This facilitator’s guide to running a stakeholder analysis workshop is for people whose success depends on getting other people involved with their objectives.

It contains two exercises, one to work with stakeholder groups, and one to emulate stakeholders where it is not easy to bring them all together. The aim of both is to engage stakeholders in dialogue, brainstorming and decision-making to secure their buy-in to an idea, project, or plan.

There are five key principles underpinning success in both exercises. These are:

1. People are motivated to co-operate when they stand to gain personally from the effort they put in. You will struggle to involve someone if they are not motivated to attain something important to them, i.e. something of personal value. So, look to get an outcome that is a win for all concerned.

2. You can only really understand someone’s motivation by spending time in their shoes, i.e. by taking their perspective, not as a commentator but by metaphorically stepping into their shoes, adopting their values, beliefs and experiences, and seeing the world from their perspective.

3. Assume that your own wants and needs are irrelevant to anyone else. If you push for your own ideas to be accepted, against those of other stakeholders, expect to have to keep pushing for a long time. The only solution that will succeed without constant pushing and struggling is one that connects with the personal values of each stakeholder in some way.

4. The only thing that matters is that stakeholders get value from the decision. Suppress your own ego, desires and opinions about the solution – they will serve to limit the process and produce a solution that only you may be motivated to promote.

5. Be careful when deciding who the stakeholders are. They are not only the people with financial interests. Anyone connected with the idea is a stakeholder in some way, e.g. marketing, IT, admin, shareholders, customers, suppliers, etc.

Exercise 1 and 2 are available at: http://www.quadrant1.co.uk/corporate/stakeholders.php

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