How do you create a stakeholder engagement plan?

How do you know who your stakeholders are? Answer these questions: Who uses your product? Who leads your organization? What other functional areas contribute to the project?

Engage directly with potential stakeholders through interviews to understand their interests, concerns, and expectations. This qualitative approach provides deeper insights into the motivations and priorities of different stakeholders.

Clearly identifying all stakeholders from the beginning is imperative to gaining commitment and adoption. Often, organizations tend to overlook customers as stakeholders. Not raising customer awareness about the change or involving them in the process with outcomes that may impact them, is not good for success. Internal, external, and customer stakeholders should all have a voice.

For stakeholder identification, the Power/Interest Grid (by Mendelow) is essential. Apple Inc., for instance, categorizes stakeholders based on their influence and interest. Customers, employees, and investors are high-interest, high-power groups, receiving the most attention. Understanding the diversity and range of stakeholders, as Apple does, ensures no key player is overlooked.

Also consider who might become a stakeholder in the future. This may be harder to predict but who are the rising stars? high potentials? biggest contributors not being recognized yet?

Develop detailed profiles for key stakeholder groups, outlining their demographics, goals, pain points, and preferred communication channels. This human-centered approach helps tailor your strategies to resonate more effectively with each group.

Analyzing stakeholders involves understanding their perspectives, interests, and influence. Google, for example, uses data-driven approaches to analyze stakeholder behaviors and preferences. They gather data through user interactions, market research, and feedback channels, allowing them to tailor their strategies to meet stakeholder needs effectively.

Analyzing your stakeholder groups so that you can identify the unique needs and expectations of each group, supports success. Not all need to hear the same message the same way at the same time. When communicating with stakeholders it is important to tell each group what they need to hear, how they need to hear it, in the way it needs to be heard. This can't occur without first analyzing and segmenting your stakeholder groups.

Assess current engagement levels and identify gaps. Determine which stakeholders need more attention and which are already well-engaged. This helps you adjust your strategies to ensure balanced and effective engagement across all key stakeholders.

Prioritizing stakeholders is essential for resource allocation. Tesla, for instance, uses the Salience Model, prioritizing stakeholders with high power, legitimacy, and urgency. Investors and customers, particularly in sustainable energy markets, are their top priority, shaping Tesla’s strategic decisions and innovations.

Another example of a reason to engage is for your own learning. What can other stakeholders teach you about reaching your objectives in this organization? Even if you aren't sure what you want or need to learn, it's a great reason to engage with others around you - to grow your own awareness.

Defining clear engagement objectives is vital. Amazon follows Simon Sinek’s principle of “Start With Why,” focusing on customer-centric objectives. Their engagement objectives revolve around improving customer experience and satisfaction, guiding their engagement strategies and actions.

"Nobody ever washes a rental car" is a phrase I have used for 40 years to try to get people to understand that we need to generate active ownership in order to get people to commit and engage. Without ownership, we are doing things TO them rather than WITH them. Sure, you can send them crap that they might read; it is good to keep them informed. But understand that we simply CANNOT engage them. Nobody has that power or ability; engagement is a choice that THEY make, not you. What you can do is DIS-un-engagement. You CAN work to remove the natural roadblocks that get in the way of them choosing to be involved. You can create alternative choices that they can make to their normal ones of resisting changed done to them. THEIR choice.

In developing engagement strategies, digital platforms play a crucial role. LinkedIn, as a professional networking site, leverages its own platform to engage with various stakeholders, offering tailored content, networking opportunities, and industry insights. This digital approach allows for broader, more efficient stakeholder engagement.

Planning engagement actions requires clarity on roles and responsibilities. Microsoft uses the RACI Matrix to outline who is responsible for each engagement action, who needs to be consulted, and who should be informed. This clarity ensures efficient execution of engagement plans and clear communication channels.

The biggest reason I hear for not building stakeholder relationships is that it's too time consuming and that "there's real work to be done". Well, consider that this IS your work - to build relationships so that having the important and difficult conversations can be had quicker, easier and with more collaborative possibilities when they are most needed.

Ethical engagement and CSR are increasingly important. Patagonia’s approach to stakeholder engagement, which includes environmental activists and communities, sets a standard for ethical engagement. They incorporate stakeholder values into their business model and decision-making process, ensuring that their engagements are not only strategic but also align with broader social and environmental responsibilities.