9. Stakeholder Analysis
What is it?
This process is all about being clear about who your stakeholders are, what they want, what they need, what they expect and where their current attitudes towards the change initiative are … and where you need them to be to make the change successful
Why do it?
This process will:
- Create a comprehensive inventory of individuals and groups that will be involved in the change
- Build a picture of their differing goals, expectations, hopes and fears arising from the change initiative
- Map the varying levels of stakeholder commitment and willingness to change
- Establish a process to assess and monitor stakeholder expectations to ensure the change outcomes remain aligned throughout the duration of the initiative
- Constructively engage with stakeholders to facilitate a greater sense of ownership and buy-in
When to do it?
The stakeholder analysis should be carried out early in the Diagnose phase to ensure the change initiative has a good understanding of the key people and key messages that need to be managed to ensure they are aligned and committed to the change initiative
Inputs
Outputs
How to do it?
Identify Stakeholders: Stakeholder engagement begins with identifying all the stakeholders involved in or affected by the change initiative and its outcomes. It is also important to identify those stakeholders that hold influence over the success (or otherwise) of the initiative. Think about which individual or group of stakeholders …
- Have the power to ‘make or break’ the initiative?
- Might be an obstacle to the success of the initiative?
- Are crucial to the success of the initiative?
- Are highly impacted by the initiative?
It is useful to group individuals into categories such as users / beneficiaries; governance (eg, steering groups, management boards, audit); influencers (eg, trades unions, media); and providers (eg, suppliers, business partners). These high-level categories can be further broken down, or additional categories added, in order to organise communication by shared interests. In this way, key messages can be targeted at, and consultations undertaken with the relevant people. The Stakeholder Analysis template (link) can be used to capture and categorise this initial list of stakeholders.
Identifying stakeholders in only the first step. Analysis means gaining an understanding of the:
- Influences, interests and attitudes of the stakeholders towards the change outcomes
- Importance, influence and commitment of each stakeholder
Linking together the Future State Definition, Change Impact Assessment and Stakeholder Analysis provides a comprehensive view of the changes, their impacts and the perceptions of the key stakeholder groups. The analysis of your stakeholders in this way will help to:
- Prioritise stakeholder engagement
- Focus resources to contribute the most towards successful outcomes
- Align message content, frequency of engagement and level of detail to meet the relevant needs of the stakeholders
- Manage engagement and communication activities to move stakeholders up the Change Commitment Curve to where you need them to be to successfully deliver the desired outcomes of the change initiative and realise the planned benefits
Stakeholders interests and influence, whether rational and justifiable or emotional and unfounded must be taken into account. They will affect the change process and hence the planned outcomes and desired benefits of the change initiative. One technique for analysing stakeholders is to consider each stakeholder group in terms of their influence on the initiative and their potential interest in its outcomes and plot these on a matrix.
Stakeholders may move to different positions during the course of the change initiative and new stakeholders may be identified. It is important to revisit and rework the stakeholder analysis regularly.
You can also map the stakeholders based on their current and desired commitment to the change initiative. The Change Commitment Curve below identifies the different levels of commitment:
Tool: The Change Commitment Curve tool helps to identify where your stakeholders are currently and where you need them to be to fully support the change initiative.
You should then be able to plot the current and desired place on a stakeholder maps with the following dimensions:
Template: Document your findings in the Stakeholder Analysis
- Stakeholder group
- Importance to the success of the initiative
- Gap between desired and current commitment
- Key issues and concerns
- Preferred method of communication
- Frequency of communication
- Key stakeholder manager
- Key actions to increase stakeholder commitment
- An owner for each action identified
- Timeline
Template: Document your support for stakeholders in the Stakeholder Management Plan