How to develop a tailored strategy

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Stakeholder Management

Siegfried Kaltenecker is an organisational consultant with 20 years of experience in leadership training and management coaching. co-owns and co-manages Loop Consultancy GmbH, an open consulting network, specialised in IT business, financial services, and industry www.loop-beratung.at. is also a Certified ScrumMaster, co-editor of PAM, and co-author of “Kanban in der IT. Eine Kultur der kontinuierlichen Verbesserung schaffen.” (Munich 2012 – currently only available in German but about to be published in English too)

Thomas Spielhofer•has facilitated the introduction of Scrum as responsible manager in different organisations and is now supporting others in doing so as consultant. •has 15 years of IT experience leading heavy-weight international projects based on IPMA and CMMI as well as lean product development initiatives based on XP and Scrum. •is co-editor of PAM - Platform for Agile Management www.p-a-m.org, dedicating some of his time to research and learning more about agile methods.

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Why Stakeholder Management?Some truisms

Organisations are nurtured by various interests, needs and actions.

Organisations consist of dynamic relationships that are driven by power.

Projects are a natural part of this network of power relationships.

Project managers need specific strategies for dealing with stakeholders and their networks.

And the reality?Some observations

Project managers do not recognize that their projects ignite change – and that resistance is a natural part of change.

Project managers have no clear picture of who is affected by their work or who influences this work.

Project managers know their stakeholders but are reluctant to involve them in their projects.

Project managers do not know how to professionally involve their stakeholders.

Project managers drive change without acknowledging specific interests.

A Case Study

Introduction of a new software for credit management

Introduction of high political interest, a lot of debates about why, how, when where, a series of specific change requests during the introduction process

„Task Force“ with 1 project manager& 12 project team members with different professional background (finance, IT, OD)

1 external facilitator/consultant

Austrian bank, 43 branches, over 200 local affiliates, over 2000 users

A broad variety of important stakeholders

How did we proceed?Good practices of stakeholder management

Devote time for professional team building

Facilitate open discussion about distinct positions and forces to be considered

Define specific action points for all stakeholders

Continuous review and learning of actions

Create a joint map of project stakeholders

Involve all team members in the implementation of defined action points

How to create a map of your stakeholders

Brainstorm all individuals and groups who „have a stake“ in our project (i.e. who are influencing this project or are affected by its process and/or outcome)

Write the name of your stakeholder on pin-cards of different size according to their relative power within the organisation (rule of thumb: the bigger the power the bigger the pin-card)

Link each stakeholder with the project´s mission (center) as well as with the other stakeholders. The closer the stakeholder are positioned to the center, the more intense the interaction on a daily basis. Try out different versions of relationships.

Lines of different color and width signify the assumed amount of work (blue) and power (red) influencing the project.

Find out more about possible variations of your stakeholder map onhttp://www.loop-beratung.at/fileadmin/images/Map_Stakeholder_Management.pdf

Observations & ConclusionsDirectors of bank branches („Geschäftsleiter“) are key players of a successful introduction – hence, professional contracting, reporting and feedback is essential

Regular marketing activities adressing the needs and stakes of managers and management boards is important

Retrospectives on a quarterly basis, facilitated by the external consultant to ensure outside-the-box-thinking

Set aside resources for internal feedback loops and learning (time as well as budget)

Define how and when to evaluate pilot bank branches

What team members said about the benefits of their stakeholder management strategy

“The map allowed for overview and gave us a tool to better orient ourselves.“

“Creating a joint map is an intense team building process. It needs a lot of open-minded sharing and trustful communication.“

“We made good use of our tacit knowledge as well as our know-how about the organisation and its key players.“

“It takes time to develop a strategy and continuously learn from its pracitcal implementation. Nevertheless, this investment pays of on a short term and on a long term perspective.“

“A lot of helpful impulses to improve our future project management.“