The final part of this step is to consider how much impact each person could have — how much could they help or hinder your progress?
In many ways, this is a combination of the benefit (or loss) that they are aware of which could be heading their way and the amount of power/influence they have within the organisation — or more importantly, among your stakeholder group. The more they are likely to win or lose — the more active they will be!
- Take a piece of paper and divide it into three columns titled Help, Not Sure and Hinder.
- Take your list of names and divide them into the three columns based on where you think they are likely to help or hinder the achievement of your goal.
- Mark each one to indicate the level of power you think they have. A simple high, medium or low is enough.
- Challenge yourself again, whom have you forgotten? Are there more powerful people who should be on the page? Remember that even if you do not have access to them, they are still likely stakeholders.
Once you have completed your list, sit back and reflect on your goal and the tally of stakeholders. Now circle the ones that you think you should be focusing your stakeholder management energy on.
Hopefully, you have arrived at a list of eight to twelve people. Don’t worry if you’ve got more. If you’ve got less, you might start to reflect on the usefulness of the goal you are focusing on. If you need to, return to Step 1 and review your thinking.
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