1. TAMING TIGERS:
MANAGING
COMPLEX
STAKEHOLDER
ENVIRONMENTS

2. TODAY, WE ARE
HERDING TIGERS

3. WHO AM I?
• I have 3 stakeholders
– 2 daughters (19 yrs
and 22 yrs) and my
wife
• I have dozens of
stakeholders who I
work for

4. ALSO…
• I am a creative
technologist, artist,
facilitator
and digital strategist
• I work with social
change organizations

5. Our clients

6. WHAT WILL YOU LEARN
• IDENTIFY Different stakeholders
• Understand the principles that build
stakeholder management

7. PMP COURSE
[ ]MY FOCUS TODAY

8. highly improvisational:
coworking
8
The work world is changing

9. The world is more complex

10. We need a new framework to think about how
to manage. a mindset and worldview that helps
us to make be8er decisions

11. Managing for stakeholders is a
simple way to understand a
complex world

12. Turn to your neighbour -
How do you define a stakeholder in your
projects?

13. WHAT IS A STAKEHOLDER?
Stakeholders are the people that
can affect, or be affected, by the
achievement of a organization’s
core purpose

14. BUT HOW TO IDENTIFY
STAKEHOLDERS?
• Convene a diverse group of people and ask
them who is affected by the org and who can
affect it
• People will easily identify and prioritize
stakeholders
• Challenge is that often, orgs will not listen to
critical groups

15. PMP LANGUAGE
• Stakeholder defini/on
– Interest
– Involvement
– Impact
– Influence
– interdependency
• Stakeholder levels
– Unaware
– Resistant
– Neutral
– Supportive
– leading

16. “If I can look out through your
perspective and you through
mine, we may both see something
that we would not see alone.”
- Peter Senge
http://www.solonline.org/?page=PeterSengebio

17. BUT WAIT, WHAT IS
STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT?
• It’s more than just one project
• It’s the worldview that managing all
stakeholders is key for increasing value in your
organization

18. JUST KEEP
THEM HAPPY?
• YOU CAN’T KEEP THEM
ALWAYS HAPPY
• YOU NEED TO HAVE A
CLEAR SENSE OF WHAT
YOU STAND FOR AND
HOW YOU ARE GOING
TO MAKE
STAKEHOLDERS
BETTER OFF
– (But tell bad news as
soon as possible)

19. SHAREHOLDER = STAKEHOLDER?
• Shareholders are key stakeholders
• But maximizing value just for them is a
mistake
• You can achieve the same thing by Creating
great products, having satisfied suppliers and
engaged employees and being a good
community partner
• In other words, stakeholder management

20. PRINCIPLES
1. Stakeholder interests go together over time
– Finding intersections of interests leads to value
creation
– Value creation is a joint process that makes
stakeholders better off
2. We need to use simultaneous solutions for
multiple stakeholders at Once
3. Everything we do serves stakeholders – don’t
keep trading off interests
4. Act with purpose that fulfills commitment to
stakeholders
Freeman, R. Edward, Jeffrey S. Harrison, and Andrew C. Wicks.
Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success. New Haven: Yale UP, 2007. Print.

21. PRINCIPLES
5. Actively engage stakeholders and manage
Relationships
6. Dialogue with stakeholders
7. Stakeholders are real people – with real names,
faces and children
8. Spend extra energy in understanding segments
9. Engage with primary and secondary
Stakeholders
10.Monitor and redesign processes to get better
Freeman, R. Edward, Jeffrey S. Harrison, and Andrew C. Wicks.
Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success. New Haven: Yale UP, 2007. Print.

22. OBVIOUS FACT
Creating value for stakeholders is
about understanding and
satisfying all their needs and
concerns

23. DON’T
• Keep them in the dark
• Ask for last-minute support
• Expect them to solve your problems
• forget that your project success or failure
reflects on them

24. Turn to your neighbour -
What is a story you have about stakeholder
management gone wrong?

25. WHAT GOES WRONG?
• Catastrophic failures for AN organization
• But for people…
• Anger, frustration, resentment
• People quit
• Lose clients/suppliers/partners
• Lose sleep

26. MY STAKEHOLDERS
• In my top stakeholders, I had a newborn
duckling, a goldfish, a bear, and two 9gers
• What do I mean?

27. Phillip’s Field Guide to
Stakeholders

28. THE NEWBORN
DUCKLING
STAKEHOLDER: Has
never done this
before. They need
their hand held
through whatever it is.

29. Take time to educate
them. Offer additional
support, and
remember they will
grow and remember.

30. THE FORGETFUL GOLDFISH
STAKEHOLDER: These
stakeholders can never
remember what they
agreed to, or what was
said. They come back to
the table with new
demands, forgetting that
they already accepted
earlier requirements or try
to reopen closed
decisions.

31. Write everything
down and
document all
decisions. Send
minutes to them
and keep all
documents in a
central locale.
Meet privately and
push for specific
decisions

32. THE BEAR
STAKEHOLDER: This
stakeholder is
straightforward and
has much of the
institutional
knowledge. They are
powerful and can
contribute a lot. You
do need to keep them
up to date. Don’t
surprise a bear.

33. These are allies if
treated well. Respect
and honour their
memory. Ask about it
and bounce ideas off
them. DO NOT
SURPRISE THEM.
Keep them up to date
always!

34. THE TIGER STAKEHOLDER: Proud,
majestic, and wise, these are the most
important ones as they are effective and
powerful, but have a bite. Treated incorrectly,
they can kill.

35. Ally with them and acknowledge all requests.
Keep them forefront in your mind. They might be
indifferent. Ensure you keep checking in. Don’t
let them get “hangry.”

36. THE RAVEN
STAKEHOLDER can be
tricky, but also is smart
and courageous. They
are aligned to what’s
best for them.

37. Make clear what’s good
for the org. is good for
them. Don’t try to
bafflegab them, they
are too smart. They act
independently so make
sure you check in
often.

38. THE SALMON
STAKEHOLDER:
Powerful swimmers
upstream even in the
most major current.
Not a lot of initiative,
but amazing colleagues
and workers.

39. Ensure they have
the right work to
do. They will get it
done despite
obstacles.

40. THE BEAVER
STAKEHOLDER:
Obviously hardworking.
Key is to focus their
work on what you need
done.

41. THE INDIRECT CRAB
STAKEHOLDER: You
are not allowed to talk
to the right people. You
aren’t able to figure out
what’s going on. This is
a serious one because
you can’t react.

42. Build rela*onships
directly with this
person. Social
connec*ons preferably.
Set up opportuni*es to
support them bringing
in the right people
earlier than they want.

43. THE VANISHING
COUGAR
STAKEHOLDER: After
a strong start, they
disappear. You can’t
depend on them as
they just don’t show
up. Until it’s too late.

44. Ask them to honestly
assess their time.
Assign them to a more
advisory capacity. Often
they can be very helpful,
but only in advice.

45. THE SEAGULL
SHORT-TERM
STAKEHOLDER:
They come in for a
short time, fly around
and squawk orders and
then disappear again.

46. Super frustrating
Stakeholder as they are
not able to focus on
the work that has
happened.
Keep them overly
updated and ask them
for negative option
feedback “I’ll assume
that you’re ok with this
if I don’t hear back
from you on X Day.”

47. THE RHINO
STAKEHOLDER: They
are passive aggressive
or just aggressively
negative. It puts off the
entire team.

48. Acknowledge their
concerns, but clarify
that this is one
potential outcome. The
focus should be on the
positive outcomes first.
They also could be
privately against the
project, so find out by
asking open-ended
questions.

49. THE EXCITED SQUIRREL STAKEHOLDER:
They are extremely excited, but this leads to a
lot of activity, as opposed to work. Well-
meaning. You can recognize this one from the
frequency of emails they send.

50. The challenge is to get to be excited in the right
direc2on. Match their excitement for when
they are doing the right things. Set schedules
for the basic work. If too many emails, slowing
down the pace of communica2on can help
restrict their excitement (but tell them).

51. THE BAT
(SH*T CRAZY)
STAKEHOLDER:
This one is nuts. Avoid
at all costs.

52. Very tough for you. This
type of person can
outright lie about
issues. Never
communicate alone
with this person.
Document religiously
and use multi-party
meetings to secure
agreement. Ask other
colleagues to do the
same.

53. THE CONDESCENDING OWL
STAKEHOLDER: The tone is
horribly condescending and makes
you feel small. They feed off the
supposed superiority they have.

54. The challenge is to get them to see your
expertise. My preference is to simply say
thank you, but at a certain point, be clear
that the behaviour isn’t acceptable. “I
appreciate your expertise, but sometimes
I can’t ask a question because I feel you
don’t respect me. It feels
condescending.” (Bring along support!)

55. THE BOSSY
HORSE
STAKEHOLDER:
They are always
telling you what
has to happen and
by when. Worse,
they don’t ever
seem to listen.

56. Set clear limits of
how stakeholders
will work with your
team. Empower
your team to push
back. Ensure you
have roles defined
that limit
interference.

57. Along with this Field Guide,
what else can you do?

58. WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENT?
TAKE IT LESS
PERSONALLY

59. Thank you!
phillip@djwa.ca