When it comes to successful change within an organisation, stakeholder analysis has become a powerful tool. This is a strategic approach that can be used for identification, understanding and engagement with stakeholders who may be affected by organisational changes. It can mean the difference between the change process being a success or a costly failure.
Let’s take a look at why stakeholder analysis is vital in the change management process, the contribution it makes to successful implementation, and its growing importance in the modern business world.
How should you conduct a stakeholder analysis for successful change?
Following a structured process provides change leaders with important insights into stakeholders’ requirements, expectations and possible reactions to change. This important information can form the foundation for creating targeted strategies, mitigating risks, and driving successful change implementation.
Identify and categorise stakeholders
The first part of any effective stakeholder analysis is to identify all your relevant stakeholders. The process involves a number of different steps the first of which is to map your stakeholders. This simply means creating a comprehensive list of the individuals, teams, departments or organisations that may be affected or have influence on any change initiatives.
Once you have done this you should undertake sessions with your team to create a list of all potential stakeholders. You should then review your organisational structure to identify any internal stakeholders. You may also need to consider any external parties who will be involved in the project. This might include suppliers and customers. Once you have done all of this you can group stakeholders based on common characteristics, such as their interests or their role.
Collect stakeholder data
Once you have identified your stakeholders and categorised them, you can gather information about them. This could be done by conducting interviews, distributing questionnaires, reviewing any existing data that you might hold, or even holding focus groups.
The sort of data that you should consider collecting might include any stakeholder interestsincluding their primary concerns and motivations, how involved they are and how involved they would like to be? Also explore their attitude and knowledge regarding the change and how it may affect them personally or professionally.
The information that you collect will help you to gain a better understanding of your stakeholders, how you might approach them and what they will expect from you.
Assess stakeholder influence and impact
Once you have gathered stakeholder data you need to assess the level of influence and the possible impact they might have on the change process. You should also consider the attitudes of the stakeholders and any key relationships they may have; the latter will allow you to better understand potential conflicts.
Conducting a stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder mapping offers a visual representation of any analysis that has been conducted. It is a powerful tool when it comes to the priorities and strategies of stakeholder engagement.
You will need to first choose an appropriate format mapping technique. Next you should place each of your stakeholders on the map according to any assessed characteristics they might have. You should show the connections or possible conflicts that exist between stakeholder groups. It can be a good idea to colour code you’re mapping to represent different attributes.
A good stakeholder map will help to contribute to effective change management by facilitating any strategic planning. It will also help you to highlight those areas where you may need additional stakeholder engagement. Plus, it will guide any decisions on where you should focus your efforts and time under the change process. Good mapping will allow for easy visualisation of how the position of your stakeholders will shift throughout the change initiative.
Common stakeholder mapping techniques
There are a number of common techniques that you may wish to consider, each with its own benefits.
Salience model
This mapping technique categorises stakeholders based on a number of different factors. The first of these is power. You should place stakeholders in this category if they are someone with a high level of authority, control over resources and even the ability to influence or make key decisions. You should also consider what claim they have to be involved in the project and the urgency of their needs or demands within the project.
When you have completed the salience model you will find that your stakeholders fall into a range of categories which are based on their combination of power, legitimacy and urgency. Stakeholders who require the most immediate and significant attention are your core stakeholders, i.e. those who possess all three attributes. Dominant stakeholders are those categorised as having power and legitimacy. Finally, your dangerous stakeholders are those who have power and urgency.
As a project manager it is important that you prioritise these groups due to their high influence and potential impact to your project. Whilst other categories are important, they generally do not need as much attention. This method of classification helps when it comes to developing targeted engagement strategies and also for the effective allocation of resources across the entire lifecycle of the project.
Influence/impact matrix
Under the influence/impact matrix, sometimes referred to as a power interest grid, stakeholders are plotted onto a grid according to the level of influence that they have over the change and how much of an impact it has on them. To assess the level of influence stakeholders have, you should consider things like their position within the organisation, the control they have over any resources, the strength of their network, their technical expertise, and access to information.
Also consider what support base they have and their veto power, i.e. the ability they have to block or delay project decisions. This represents a critical form of influence and should be handled with care.
Having plotted all of these factors you should be able to prioritise your stakeholders and produce appropriate strategies. This might mean collaborating closely with those stakeholders who are high influence and high impact whilst merely monitoring those who are considered low impact and low influence.
RACI Matrix
A RACI matrix is one of the simplest and most effective ways to create clarity, alignment and accountability on any project. RACI is an acronym that helps define and document roles across a project. Whilst not only about stakeholder mapping, it can be used very effectively for that purpose.
- R – Responsible: The person (or people) who do the work.
- A – Accountable: The person who owns the outcome. They sign off, answer for results, and make sure the job gets done right. There should be only one A per task.
- C – Consulted: The experts or stakeholders you ask for input. They’re not doing the work, but their knowledge matters.
- I – Informed: The people who need to be kept in the loop. They don’t contribute directly but must stay updated.
In theory, teams communicate. In practice, people assume. And assumptions are dangerous. Without clear definitions of responsibility and accountability, tasks fall through the cracks, or worse, get tangled in confusion and finger-pointing.
A well-crafted RACI matrix solves that. It gives every stakeholder a map: who’s doing the work, who signs off, who’s offering guidance, and who just needs to be kept in the loop.
Beyond day-to-day clarity, RACI is particularly useful in projects with multiple layers of approval required from multiple stakeholder groups.
To get the most out of a RACI matrix, remember a few key things:
- There should only be a single “accountable” person because when multiple people are “accountable” no one truly is.
- Review it together because alignment only happens when everyone agrees on the stakeholder map.
- Update it because projects evolve over time.
