Happy New Year!

It’s a great time to do a health check on your change activities. So here’s my thoughts to kick start the year and reduce your frustration levels with stakeholders.

Do you know who stands to gain from your change programme and who stands to lose? What actions can you take in managing stakeholders so that it’s a win:win?

Lack of buy-in can be so frustrating

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard change agents vent frustration about lack of buy-in for their programme … well I’d be very rich.

The reality is that you can reduce your frustration by getting clear on who is interested in what topics within your programme and their level of influence in effecting or misdirecting change efforts. Your #1 job is to identify who and where to focus your energies. And to do this early in the programme and keep it updated as things move forward.

Stakeholder analsysis doesn’t have to be a dry topic

On one programme I managed I identified who my key champion was and they became my White Knight. Admittedly I’ve taken liberties with the King Arthur legend but they Championed my programme as if we were searching for the Holy Grail. They also headed up the Change Agents in the business and supported and helped drive the Programme to fruition. It’s one of the tools included in our book on creating a coaching culture.

Find out more about Stakeholder Profiling

Where do you direct your energies?

This second tool integrates the stakeholder profile onto a map to guide your stakeholder engagement activities and I’ve included my take on frequency and involvement to give a further dimension. This tool helps identify at a glance where you put your energies and is based on a 9-box model. I’ve kept it relatively simple but you can use your creativity to make it really work for you. Don’t get boxed in by the model – make it realistic and use it to guide your stakeholder engagement strategy.

Take a look at the Stakeholder Analysis Map

Do you know who your White Knight is? And more importantly have you identified your Sniper?

Getting clear on stakeholders helps you work out how you’ll spend that very precious commodity: time.

Here’s to a New Year with fully committed stakeholders.

To your success!

Ro Gorell
Chief Change Agent