Navigating through Your Stakeholder Matrix

Gaining stakeholders' buy-in is one of the critical skill sets one needs to be successful at work.?For years though, one of the primary methodologies of navigating through stakeholder relationships is to use a stakeholders map, like the one below.

The are 2 dimensions In this stakeholder map: the stakeholders' level of influence vs. the stakeholders' level of interest.?We can then adapt how we manage different stakeholders based on their levels of influence and interest.?The influential stakeholders with a strong vested interest in your actions will be the key players.?These stakeholders are supposed to require your attention as they are critical to your success.

Differing Interests

However, different stakeholders can have different or even divergent interests within the group of high-influence and high-interest stakeholders.?The influence levels of each stakeholder can change over time.???

To illustrate this further, below is a case study where all key stakeholders are highly influential and highly interested in a particular project in different ways.

Case Study: Project Delay

You are the project lead in developing a new product.?The product is critical to your company's business strategy for the next 5 years.

The past 3 new product launches have yet to be successful, and your management is putting much hope (and pressure) on this new product.?Your company has committed an unprecedented US$ 100 million for the development and commercialization of your product, and the stakes are high for the many departments involved in this project.

However, your project will be delayed for the next 6 months due to unforeseen circumstances beyond your control.?The leading cause of the delay is a new government safety requirement for similar products.?This delay will cause an overrun in the budget by as much as 50%.?More importantly, this delay could also mean a shorter lead time to market the product before its launch..

The key stakeholders for this project are:

• Joe, the VP of Sales and Marketing.?Joe is concerned about the company's over-reliance on existing products, which the competitors' new products could phase out within the next 12 months.?He demands that the new product be launched in 3 months.?He would be against any budget cuts, as this could mean cutting the much-needed marketing budget for the project (est. US$20 million) to ensure the new product sells well.
• Lisa, the CFO.?Lisa had shown concern over the US$ 100 million budget and is staunchly against any project budget overrun.?She must cut up to 50% of the marketing budget if the project incurs more expenses.?Lisa is concerned about being prudent when the company's future earnings and development are uncertain.
• Dani, the VP of Product Development.?While Dani would like to see the launch expedited, he felt he would need 6 months to comply with the latest safety requirements.?His concern is that it might be better to be 100% compliant rather than to risk future penalties if the new safety requirements are not met.
• Kam, the VP of Production.?While Kam is not fully involved in product development, she must ensure the consistent quality and production schedule of the new product for mass production.?She typically hates spec changes, and the new requirement has caused a significant spec change.?She wants a final agreement on the specs before the mass production of the new product.
• Ram, the CEO.?Ram is a major supporter of this project.?He convinced Lisa to for the US$100 million budget for the new product.?Ron hopes the new product could position the company with a 2-3-year innovation lead in a highly-competitive market.?Ron also knows that if the new product fails, it could spell the company's end.?At the same time, Ron must ensure that all funds are spent wisely and respect the CFO's advice to avoid overspending.
• You, the project lead.?You report directly to Dani, the VP of Product Development, and have dotted-line responsibilities to Joe, the VP of Sales and Marketing.?Your project management has been superb, and you have been outstanding coordinating between the different stakeholders.?The project remained within schedule and budget until this new safety requirement was announced.?You are concerned that if the project fails, you will be blamed for the wrong decisions made by some stakeholders and then fired.?You must align the key stakeholders to decide on the subsequent actions immediately.

----End of Case Study----

Instead of relying on an outdated "traditional" stakeholder map, perhaps a modified one can better help us navigate this stakeholder "minefield" better.

?Rather than classifying stakeholders based on their interest levels, band them based on their support for you.?In the case above, while all stakeholders are influential and interested, they support the protagonist's work to varying degrees.

?With this classification, one can then map out a way to win over the stakeholders' support as follows:

Furthermore, we can then identify each stakeholder's motivation factors and communication styles, which will make the navigation with different stakeholders a lot more effective.

The case study above is used in our Stakeholder Management workshops, and we incorporate many team coaching elements to explore how best to navigate through the stakeholder matrix.?If you’d like to find practical ways to deal with real-life stakeholder management issues like the one in the case study, send me a message, and I’ll be happy to share more with you!

c.j. is a bilingual facilitator and coach in English and Mandarin and has rolled out coaching projects throughout the Asia Pacific region.?He is the IAC Singapore Chapter Leader and an ICF Professional Certified Coach.?c.j. is accredited in various assessment tools such as the Cultural Navigator, TTI DISC, OD-Tools Trait Map and Motivation Questionnaire, Belbin Team Roles, etc..??He is the co-creator of Sales Map sales proficiency assessment and author of the book "Winning the B2B Sale in China"

?c.j.是一名精通英语和普通话的双语促进者和共享领导团队教练，并在整个亚太地区开展了教练项目。?他是IAC新加坡分会的负责人，也是ICF专业认证教练。c.j.获得了各种评估工具的认证，如文化导航仪、TTI DISC、OD-Tools特质图与激励问卷、贝尔宾团队角色等。??他是Sales Map销售能力评估的共同创造者，也是《中国式B2B销售宝典》一书的作者。