Designing to Close the Stakeholder Value Gap

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

 

Everyone is talking about understanding and defining stakeholder requirements. One of the tools used to gather stakeholder requirements information is a survey. However, most surveys fail to produce any meaningful information about real requirements and expectations. I believe this is because embedded in the survey is an arbitrary definition of "good." It's a well-accepted fact that people lie on surveys. They read the question, see the bias in the question and answer it towards that bias. In this article, I will present a new concept for constructing a stakeholder value-gap assessment survey. The concept uses a three-pronged approach to every question. The first question establishes the stakeholder's expectation. The second question in the series establishes his desire. The third question establishes his experience.

So how does this approach work? Why is it better than traditional approaches? What can we do with the information we collect?

To truly understand stakeholder value gaps, we must contrast their needs with their expectations with their experiences. Only by understanding all three of these views can an accurate picture of the value gap be developed. Consider the following example. Assume that a fast food restaurant wants to measure its customers' satisfaction and any related value gaps that might exist in connection to the quality of its food, speed of service …

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