In today’s issue, I want to show you how to analyze and engage stakeholders using three tools.

If you can successfully manage diverse stakeholders involved in complex problems like homelessness and crime, you’ll dramatically increase your influence and boost your chances of positive impact.

The problem is that most people don’t think about stakeholders in a rigorous and nuanced way.

Your outreach isn’t working because you haven’t analyzed each stakeholder’s role

If you don’t understand how each stakeholder relates to the problem, it’s difficult to determine the best way to engage them.

I struggled to connect with stakeholders the first time I created a statewide legislative coalition back in 2012. My organization was trying to increase wages for low-income Minnesotans by investing in job training programs. 

Based on our research, we knew that the best training programs could double a low-income worker’s wages in about 9 months. As such, we were forming a coalition to encourage the State to shift its current job training investments to programs with the best outcomes for low-income workers. 

But forming the coalition didn’t go as planned. Why?

• I didn’t consider what each stakeholder wanted
• I didn’t analyze which stakeholders required the most attention
• I didn’t customize my strategy based each stakeholder’s level of support

Because of this, I messed up so many relationships. 

I created one presentation with all my best arguments for why the new coalition was a good idea and how the policy change was desirable.

When I finally met with people to make the case, all my worries came true. The policy proposal either wasn’t interesting or didn’t achieve what they wanted. In some cases the meetings actually generated opposition.

Over a few weeks I managed to gain only a couple supporters and alienate even more.

It sucked.

Let me show you three tools that can help manage stakeholders when you’re addressing complex social problems.

1. Stakeholder prominence tool
2. Stakeholder support tool
3. Stakeholder prominence-support grid

Before you use any of these tools, brainstorm a list of stakeholders. For each, ask what they want as a result of the issue or problem at hand.

As an example, I’m going to use my statewide coalition story from above. 

Here are the four primary stakeholders (there were more, but let’s keep it simple) and what they want:

• Legislators want to be reelected
• Nonprofit training providers want State funding
• State bureaucrats want to maintain existing State allocations
• Foundations want State investment to mirror philanthropic investment

Tool #1: Classify which stakeholders demand the most attention

You have to figure out how important each stakeholder is to the problem at hand.

The best way to do that is to use the Stakeholder Prominence tool, which is a measure of each stakeholder’s power, legitimacy and urgency (definitions of each term below). This typology (which is based on a much-cited theory of stakeholders by Mitchell, Agle and Wood) can be represented as such:

By quantifying power, legitimacy and urgency on a scale of 0 to 1, we can calculate prominence as follows:

Prominence = (power + legitimacy + urgency) / 3

For my four stakeholders, the calculations look like this:

Nonprofits and bureaucrats are definitive stakeholders and will likely need the most attention, followed by legislators (dominant stakeholders). Foundations are demanding stakeholders and may be of less concern.

But understanding each stakeholder’s role isn’t enough.

We need to consider their attitude.

Tool #2: Determine each stakeholder’s potential for cooperation or threat

People often understand each stakeholder’s role, but they forget the most critical part: how each stakeholder feels about the problem at hand.

Calculating their attitude will determine how you plan to engage them.

The best way to do this is use the Stakeholder Support tool, which is a measure of their potential for cooperation and potential for threat. This framework (which is based on much-cited strategy created by Savage, Nix, Whitehead and Blair), can be represented like this:

By quantifying potential for cooperation and potential for threat on a scale of 0 to 1, we can calculate support as follows:

Support = potential for cooperation – potential for threat

For my four stakeholders, the calculation looks like this:

Nonprofits and foundations are the most supportive because they are very likely to cooperate and very unlikely to oppose the proposed policy changes. Bureaucrats are the least supportive because they are very unlikely to cooperate and very likely to oppose policy changes. Legislators could potentially cooperate or threaten the proposed policy change, so their support remains ambiguous and uncertain.

Tool #3: Strategically engage stakeholders

Now that you know each stakeholder’s role and their attitude, it’s time to strategically engage them. But how?

The best way is to combine the tools above into a Prominence-Support Grid (an idea and set of strategies from Hester and Adams outlined below). 

Each of the grid’s cells corresponds to one of five stakeholder strategies:

• Involve supportive, prominent stakeholders
• Collaborate with supportive, less prominent stakeholders
• Defend against nonsupportive, prominent stakeholders
• Monitor neutral, prominent and nonsupportive, less prominent stakeholders
• Take no action with neutral, less prominent stakeholders.

I like this tool because it helps move away from three common but delusional beliefs:

1. Kumbaya: the idea that all stakeholders can or will agree.
2. All or nothing thinking: the idea that everyone is either an ally or opponent.
3. Stasis: the idea that stakeholder views can’t or won’t change over time.

For my four stakeholders, the grid looks like this:

With just a few minutes of analysis, I have four different stakeholder strategies to implement.

Mission accomplished.

TLDR

1. Determine what each stakeholder wants
2. Calculate stakeholder prominence based on power, legitimacy and urgency
3. Calculate stakeholder support based on potential for cooperation and threat
4. Engage stakeholders differently based on prominence-support score

See you again next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are two ways I can help you:

→ I’m a strategic advisor for the toughest societal problems like poverty, crime and homelessness. People come to me when they want to stop spinning their wheels and get transformative, systems-level change.

→ I’m a coach for emerging and executive leaders in the social and public sectors who want to make progress on their biggest goals and challenges.

Let’s find out how I can help you become transformational.