AI Meets Stakeholder Analysis
The art of conducting stakeholder analysis, crafting a strategic communication plan, and how AI can elevate these processes for more effective continuous improvement projects.
👋 Hey, it’s Sara. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share insights to become more efficient. Each week, there will be a featured article, a glimpse into technology, a throwback to the past, and community conversation.
Today, we’ll cover the motivation for this newsletter. Enjoy.
Read time: 7 minutes
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” — George Bernard Shaw
If you read my last article here, you’ll notice that the attention to detail with the technicians and how changing my communication style resulted in a successful project. However, it hasn’t always been that easy.
One of my team’s first Artificial Intelligence projects took a document stored on a server, extracted important details, and converted it into tabular data. The model performed well, and the engineering team was excited to turn it on. However, when it came time to install it on the server, the IT infrastructure team denied the installation. The project was killed. We had failed to include all the stakeholders in the project communication.
Stakeholder management is a critical aspect of a project and can be challenging. I’ve found that an interest and influence matrix is a good tool that can be used to think through the complexities of managing stakeholders. For each stakeholder, you assess the amount of interest they have in the project, as well as their influence or power over the project.
Let’s dive into each quadrant: what it means and how to devise a communication strategy.
High Interest / High Influence: Work Together
Stakeholders with high interest and high influence have a significant impact on a project’s success. These are the people that need to be engaged regularly. If the person is a peer, then they should be on the project team. If the person is a leader, then they should be involved in the decision-making process of a project. Additionally, when issues or changes arise, it is important to inform the stakeholders. During the conversation, propose solutions to show that you’ve thought through options.
Live conversations and meetings are the most effective form of communication in this quadrant. I hold a core team meeting regularly that fits the timeline of the project. For example, projects that span 6 months or more, meet on a bi-weekly basis, and with shorter projects, meet more frequently. In these meetings, we review the project plan, discuss proposed solutions to issues and risks, as well as assign and follow up on tasks. Leadership meetings are less frequent than core team meetings. Review a summary of the core team meetings, highlighting areas that require decisions or escalations. In these sessions, it is valuable to create a standard template that can cover all the topics and use it consistently.
High Interest / Low Influence: Keep Informed
The stakeholders in this category may not have high decision-making power, but they are still interested in the project’s outcome. When people are interested in the success of the project, they can be evangelists. It is good to keep their interest by keeping them informed. Another option is to leverage the individual’s enthusiasm by including them in a project pilot.
For this group, copy them on the meeting minutes and inform them of the project status on a more informal basis. Water cooler talk or an impromptu message through the company’s chat is an effective way to keep people informed without taking too much of their time. People participating in low-risk pilots should be included in the same communication channels as the high interest / high influence group.
Low Interest / High Influence: Keep Satisfied
These are the stakeholders that could be lurking in the corner, waiting to come out and throw up a roadblock. Go out of your way to keep these people satisfied by leaning into what you believe are their biggest concerns. Don’t hide anything from them and when you communicate, be sure it is concise.
I invite the Low Interest / High Influence stakeholders to the core team and leadership meetings. While there is a “cover-your-behind” element to it, it’s best to be inclusive of this group. During the meetings, lean into the concerns this group of stakeholders may have. Not only will you drive engagement, but you’ll establish credibility as well.
Low Interest / Low Influence: Monitor
The low interest and low influence stakeholders have little interest and should be communicated with sparingly. However, it is good to see if they have moved into a different quadrant. Sometimes their reality changes and they either become interested or suddenly have more influence.
Assessing each of the stakeholders for their interest and influence can be useful to dissect the complexity that comes with managing different people in a project. By putting people into the 4 categories and creating a communication plan that aligns with the category, you’re sure to offset risks and alleviate challenges caused by people being surprised.
Tech Spotlight: Using ChatGPT in Stakeholder Analysis and Communication
Generational AI is not a new technology, but its application in continuous improvement project management is not commonly discussed. The key to using GenAI resides in effective prompts.
The first use case with GenAI for stakeholder analysis is to help create a communication plan specific to the quadrant. A prompt example is, “I’m leading a project on <insert project statement> and I’d like to create a communication plan based on the stakeholders’ influence and interest. Can you build a communication plan for each quadrant that includes timing, content, and feedback loops?”
Many of us spend too much time contemplating what to draft in an email. Perhaps you sit and stare and the screen, or find other ways to keep yourself busy, rather than send the email that is sure to create more work answering questions. The good news? Here’s where a well-crafted prompt can speed up the time it takes to generate email updates:
“Compose an email to send a summary of our recent project meeting to team members who were unable to attend. The project is <project title">. We discussed <insert key discussion points>. The action items include: <insert action items>. Please provide a concise overview of the key discussions, decisions, and action items from the meeting. Also mention the PowerPoint presentation used during the meeting is attached for their reference. Ensure the email is clear and informative to bring everyone up to speed on the meeting's outcomes.”
ChatGPT tends to start emails with “I hope this email finds you well” and uses an excessive amount of adjectives & adverbs. Make sure you read and edit the result to ensure it sounds human.
Bonus tip: if you record the meeting, you can copy the transcript into the prompt. In your next prompt, refer to the meeting transcript and then ask ChatGPT to create an email summary - it could even be based on the influence / interest matrix.
Note: ChatGPT 3.5 was used to validate the prompts above. Your organization may have policies against using ChatGPT or CoPilot on company equipment. Check your policies and adhere to them.
Throwback Feature
The term stakeholder was coined by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the 1960s to essentially mean stockholder. This definition was later expanded by Edward Freeman in his book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984), to include customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, regulators, and society.
According to The Project Management Institute (PMI), the definition of a stakeholder is: “individuals and organizations who are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected as a result of project execution or successful project completion.” This publication uses the PMI defiintion.
Community Conversation
Our first question comes from Balaji, “What do you think are the pieces of the puzzle to build a career towards leadership?”
That’s a great question! There are several directions I could go to answer the question, so I’ll answer with the context of you’re working at a company and would like to move into a leadership position with direct reports. Here’s what I recommend… (For pieces of a puzzle, I thought an acronym would fit best).
Learn - research the skills, experience, knowledge, and character traits required for the leadership role you’re interested in pursuing.
Evaluate - perform a self-assessment. I like using a SWOT analysis because you evaluate the current environment, in addition to your strengths and weaknesses. Create an action plan to close the gaps.
Advocate - let your manager, human resources, mentors, and sponsors know your intentions. During the conversation, share your gap closure plan.
Realize - work on the plan now. Volunteer to lead a project as a stretch assignment, get involved as a leader in an organization, and practice good listening skills.
Network - it’s important to stay top of mind, so networking will help you stay on the radar for future opportunities.
What other advice do you have for people looking to shift their career into a leadership role?
Thank you for being a part of our journey. If you’ve found value in our conversation, please consider sharing this newsletter with others who might benefit and contribute.
Until next time, thank you for your support and curiosity.
— Sara 🙋♀️
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