Ayo's Notebook: Stakeholder Management

Have you ever walked into a project excited about the work you have to do and almost instantly regretted it because of other stakeholders? Sometimes people are difficult to work with, but stakeholder management is easier than you think. You just need to have the right approach leading into it and you'll be able to make meaningful change.

Why You Need To Think About Stakeholders

No matter what Information Architecture (IA) aspect you’re covering, whether it’s changing the structure, improving the system, or designing a new process, you’re rarely alone. Your work has ripple effects, and anyone your ripple can affect is a stakeholder. Without representing them, you have two major problems:

• Having blindspots in your solution because you didn’t account for everyone important to the process.

• Unintentionally creating resistance because people feel excluded from decisions that impact them.

This is even worse if you’re an external consultant or someone outside the immediate team. A lack of inclusion is more than a technical failure because solutions have a human element to them as well.

Messes Are Not Objective

One of the trickiest parts of stakeholder work is that messes are not objective. What looks like a complete disaster to you might seem "perfectly fine" to someone else. Even two people who see a situation as messy might disagree about how messy it is or why it matters. While going through this workshop, I learned about the concept of Intersubjectivity. It’s very powerful.

Intersubjectivity is when two or more people agree on how they see something, even if others outside their group see it differently. It's a reminder that stakeholder management isn't about convincing everyone to see things your way. It's about building enough shared understanding to move forward together.

Top 5 Stakeholder Management Use Cases

If you're wondering when strong stakeholder management skills really make a difference, here are five key scenarios:

• Unclear Priorities: If you’ve ever been involved with resolving a conflict, you might have noticed a simple truth. People are not disagreeing on the solution, there was never an alignment on what the problem was. Making sure to clarify priorities upfront can prevent endless arguments.

• Labeling Chaos: Once you start labeling parts of a system, people will have strong opinions on them. Managing those reactions becomes harder as more people get involved.

• Clarifying Definitions: Before moving forward, you have to make sure everyone agrees on what you're actually talking about. Different people may use the same words but mean very different things. My favorite example of this is the word “Dashboard”. Ask 5 people what a dashboard is and get ready for the variety of answers you get.

• Multiple People, Same Goal, Different Ways: When too many people try to tackle the same issue in their way, you risk data integrity problems, duplicated efforts, and wasted resources. Stakeholder management helps unify efforts.

• Defining "Improvement": Improvement is subjective. Whose definition are you using? Before making any changes, there has to be an agreement on what “better” even means.

Approaches to Stakeholder Management

Good stakeholder management isn't about picking one approach. It's about rading the room and adapting as needed. Here are all eight roles you might take on:

• The Educator: Teaching people new ways of thinking and new vocabularies.

• The Strategist: Aligning your work with decision-makers goals, often using scenario planning to drive action.

• The Coalition Builder: Building a strong network of allies and supporters, especially in politically charged environments.

• The Facilitator: Bringing different voices together, designing processes that help groups reach shared decisions.

• The Documentarian: Making decision-making transparent and traceable with clear documentation.

• The Embedded Partner: Living in the stakeholders' world by attending meetings, shadowing them, and deeply understanding their day-to-day realities.

• The Challenger: Questioning assumptions and pushing for deeper thought when necessary, even if it makes others uncomfortable.

• The Agile Incrementalist: Driving progress through small, manageable changes rather than trying to overhaul everything at once.

Personally, the Embedded Partner approach feels most natural to me. I love stepping into different perspectives, almost like shadowing someone for a day to spot their pain points and highlights. It makes me feel like I have the Invisibility superpower (which is the second coolest one ever after super speed. Honourable mention to bending materials)

I also think the Facilitator role deserves more praise. If you’ve ever gotten a group of diverse and passionate people to align toward a common goal, you deserve an award.

Flexibility is the real skill

No single approach will cover every situation. Even when dealing with just one stakeholder, different days may call for different tactics. Starting as an educator, before shifting to a facilitator and then bringing it all together by being a strategist. That is just one example of being flexible. Flexibility is what separates good stakeholder managers from great ones.

I once worked on a project where absolutely no progress was being made. I had to first facilitate agreement on our core priorities, then take on my Coalition builder hat to create a foundation of support that makes it harder for resistant stakeholders to block progress. Finally, I was able to put on my Agile Incrementalist hat to work towards tiny improvements which showed value and kept everyone motivated. Forcing and bullying your way makes no sense, you have to adapt at every stage.

Common Mistakes in Stakeholder Management

The biggest mistake? Thinking you know better than the stakeholders. It's easy to get frustrated when people don't "see it" your way. Remember, stakeholder management is about partnership, not domination.

You must treat stakeholders as collaborators, not underlings. Even when their views challenge your own, the ability to pause, reflect, and sometimes incorporate their insights is an important management skill.

Rounding it all up

Stakeholder management can seem like a lot of work at first, but with the right approach and mindset, you can crush it. Don’t view yourself as a hero, you’re the connector, helping to build bridges, providing clarity, and working with a group of people to make good progress together.

For a deeper dive into stakeholder management, I highly recommend checking out Abby Covert's fantastic guide on the topic here.