Basic Stakeholder Analysis

SATISFY KEY PLAYERS FOR SUCCESS: BASIC STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

Basic Stakeholder Analysis is used to get inside the heads of the people and groups who can influence your organisation: Boards, regulators, funding bodies, analysts, investors, unions, the media, client groups, a parent company, a super-ministry, frontline staff – anyone who can impact your organisation (or be impacted by it).

This is important for the obvious reason that these peoples’ views and expectations of your organisation can define what constitute performance and results for your organisation, especially public sector and not-for-profit organisations.

Basic Stakeholder Analysis is simply a structured way of posing the question, stakeholder by stakeholder, of what criteria each stakeholder uses to assess your organisation, and how your organisation is presently performing against those criteria.

It can be used for overarching strategy and direction-setting (either internally generated or externally imposed) or when implementing process change improvements such as new finance or IT systems.

A change program shouldn’t occur unless a Basic Stakeholder Analysis has been conducted, typically in a facilitated workshop, at the start of the process. This will ensure that all major players who need to participate in the program do so. As the process rolls out, Basic Stakeholder Analysis should again be conducted, this time more widely, and the change program built around what needs to happen to satisfy stakeholders.

Failure to do this could jeopardise the change effort, or possibly even the organisation’s prospects for success.

On the other hand, satisfying important stakeholders (or better, pleasing them) can create a pathway to organisational success reflected in enhancements to funding, reputation, responsibility, decision-making latitude or inter-agency engagement.

I’ve prepared a one-page summary of Basic Stakeholder Analysis, including a worked example; you can download it by clicking here.

Conducting a Basic Stakeholder Analysis can be a sensitive matter. To ensure maximum impartiality and inclusiveness when applying it, I recommend that workshops be independently facilitated. An experienced change facilitator can also incorporate the workshop output into a more comprehensive program for change that sharpens the focus on gaining desirable reputational, operational and budgetary results.

I am available to facilitate workshops incorporating Basic Stakeholder Analysis and other techniques as appropriate: please contact me on phone 0414 383 374 or by return email.

I hope this briefing assists you with the planning and execution of your change or organisational development initiatives.

Regards, Michael Carman
Director | Michael Carman Consulting
PO Box 686, Petersham NSW 2049 | M: 0414 383 374 |
W: www.mcarmanconsulting.com

P.S. To hold an initial no-cost discussion on how you can use Basic Stakeholder Analysis – or other relevant change techniques – to improve your organisation’s performance, please contact me direct on phone 0414 383 374.