1.5 - About University

5.7S T AKEHOLDER G ROUPS: UNDERSTANDING ANDM APPING S T AKEHOLDER S YSTEMSInspired by Stephen Heiman, Diane Sanchez, Tad Tuleja, Robert Miller, and John Kotter.Increasingly, projects and change initiatives in organizations have multiple stakeholders, andrarely do changes or recommendations have an impact on only a single interest group. Thus,to have your ideas accepted and implemented, it’s crucial to determine who these stakeholdergroups are and what role each plays in the change process. This tool will help you identify,organize, and map the different stakeholder groups and their different perspectives.F IVE TYPICAL STAKEHOLDER GROUPS1. Contact or working stakeholder(s):The people who represent sponsor-stakeholders; they may work directly withyou on a project team.The contact stakeholder may be an individual or a group, a task force or a committee.Often they represent other stakeholder groups. These stakeholders are project-oriented,busy people who usually wish to minimize their time and energy spent on the project.A contact stakeholder’s typical question is: “How can we successfully finish this project ontime and within budget, and get acceptance for implementation?” Contrast this questionwith those of the remaining stakeholder types.2. Sponsor, financial funder, or decision stakeholder(s):The individual or group that has the authority to approve the project.Often senior managers or management committees, these stakeholders approve thebudget and free up resources for implementation. Their basic question is: “Is this proposalorganizationally and financially sound?” Their perspective often takes in more thanany one particular project. They are concerned about your project’s impact on the organization.Beware of the rampant myth about this group, that if you get the top-levelstakeholder’s approval, the project is a shoo-in. Not true! Their commitment is certainlynecessary, but alone it’s often not sufficient.3. End-user stakeholder(s):The group of stakeholders who will actually implement the changes andmake them work on the job.Their basic question is: “Will this really work under my practical conditions and will it makemy job easier?” Note how different this question is from that of the sponsor stakeholder.Often, leaders tend to be more comfortable working with one or two particularstakeholder groups and not with others. This can be costly. To succeed today, leadersneed to work equally well with the full range of often diverse stakeholder groups.4. Indirect stakeholder(s):They are able to say, “No, your proposal does not fit our organizational policyor requirements.”The least obvious stakeholders, these are people who cannot directly approve your proposal,but who can say “no” or can hold up your project. The basic question of indirectstakeholders is: “Does this proposal meet the standards and policies we control?”156 SECTION 5 TOOLS FOR LEADING CHANGE