My Top 6 Stakeholder Analysis Tools

Summary

This video introduces six essential stakeholder analysis tools to improve project success. The speaker highlights the importance of understanding stakeholders' needs, attitudes, and impact on projects. Tools discussed include stakeholder triage, sociograms, proximity charts, force field diagrams, persona cards, and stakeholder registers. Each tool helps analyze relationships, influence, and engagement strategies with stakeholders. From prioritizing key individuals to mapping influence and keeping detailed records, these tools enable project managers to effectively engage with stakeholders and navigate their support or opposition for a project's success.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Stakeholder analysis is crucial for project success, as understanding stakeholders' needs and perspectives can determine the project's outcome.
• 📊 The stakeholder triage model helps assess stakeholders based on their attitude (supportive or opposed) and their impact on the project (high or low).
• 🤝 High-impact supportive stakeholders should be engaged and used as advocates for the project.
• 🧠 Stakeholders with high impact but negative or concerned attitudes need to be prioritized and persuaded to become supportive.
• 📢 Supportive but low-impact stakeholders should be informed and coached on how they can help advocate for the project.
• 👀 Stakeholders with low impact and negative attitudes should not be ignored but monitored, as they may gain influence.
• 🔗 A sociogram is used to visualize relationships between stakeholders and indicate influence, direction, and strength of those relationships.
• 🌐 The proximity chart helps determine stakeholders' closeness to the project, organizing them into different tiers based on involvement.
• 🔄 The force field diagram shows stakeholders applying forces either supporting or opposing the project, as well as neutral or undecided stakeholders.
• 📝 Persona cards and a stakeholder register are tools to record and manage stakeholder information, ensuring effective engagement and tracking.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the video?

The video focuses on stakeholder analysis tools and how they can be used to understand stakeholders' needs, attitudes, and influence on a project.

How is the stakeholder triage tool different from a standard two-by-two analysis?

The stakeholder triage tool uses attitude towards the project and impact on the project as axes, providing clear strategies for engaging stakeholders based on their placement in the four-box grid. This differs slightly from the standard two-by-two model by offering more focused engagement strategies.

What is the recommended strategy for stakeholders who are supportive and have high impact?

The recommended strategy is to engage these stakeholders and employ their advocacy to help the project succeed.

How should stakeholders with high impact but negative or neutral attitudes be managed?

These stakeholders should be prioritized. The goal is to persuade them of the project's benefits, neutralize their opposition, or ideally convert them into supporters.

What is the purpose of a sociogram in stakeholder analysis?

A sociogram helps visualize the relationships between different stakeholders by representing connections with lines, indicating the strength of relationships and direction of influence.

What does a proximity chart represent in stakeholder analysis?

A proximity chart represents how close or distant stakeholders are to the project. Stakeholders are placed in concentric circles, with those most directly involved in the center and more peripheral stakeholders in outer circles.

What is the force field diagram used for?

A force field diagram shows stakeholders as forces acting on the project, with supporters pushing it forward, opposers pushing it back, and neutrals or undecided stakeholders represented as well.

What are persona cards, and why are they useful?

Persona cards record detailed information about individual stakeholders, such as their role, interests, power, and influence. These help project managers engage with stakeholders more effectively.

What should be included in a stakeholder register?

A stakeholder register is a database that can store information about all stakeholders, including names, roles, contact information, attitudes towards the project, and their level of influence.

How should stakeholders with low impact and negative attitudes be handled?

While it may be tempting to ignore them, these stakeholders should be monitored. Their influence could grow, and it is important to treat all stakeholders with respect.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Stakeholder Triage Tool

The first tool discussed is the stakeholder triage, which is a modified version of the common two-by-two stakeholder analysis model. It uses two axes: stakeholder attitude (supportive or with legitimate concerns) and stakeholder impact (high or low). This model provides clear strategies for each type of stakeholder. For high-impact and supportive stakeholders, it's best to engage them as advocates. High-impact but unsupportive stakeholders require efforts to convert them into allies. Supportive but low-impact stakeholders should be informed and encouraged to increase their influence, while low-impact and unsupportive stakeholders should be monitored to prevent their concerns from becoming significant.

05:00

🔗 Sociogram for Stakeholder Relationships

The second tool is the sociogram, which visually represents relationships between stakeholders. Circles or squares represent stakeholders, and lines connect them, indicating the strength and direction of influence. This tool helps project managers understand who influences whom and how to use stronger relationships to affect other stakeholders. Adding arrows to the connections helps clarify if the influence is mutual or one-directional.

10:02

🎯 Proximity Chart and the 'Fried Egg' Metaphor

The third tool is the proximity chart, which illustrates how close stakeholders are to a project. Stakeholders are categorized into tiers of proximity: directly involved, routinely involved, in regular contact, or peripherally involved. A simpler version of this is the 'fried egg' diagram, where core stakeholders are represented by the yolk, less involved stakeholders by the white, and remote stakeholders outside the egg. Both tools emphasize the importance of understanding the influence levels of different stakeholders based on their involvement.

⚖️ Force Field Diagram for Stakeholder Influence

The fourth tool, the force field diagram, shows how stakeholders apply forces either for or against a project. Arrows represent stakeholders' influence, with size and direction indicating the strength and impact of their support or opposition. This tool also categorizes stakeholders into supporters, opponents, neutrals, and floating voters (undecided). Floating voters are crucial, as influencing them early can shift the balance in favor of the project.

📝 Persona Cards for Stakeholder Details

The fifth tool, persona cards, is borrowed from marketing and involves creating a detailed profile for each stakeholder. This profile may include personal information (like photos, names, and contact details) and engagement-specific data, such as attitudes, priorities, needs, and influence. It's crucial to be mindful of data protection when recording sensitive information. Persona cards help project managers engage with stakeholders more effectively by providing a clear understanding of each stakeholder’s role and influence.

📊 Stakeholder Register for Comprehensive Tracking

The sixth tool is the stakeholder register, which complements or replaces persona cards by organizing stakeholder information into a database or spreadsheet. This register can track all relevant data and interactions, using a CRM system if needed. By maintaining a stakeholder register, project managers can ensure comprehensive and systematic engagement with all stakeholders.

Keywords

💡Stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying, understanding, and evaluating the individuals or groups that can influence or be influenced by a project. In the video, the presenter highlights the importance of analyzing stakeholders' needs, attitudes, and influence to ensure the success of a project. This helps in crafting engagement strategies tailored to each stakeholder.

💡Stakeholder triage

Stakeholder triage is a method to categorize stakeholders based on their attitude toward a project and their potential impact on its success. The video compares this to a traditional two-by-two model, where stakeholders are evaluated based on their level of support and influence. The tool helps in determining the appropriate strategy for engaging each group, such as leveraging supporters or converting opposers.

💡Supportive stakeholders

Supportive stakeholders are individuals or groups who have a positive attitude towards the project and are willing to advocate for it. In the video, stakeholders with high support and high impact should be engaged and encouraged to act as advocates, helping to drive the project forward by using their influence and support.

💡Opposing stakeholders

Opposing stakeholders are those who hold negative views or concerns about the project and may hinder its progress. The video emphasizes the need to prioritize these stakeholders by addressing their concerns and, if possible, turning them into supporters or at least neutralizing their opposition to avoid negative impacts on the project.

💡Sociogram

A sociogram is a visual tool used to map the relationships and influence dynamics between stakeholders. In the video, sociograms help project managers understand how different stakeholders interact with each other and the project, by showing the strength and direction of influence between them. This tool helps to leverage strong relationships to indirectly influence other stakeholders.

💡Proximity chart

The proximity chart represents how close different stakeholders are to a project based on their involvement and influence. In the video, stakeholders are placed in concentric circles, with the closest representing those most directly involved in the project's day-to-day activities. The chart helps in managing communication and engagement efforts by prioritizing stakeholders based on their proximity to the project's core activities.

💡Force field diagram

A force field diagram illustrates the forces that drive a project forward (supporters) and those that hold it back (opposers). The video explains that this tool allows project managers to visualize the balance of stakeholder forces, helping them to strategize how to enhance supportive forces and reduce oppositional forces. This is crucial for maintaining project momentum.

💡Persona cards

Persona cards are detailed records used to capture important information about individual stakeholders, such as their interests, influence, and attitude towards the project. In the video, persona cards help project managers better understand their stakeholders' needs and tailor communication and engagement efforts accordingly. These cards also ensure that all relevant information is systematically documented and accessible.

💡Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholder engagement refers to the ongoing process of interacting with stakeholders to understand their needs, address concerns, and keep them informed about the project. The video underscores the importance of engaging each stakeholder based on their level of support and impact on the project, such as engaging supportive stakeholders to act as advocates or converting opposers through effective communication.

💡Stakeholder register

A stakeholder register is a formal database or record-keeping system that tracks all stakeholders involved in a project, including their details, influence, and engagement strategies. The video suggests using a stakeholder register, which can range from a simple spreadsheet to a sophisticated CRM system, to manage stakeholder information efficiently and ensure that no important stakeholder is overlooked.

Highlights

Stakeholders are crucial to the success or failure of a project, making stakeholder analysis essential.

The stakeholder triage tool is introduced, which uses attitude toward change and the impact a stakeholder can have on the project as the two main axes.

Stakeholder triage helps segment stakeholders into four categories: supportive with high impact, oppositional with high impact, supportive with low impact, and oppositional with low impact.

For supportive stakeholders with high impact, engage them and utilize their advocacy for the project’s success.

For oppositional stakeholders with high impact, prioritize them, and aim to neutralize their concerns or convert them into supporters.

Supportive stakeholders with low impact should be informed and coached on how to better support the project.

Oppositional stakeholders with low impact should not be ignored. Instead, monitor them to ensure their concerns are managed.

The sociogram tool helps visualize the relationships between stakeholders and their influence over each other.

The proximity chart illustrates how closely different stakeholders are involved with the project, categorizing them into tiers based on their proximity and involvement.

The 'fried egg diagram' is a simplified version of the proximity chart with a central 'yolk' for core stakeholders and outer layers for more remote stakeholders.

The force field diagram illustrates how stakeholders apply forces on the project, with supporters pushing it forward and opposers pushing it back.

Neutral stakeholders and undecided 'floating voters' are important targets for influence, as they can be swayed to support or oppose the project.

Persona cards provide detailed information on individual stakeholders, including their attitudes, interests, and potential influence.

The stakeholder register, often a database or spreadsheet, serves as a comprehensive list of stakeholders and their relevant information.

Effective stakeholder engagement is key to project management, and tools like persona cards and stakeholder registers can aid in organizing and tracking stakeholder interactions.

Transcripts

stakeholders will make or break your

project

therefore it is critical

to be able to analyze

who they are

what they need

how they think

so in this video i'm going to introduce

you to my top six

stakeholder analysis tools

[Music]

my first stakeholder analysis tool is a

stakeholder triage

it is very similar

to the more common two by two

stakeholder analysis

four box model but this one is slightly

different

and i believe

slightly more useful in many

circumstances

in this tool as the two axes we plot

attitude to the change you're creating

or to your project or to what your

project is trying to achieve on one

scale

and on the other axis

we put the impact that the stakeholder

can have

on the success of your project

the attitude can be broadly supportive

or

broadly

negative and remember

if there's any chance that your

stakeholders will see this

then rather than represent them as

having a negative attitude represent

them as having some legitimate concerns

that you need to

address and their impact

can be high

or low

and as with every tool you can modify

this

to have different variations so you

could have positive negative or a

neutral attitude

high medium or low level of impact but

let's keep it simple

and if we keep it simple one of the main

benefits of this analysis tool

is that there is a very clear

stakeholder engagement strategy for each

of our four boxes

in the top right hand box

where stakeholders are already

supportive

and their impact is high what do we want

to do

we want to engage them in what we're

trying to achieve

and employ their advocacy to help us

because they're supportive and because

they already can have a high impact

they become very useful advocates for

our project

below that

also with a high impact

but now with some reservations at least

and possibly outright opposition at

worst we have the stakeholders that we

almost certainly need to prioritize

and for these

we need to win them over to our side we

need to woo and win them we need to do

everything that is lawful and ethical

to persuade them of the benefits of our

project and as a minimum we want to

neutralize their opposition ideally

convert them into supporters

at the top left we do have supporters

for the project but they don't have much

of an impact possibly because of their

role possibly because of their level of

involvement

possibly because

some people may not consider them as

important as other stakeholders

consequently

what we need to do is to inform them

about what we're doing and to coach them

how they can be more helpful in

advocating for our project and

supporting what we're doing

and in the bottom left hand corner

we've got the stakeholders who aren't so

keen on what we're doing but don't have

a lot of impact and whilst it can be

tempting to ignore them

that would be wrong

partly of course because

anybody can have an impact and

we may misread the situation they may

acquire some more influence

but fundamentally because it would be

disrespectful to ignore any of our

stakeholders what we want to do is to

keep an eye on them

to monitor them and make sure that when

it comes to it

we can outvote them that is to say we

can neutralize the impact of their

opposition

my second tool is a sociogram

and this is a simple tool for

understanding the relationships between

various stakeholders

what we would do here

is put circles or squares or some form

of notation onto a sheet of paper or

onto a diagram representing each of our

important stakeholders or stakeholder

groups and it is for us to decide

which ones to include and which ones we

don't need to include

and then you would link up each

stakeholder to other stakeholders

with whom there is a relationship

we can also use the strength of the line

either thin or thick or dotted or

complete

to represent the strength of that

relationship and we can also put arrows

onto that line to represent the

directions of influence if they both

influence one another it's a

double-headed arrow if on the other hand

one stakeholder primarily influences

another it's a single arrow

and of course by putting the project

onto there as a central stakeholder

we can see how we can use some of the

stakeholders we have a strong

relationship with and

over whom we have a degree of influence

to then influence other stakeholders

third is the proximity chart and the

proximity chart simply shows the

proximity or closeness of different

stakeholders to the project itself

we can simply represent this as a set of

concentric circles

possibly dividing the circles into two

to indicate broadly supportive and

broadly antagonistic stakeholder groups

although we don't need to complicate it

you can then define what you mean by the

different tiers of proximity of the

stakeholders

for example in the center we have the

stakeholders who are directly involved

perhaps day to day with the project and

its outcome

and then another tier of routinely

involved stakeholders who have quite a

significant involvement but not as

intimately

attached to the project as our central

tier

beyond that our stakeholders with whom

we may have regular contact

but they're not routinely involved

we may not be communicating with them

very regularly

and finally we have an outer tier

stakeholders who are peripherally

involved with the project

these are relatively remote they are

still stakeholders to the project but

the impact of the project on them the

impact of them on the project is very

minor indeed

now a three and a half not quite a

separate tool but a simplification of

this

is a lovely metaphor that a former

colleague of mine used

where she referred to the fried egg

diagram

with a central yoke of core stakeholders

an outer white

of lesser stakeholders

and then outside of the egg

are people who are stakeholders of the

project but are very remote from the

project the influence of those

stakeholders on the project or the

impact of the project on them is minor

the fried egg diagram reminds us of the

value of keeping it simple

my fourth tool is a force field diagram

simply we put the project in the center

and then we show our stakeholders as

applying forces upon the project

obviously we have our supporters

pushing the project forward

and our opposers

trying to drive the project back

and we can represent each stakeholder by

an arrow

and the size of the arrow or the

strength of the arrow represents the

level of impact or influence they can

have over the project

but of course not everyone is either for

or against our project and we also have

two other classes of stakeholders we

have the neutrals

who are stakeholders to the project

but don't really mind either way because

it's impact on them whether it goes

ahead or whether it doesn't go ahead

doesn't make a big difference to them

and we also have the floating voters

those stakeholders who are likely to

have an opinion but have not yet made up

their mind and of course these are a

vital set of stakeholders because if we

can influence them early and influence

them effectively we can help them to

make up their mind to become supporters

my fifth tool comes from the world of

marketing

and it's persona cards

if you are serious about stakeholder

analysis and stakeholder engagement then

create a record for each stakeholder

where you record information about them

in some detail

you can do this obviously physically

using cards or using any of a number of

software tools

and a persona card will contain whatever

information you consider appropriate to

keep about the stakeholder

but remember data protection

remember the importance of keeping this

data safe and not putting anything onto

your persona cards that you wouldn't be

happy to share with the wider world

examples of what you might put onto the

persona card is possibly a photo of an

individual to make it easy to

recognize them or a logo for an

organization and certainly the name of

the individual and their affiliation

you will also have contact details

perhaps email addresses phone numbers

physical addresses those sorts of things

then we get into what it is that you

want to record that will help you to do

your job of engaging effectively with

that stakeholder you might record some

characteristics of that stakeholder

personality assessment

what role they're in

but then we move into the pure play

stakeholder engagement data sets

things like their attitude to the

project

their interests

their priorities

their needs

the power that they hold who they

influence and of course the impact that

you assess that they can have on your

project

and finally my sixth tool is a

stakeholder register

if you're creating persona cards an

alternative or a complementary approach

is to keep a database of all your

stakeholders this can be

nothing more complicated

than a spreadsheet

or it could be a custom database

application

like a crm system

and again customer relationship

management or crm is something we take

from the world of marketing that can be

very useful to us in large-scale

long-term project management

so whenever you are running a project

you will need to engage with

stakeholders and if you are going to do

it effectively you need to understand

those stakeholders

and here are six fantastic tools to help

you

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