Transcript
[00:00:06.420] - Imogen
Hello and welcome to Dear Comms, the coffee break podcast where we tackle your biggest corporate comms challenges. I'm Imogen. [00:00:13.910] - Amanda
And I'm Amanda. We're here to give you practical, no-nonsense advice so you can focus on the things that will really drive influence, engagement, and impact. [00:00:23.930] - Imogen
Today we're kicking off a brand new series and we're going to be looking at stakeholder management. So over the next 5 episodes, we're going to look at that from a load of different angles. So we'll start with figuring out who really matters and who should be on that list. Then we'll look at finding common ground. We'll explore what happens when you have different stakeholders who all want different things. We'll help you deal with our more difficult stakeholders, because I'm sure we'll have some. And then finally, we'll look at how you actually build relationships before you need them. [00:01:00.300] - Amanda
Yeah, and I think one of the things we want to stress is that most stakeholder problems don't suddenly appear halfway through a project. They usually begin much earlier, and there are warning signs that we need to spot. [00:01:13.880] - Imogen
So, let's kick off, and let's start with a really simple question. Who is a stakeholder? What is a stakeholder? How do we know if we have a stakeholder? I think people, when they hear the word stakeholder, one, they think of McKinsey and awful corporate speak. But secondly, they think about, okay, it's my customers and the regulators and the local community living next to the big factory I want to build. [00:01:44.740] - Amanda
Yeah, they do. And of course they are, but then you've also got your employees, your project sponsor, unions, your finance director, the HR department, the people who've worked in the business for 20 years. and everybody goes to when they want an honest opinion. We all know who they are. So, a stakeholder is simply somebody that can influence what you're trying to achieve, or somebody that's influenced by it. [00:02:10.360] - Imogen
Yeah, and influence can either be positive or negative. So, they could have a positive impact on what you're trying to achieve, or they are the people who can stop you achieving what you want to achieve. Stakeholder management isn't about It's a big mistake to assume that influence follows org charts, or follows leadership within external organizations. It doesn't. There are different people who will mean different things to the project, and you can't treat everybody the same. [00:02:44.770] - Amanda
And we've all seen stakeholder lists with 30 or 40 names on on them, and everybody gets the same email, the same presentation, the same update, and that's just not gonna work. [00:02:56.700] - Imogen
No, I mean, it's more efficient, but it isn't particularly effective, because not everyone's in the same place, and not everyone needs to go to the same place. Some people need to just be involved, some people need to be reassured, some people need to be kept up to date with what's happening, and there are others who don't need to know anything about it until they do, and that's where our judgment needs to come in. [00:03:26.110] - Amanda
Yeah, and I want to stress again that sometimes the most influential person in the room isn't the most senior. Some of the most influential stakeholders I've worked with have never had director in their job title, but they were the executive assistant that everybody trusted, or the factory manager that people really listened to. [00:03:44.970] - Imogen
Yeah, and that's not just internally either, that's outside as well. We spend a lot of time thinking about, okay, so it's the people making decisions, it's our MPs, it's maybe the not-for-profits, but we don't think enough or take enough time to think about people who shape opinion and people who shape the environment in which we're operating. [00:04:08.550] - Amanda
That reminds me of something that happened years ago in terms of shaping opinion. You'll have heard me talk about working at McDonald's before, and this was at the time the film Super Size Me came out. [00:04:20.480] - Imogen
Right. Man eats lots of burgers. [00:04:23.150] - Amanda
That man eats lots of burgers, puts on weight. Hello. [00:04:26.180] - Imogen
Right. [00:04:26.510] - Amanda
It's, it's too good an example to miss. At the time, if you'd have asked us who our stakeholders were, we'd have come up with a very sensible list. It would have been customers, franchisees, employees, government suppliers, media. The comedian Morgan Spurlock wouldn't have been anywhere near that list. [00:04:45.840] - Imogen
Which is not a surprise, really, since I'd never heard of him before then. [00:04:51.360] - Amanda
And we heard a lot about him at the time, and I can look back with it and smile with hindsight because he wasn't somebody we naturally thought about engaging with. And in fact, we didn't repeatedly, and it was on camera. We ignored him. [00:05:06.520] - Imogen
Mm. [00:05:07.340] - Amanda
But we underestimated the influence one charismatic person could have on the public conversation. That documentary was released at Sundance Festival. Everybody was talking about it. And it changed the questions that were being asked, and it changed the way journalists approached the business, and it definitely shifted public opinion. [00:05:30.590] - Imogen
I think sometimes we can become so focused on the people we've always spoken to about the things we've always spoken to them about that we actually completely miss what's going on in the wider world, and we miss the people who are shaping the business or opinion around them. It's important to ask yourself who's missing. You are going to have your core group who are always going to be your core group of stakeholders, but ask yourself whose voice is not represented here. And quite often, that's the person you need to be talking to next. If I'm thinking about stakeholders and I'm thinking about, right, I don't want to just have my normal stakeholders, what do I do differently, Amanda? Where do I start? [00:06:12.120] - Amanda
I'd make it really simple. I'd ask myself, if I only had time for 5 conversations this week, who would I spend the time with? Once you've got your 5, ask yourself one more question. Which of those conversations have I been putting off? And that's usually the one that matters most. [00:06:30.380] - Imogen
Eating the frog, I think it's called. [00:06:32.930] - Amanda
It is. [00:06:33.810] - Imogen
Eating the frog. It's about forcing yourself to prioritize and to get over that thing you don't want to do. You can't have a meaningful relationship with 40 people at once, but having a think about that top 5, and specifically that top 1, forces you to really get up and get going. [00:06:53.480] - Amanda
It's amazing what happens when you ask yourself that question, because you immediately think, I've been spending too much time talking to one group, and nowhere near enough with another. And it's a good way of testing your thinking. It's a really simple way. [00:07:08.690] - Imogen
Just to reinforce again, and I think we sound like a bit of a broken record here, but Those 5 conversations aren't necessarily the 5 most senior people on your list. [00:07:17.180] - Amanda
Sometimes they are, but generally, no. They're the people underneath, or alongside, or outside the organization altogether. The point we're trying to make and stress is they are the people that'll help you understand what's really going on. [00:07:33.230] - Imogen
Another trap businesses, organizations fall into is believing that because they've sent an email, or they've given a presentation to someone, that they've engaged Yeah, and it's got to be a conversation, hasn't it? [00:07:48.690] - Amanda
And sometimes that conversation's going to change your thinking. It can confirm you're on the right track. It can highlight risks. But if you're never listening, you never know. And I think that people worry about engaging. What they worry about is that everybody has to agree. [00:08:05.930] - Imogen
No, never. [00:08:07.390] - Amanda
That's not the case. [00:08:09.650] - Imogen
Not at all. It's not about making people happy. Engagement is not about making people happy. It's the opportunity to understand, to ask questions, to help people feel that they're part of a process, that they've been listened to, that they've been treated fairly. And that doesn't mean that everyone gets their own way. [00:08:33.420] - Amanda
You sometimes are going to make the same decision, but you'll make a better decision because you've properly understood all of the issues and all of the impacts surrounding that decision. [00:08:46.990] - Imogen
Your stakeholders aren't going to stay in the same situation the whole way through your project either. They're going to change throughout the process. So, someone who isn't on your radar today may be the most important person to speak to tomorrow. And similarly, people's positions are going to change because Any project is actually about a journey, right? You want to get your stakeholders to come along with you. So, you may build customers into advocates. What does that mean for them? You may move your employees from doing one thing to doing another. What does that mean for them? Your stakeholder management is something that has to be done consistently throughout the course of the project, so you can really understand where your stakeholders are, what they're thinking, and what that means for the outcome of the project. [00:09:38.220] - Amanda
Yeah, you're course correcting, aren't you? [00:09:40.640] - Imogen
Absolutely. So, before we finish, what do you think the one thing you would leave people with when it comes to stakeholder management? [00:09:51.890] - Amanda
I'd give yourself some homework, and I'd repeat what we said earlier. If you only had time for 5 conversations next week, who would they be? And those conversations aren't with the people that are loudest or the most senior. They are people that spending time with them and engaging them in a conversation would generally improve the outcome of what you're doing. And then I would ask one more question, who isn't on that list that probably should be? Because that's where your blind spot is. What about you? [00:10:26.070] - Imogen
I think I would go with 3 questions. So, When you're thinking about your stakeholder map and who's on it, have a think about 3 things. One, who has got influence to affect the outcome negatively or positively? Secondly, who has got the biggest interest in what you're trying to achieve? And thirdly, who is going to feel the greatest impact from any decisions you make? I think if you can answer those 3 questions, you're probably already thinking about your stakeholders in a much better way. [00:10:59.950] - Amanda
Next time, we're going to assume you've identified the right stakeholders, and we're going to talk about how you can find common ground, how you can win over skeptics, and how you can move forward without compromise. [00:11:17.630] - Imogen
But until then, if this episode has delighted, scared, overjoyed, excited you possibly, and has made you think differently about your own stakeholders, Then we'd love to hear from you. [00:11:29.270] - Amanda
And if you know someone who's about to start a project, launch a change program, or tackle a tricky issue, send them this episode. It might just help them from missing the stakeholder that matters most. [00:11:42.420] - Imogen
Until then. [00:11:43.710] - Amanda
Next time. 
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