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Navigating Stakeholder Management: A Human-Centric Approach

Today, we explore the intricacies of stakeholder management through a distinctly human lens, a theme that resonated in my recent discussions around building innovation ecosystems within corporations.

Unraveling the Human Element in Stakeholder Mapping

The episode kicked off with an essential foundation: mapping stakeholders effectively and empathetically. Jens underscored the importance of not just identifying who these stakeholders are—both within and outside the organization—but also understanding their current proximity to the project and their potential influence on its success. This process isn't about filling out a template but involves a deep dive into the relationships that connect the people around a project. By visually placing these stakeholders in a mind map, Jens illustrated how we can gauge their influence and strategize ways to bring them closer to the core of the project.

Building Relationships That Last

Next, we turned our attention to the art of building relationships. Jens emphasized that knowing your stakeholders goes beyond their titles. Understanding their interests, personal activities, and preferences can unlock more meaningful engagements. This segment of the discussion was particularly compelling as it presented relationship-building not just as a professional strategy but as a genuine effort to connect on a personal level. Listening and valuing their input becomes a gateway to deeper collaboration.

Collaborating With a Purpose

In discussing collaboration, Jens articulated the importance of clarity and transparency in stakeholder interactions. Explaining why their involvement is essential and outlining clear expectations sets the stage for effective collaboration. This approach not only helps in aligning goals but also ensures that all parties understand the value they bring and receive from the project.

The Human Touch in Engagement

A standout point was Jens' advice on continuous engagement. He warned against the common pitfall of disconnecting after initial interactions such as workshops. Keeping stakeholders informed and involved even in small ways fosters a sense of belonging and appreciation that can greatly enhance long-term cooperation.

Cultivating Long-Term Connections

This episode was a treasure trove of strategies for anyone looking to manage stakeholders in a way that respects and harnesses their humanity. It reminds us that behind every corporate role lies a person whose interests and involvement are pivotal to the success of any initiative. Jens’ insights encourage us to see these individuals as partners in innovation, not just names on a project charter.

Engage with these strategies in your next project and observe the difference a human-centered approach can make. If you found these insights valuable, don't hesitate to reach out with questions or topics for future discussions, as Jens warmly invites his audience to do.

Remember, in the complex web of corporate innovation, the human connection is the most enduring link. Let's keep nurturing these relationships, and I'll see you in the next insightful episode of the Jens Heitland Show!

Clips

Summary

EP 175: How do I manage stakeholders - the human way? - HIQA with Jens Heitland

HIQA - Human Innovation Questions Answered

The topic of today’s episode is: How do I manage stakeholders - the human way?

Questions I cover in the show:

• How do I manage stakeholders - the human way?

• How to map stakeholders - the human way?

• Why should you build a relationship with your stakeholders to innovate?

• How to collaborate with stakeholders - the human way?

If you have questions to the topic or questions you want me to cover in one of the next live shows, please send them to me via email  contact@heitlandinnovation.com 

Link to the show:

Please find all resources like video, audio, show notes and as well some shorter clips of the episode at https://www.jensheitland.com/

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Transcript:

  Hello innovators and welcome to another episode of the Jens Heitland show where I connect the dots of innovation and entrepreneurship with my guests. Today's episode is a HEQUA episode and HEQUA stands for human innovation questions answered. And today's topic is HEQUA. How do I manage stakeholders, the human way?

And I came up with this topic because I was in a conversation around innovation, ecosystem development inside of a corporation and a big discussion kind of happened around the whom do we involve and how do we involve people and how do we find out whom we should involve? So it's kind of what are the different stakeholders and how do we do that?

And I thought I will bring the questions and reformulate them into this HIKWA episode today so that I can share a little bit of what I talked with that person. So how do I manage stakeholders the human way? Find the right stakeholders. is a key part, starting with the first part, mapping them out and understanding are the stakeholders you want to engage with.

Then the second part we discussed was building relationships and how important it is and how you're going to do that. And then we cover collaborate with stakeholders. So how do you collaborate? How do you bring the relationship to the next level that you can kind of bring value in the collaboration with the So these are the topics we cover in today's HIKWA episode.

Let's get into it. How to map stakeholders the human way. I know a lot of organizations, a lot of consultants working with stakeholder mappings in different ways. What I always do is linking the human aspects to the stakeholder mapping. It's not about just having, let's say, a mind map or something where you map out all the different stakeholders.

You need to go deeper. deeper into the human element. So what I always do is imagine you have, if we take the innovation ecosystem as, as a topic, which is like implementing an innovation ecosystem requires you to have an understanding of who needs to be involved in which way. So you put this, imagine you have, uh, a, a big mind map in front of you.

The center of this mind map is basically the project. If we call it project. So we want to build an innovation ecosystem in this company. And then you map out who is kind of involved in this. You look into internal and you look into external. And that's what everyone is doing with stakeholder mapping. So you, you go deeper.

So you say, let's say you have the steering committee in a large organization. You have different employees and different, um, organizational parts of your organization that are involved externally. You want to have different partners, maybe clients, maybe. So you go more into that details. Then what you look, if you say the center part of, of this mind map is the project is the project team is what you want to do.

Um, then you look into how far away are these different people? Let's imagine there's the CEO of the organization. How far away is the CEO compared to the steering group members? Maybe he is part of the steering committee. Maybe he's not. So you, you put basically a relation to the distance of the project.

number one step. So mapping out all stakeholders, then putting them into how far away are they right now from this project, from this initiative. And then you look into from a priority perspective, how important are the stakeholders for the success? Of this project or this initiative. And if we keep the CEO as, as an important stakeholder, we say this person is extremely important.

Maybe it's the CF or maybe it's a legal person. Maybe it's an external person. Um, then you look into, okay, this are key priority people inside of this ecosystem, and then you say, okay, how far away are they? And how do we get them closer is the next step. So you have in the center is your project team and your initiative, and then you have all stakeholders mapped out around it.

And then you look into how, how far away are they? So if the CEO is far away and you need to have them closer. Then you look into how do you build strategies that helps the CEO to get closer to this project, to this initiative. Same with all other stakeholders. So you'd always look into it from a perspective of getting this person closer.

And what's the strategy to get this person closer to be part of the project and supporting that project. And sometimes you find out that between you and that specific stakeholder, there are a influence that stakeholder. Imagine there's the CFO and the CFO is very close to the project and is very invested into this project.

And the CEO is closer to the CEO than you are. And the project initiative is so you can use the CEO relationship to get closer to the CEO and kind of get him supporting or her supporting you in this endeavor. And that's the whole stakeholder mapping. The human way is basically. You go wide, understanding all the different stakeholders, look into the relationship of the stakeholders towards you, and then you look into the relationships between the stakeholders and how they can influence and help you influence each other with the goal of getting the important stakeholders closer to the center of this mind map example.

Let's get into the next one. How to build relationships with the stakeholders to innovate. And of course, it's all about innovation. So if you want to. work with stakeholders, the key part is focusing on getting to know them. If we stick to the example of CFO, how much do you know about the CEO? How much do you know about the stakeholders in general?

Sometimes it's just surface. Yeah, I know that's the CEO. And I know that he has this role. And of course, maybe if it's the CFO, you might know a little bit more. But in the end is you need to know way more than you think. You need to know what do they like? What do they read? What do they, um, engage with?

What do they do on their personal life? What, what do they do in general? What are their interests? Maybe they're sports people, maybe they're runners, maybe they like football, maybe they like sailing, maybe they like golfing, whatever. All of that is about getting to know them. And if you then engage with them, you focus on listening.

You focus on listening to that person, engaging with that person to truly understand them, because we all like to talk about ourselves and we all like to be seen from other people, CEOs in the same way, like we are in the same way like anyone else in the whole world. So it's about spending time with that person and or getting someone else helping you to spend time with that person and then listen, value their background and their knowledge.

It's not just listening. It's acknowledging them, their value and their, their knowledge they have, and don't focus on asking. So when you work with stakeholders, it's not about asking to them to give towards you. It's also what can you do to them? And that's where we go into one of my big principles is how do you create win win situations?

between the different stakeholders, but as well between your initiative and the different stakeholders. So if we take back the example with the CEO, what is the value for the CEO and the company, because this person is responsible for the company to do this initiative. If you're not able to articulate the value to that person and the organization, you will not be able to convince that person to kind of work with you to support you.

So it's then again on an individual level. Because we're all humans, we all kind of look for an incentive for ourselves that you need to go deeper. And that's why the stakeholder mapping is so important. And then going deeper again for understanding, listening, researching them, and truly understanding how can you build a relationship with that person, which is longer focus than just.

How can you get this person to support you? If you focus on true relationship management with the different stakeholders over years, even if it's a smaller project. And I can tell you, I am still in relationships and in contact with people who have been in steering committees, I don't know, 10 years ago, um, in projects I was running.

Um, It's, it's a long term opportunity for you to, to build true relationships, but as well, it helps you to be successful inside of the organization and successful with that initiative, same way in the external world, we, we have a German saying, you always see yourself, see another person twice and you will always see each other again.

So when you work with an external stakeholders, how can you bring a long term win win perspective with the stakeholder. The last question I want to cover is how to collaborate with stakeholders the human way. And for me, it's, it's built up on the other two topics, but it's really all about getting, giving them the understanding of why do you want to involve them?

Why do you contact them? Why do you reach out to them in the first place? And being transparent with that. It's very, very easy to be transparent with the CEO. It's important for us that you're involved because of X, Y, Z. It's important that we engage the local authorities in a specific thing because of X, Y, Z.

There are a lot of people who are kind of working in gray zones. They're not truly saying why they're contacting people. My experience is if you're upfront with, I would love to engage with you because of this and this and this, then they can decide if they want to support this initiative or not, or at least want to hear and learn more.

And then you start building that relationship where you go into that. So if you're saying yes, I would, I would love to hear more than invite them to contribute, invite them to share their knowledge, invite them to, to see the opportunities in being part of the journey of where you're on. Specifically, if you build an innovation, new innovation ecosystem in your organization, which is, um, an organism in itself.

You need a lot of supporters because it's always going to be difficult in moving things. And then when, when, when they're in, when they're. willing to contribute, be clear of your expectations towards them. What do you expect and how do you see their role? If you're able to say that clearly in the beginning, it's not just why they should contribute as, as well, give them an opportunity to say, I could see you in this and this, in this way, and I would love you to take that role.

Um, so if you have clear expectations towards them, then they can, again, contribute in a way better way than if you're unclear of how they can contribute, what they could do and how they could do. And then of course involve them. When we look into kind of stakeholder management and, um, ways of engagement, collaboration, of course, they're always going to be kind of workshops, kind of engagements where different people will meet each other.

So do that in a strategic way where you involve people and go back to the first question, which was the mapping. If the CEO are closer, then you can put them together in a way that it is supporting you. So if you do this strategically as well with external stakeholders, putting the right people together inside of workshops, inside of engagements, inside of brainstormings, whatever you do and wherever you see the value of people contributing, and don't forget that is valuable to them as well, this, this will help.

And that's not just stopping with the workshop. I see a lot of mistakes in this world where you invite someone to a workshop and then thank you very much. And then you kind of accept it's a client, then you're not engaging with them anymore. Share the progress, share what's going on and let them be part of that journey.

Maybe they have been just initially, um, in a brainstorming. If you involve customers in what you're doing, involve them more, share what's going on. Hey, thank you very much for being this. By the way, we're sharing a little bit what's going on in this place and that place. Please have a look. Thank you very much.

Do you remember this idea, what you have submitted? Do you remember this discussion? Um, this is, this is where we are and this is where we are going. And we just want to, to highlight that you have been a big part of that. And I know this is effort. Um, a lot of organization, a lot of people, a lot of project managers, a lot of initial initiatives are under pressure.

I think this is the most valuable human thing you can do. Because when you then ask again, one day, Hey, would you be interested in collaborating? Would you be interested in coming to this event? Would you be interested in contributing to this workshop? Would you be interested in sharing your knowledge?

People will say yes, if you keep them on board, if you let them be part of your story and part of the journey where you're on. So this was the episode, how do I manage stakeholders the human way? If you have questions, please reach out to me. If you have topics you would like me to cover in one of the EQUA episodes, please reach out and I'm happy to include them in one of the future EQUAs.

See you next week. Thanks for listening to today's episode. You will find the links and resources in the show notes of this episode. If you would like to support the podcast, the most impactful thing you can do is subscribing to the show on any of the podcasting platforms and give me a review. This will help me to reach more innovators around the world and bring some of you into the show.

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