Conversation: Who Cares? - Project World Collectable Card #12

 

Card number 12 in my series of 16 Project World Collectable Cards is titled "Essential Conversation: Who Cares?". It covers an essential conversation you have in projects: who cares? You might known this question under the name Stakeholder Management. 

A Lesson From Oz

People are driven by their expectations. If stakeholders have something to gain by the project, and those expectations are in line with reality and vice verse, you have created a very productive environment.

Not every person is happy with Dorothy’s trip. The Wicked Witch of The West tries to stop her from reaching Emerald City. In the beginning of the story Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch Of The East by accident, and her sister from The West wants revenge. Flying monkeys are sent to stop the little girl.

Brave Dorothy keeps The Witch out of her way, with a little help from the Witch of The North. Blocking the bad influence. Keeping her own path.

The Stakeholder Adventure Map!

Invite some relevant people to brainstorm the stakeholder map. Get a whiteboard. This can be an old fashioned one, you know the kind you put on a wall. Or this can be an online version for remote organizations.

Draw an image of the goal. A treasure. A princess in a tower. A shovel.

Draw a line that flows towards the goal. Not a straight line. Create the suggestion that the Big Adventure is one that includes obstacles and challenges. The openness and flow stimulate creativity. It suggests you have room to think.

The next step is concerned with the question “Who are the stakeholders?”

For this, you basically draw people or smileys along your project road map. What is the first time they pop up? That's the place where you draw them on the flow. If you draw them closer  towards your path, they have more influence, are more important. Often you start with the obvious stakeholders, and the longer you talk about it, the more crowded the whiteboard gets.

The attitude of the stakeholders towards the project determines their behavior. Happy people are more likely to cooperate than an angry mob. With the use of smileys or + and - sign, try to assess the indicate of the stakeholder towards the project.

Not all stakeholders are created equal. Not everyone has to be involved. And you don't want to have everyone messing around with your scope. So. Draw walls between your path and the stakeholders that don't have or need an involvement. And when you draw, yell: "Block Them!" For those that need involvement draw a nice and inviting corridor (or arrow) between the flow and the stakeholder. I am still looking for a good phrase to say when you draw the arrow.

Tada! Now you have a nice Stakeholder Adventure Map.

Location of this card on the overall map:

Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.