For example, if you’re a team leader, your stakeholders are typically clear-cut; your direct reports, your peers, your manager and upper management. In this straightforward setting, pinpointing your stakeholders is relatively simple.
Having said that, alliances add a new layer of complexity. In collaborative projects, your stakeholders expand to include not only your internal team but also people across the partnership. You’ll still have your internal stakeholders, like your direct manager and the executive sponsor, but there are also others in your organisation affected by the project. On top of that, your partners bring their own set of stakeholders to the table.
In a two-party alliance, your stakeholders span both organisations. In multi-partner collaborations or ecosystems, they exist across all involved organisations, creating even more complexity.
This complexity makes it essential to have a clear structure for identifying and engaging stakeholders. One approach I find useful is thinking in circles. Using a mind-map to visualise your stakeholders helps keep things organised. At the centre is your core team — the people directly involved in the project on a daily basis. Surrounding this core is the next circle; the extended team. These are individuals who are important but may not be involved on a daily basis.
In alliance projects, these first two layers include both internal stakeholders and those from your partner’s organisation; the people you work with regularly. The next circle encompasses others within your organisation who are affected by the project. Finally, the outermost circle contains stakeholders in your partner’s organisation(s) who are impacted by the project but with whom you may not engage directly. These individuals still need to be accounted for in your plan, whether through your own efforts or via others who have access to them.
Thinking in circles simplifies the complexity of stakeholder management. It gives you a clear visual reference, allowing you to ensure that all relevant parties are engaged and also allowing you to adjust the map as relationships shift over time.
Stakeholder engagement is a continuous process. Projects evolve, roles change and organisations grow. By keeping your approach simple and structured, you can stay on top of this dynamic process.
Effectively engaging your stakeholders is a fundamental aspect of successful collaboration, especially in complex partnerships and alliances. To navigate this complexity, take a moment to map out your stakeholders in a simple, structured way. Start by identifying the core team, the extended team and those on the periphery who are impacted. By creating a clear overview, you’ll have a strong foundation for communication and engagement. Ask yourself how you could improve your stakeholder engagement process today. Start by mapping your circles and make sure no one is left out.