By Rob Llewellyn

Stakeholder Management is a critical area of any programme of work, regardless of the nature of the programme. However, complaints about difficult stakeholders are rife and it comes as no surprise that these stakeholders who often carry significant weight have the ability to hinder and hijack the realisation of a business strategy that, for one reason or another, is not in their interests.

Let’s also not forget that Benefits Management is closely tied to Stakeholder Management, and that dis-benefits can be a bi-product of a change programme, as well as benefits. Such dis-benefits and the impacted stakeholders need to be carefully managed.

While there are a number of ways in which management best practices suggest stakeholder management is approached, the most well documented engagement strategy will not be effective unless the stakeholder manager has the human qualities required to engage stakeholders in the right manner. Stakeholders are often more senior than the stakeholder manager and it is essential that these stakeholders are at least diverted from making attempts to hinder progress, even if attempts to secure their buy-in and support are not fruitful.

There are any number of techniques that can be used to either secure buy-in or remove the motivation to hinder or hijack a programme and such techniques need to be intelligently applied on a case-by-case basis, and not as a broad solution intended to address ‘all’ stakeholders.

It is critical that the Stakeholder Manager has an excellent set of interpersonal skills along with the ability to identify the emotional factors that connect each stakeholder with the benefits and dis-benefits of the planned changes.

Stakeholder analysis, mapping and other tools are important, but these tools need to be put to use by someone who knows how to use them properly to achieve the desired result. In fact, there is a big difference between knowing how to fill the tool box and how to use the tools effectively. Similarly, if an unskilled carpenter is handed the finest saw, plane and chisel to renovate an expensive piece of mahogany furniture, the result is likely to be a disaster!

About the Author

Rob Llewellyn is an independent business transformation consultant with a 27 year business career. He has provided consultant services to medium and large size organisations across Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Asia and the USA. Read Rob Llewellyn’s blog here.