Stakeholder Map

Overview

The Stakeholder Map Tool enables users to visualise and then monitor the effectiveness of managing stakeholders around an opportunity, project or business issue. The map can be used to understand where to focus efforts according to stakeholders’ power, interest and support levels. This understanding ensures effective engagement of stakeholders leading to optimal resource management and greater probability of project success. It is also crucial to understand whether a stakeholder is supporting or sabotaging your project, therefore the map has a happiness indicator to give an overview of issues at a glance.

Using the Tool, you are able to enter details about each stakeholder then plot their position on an interactive graph. Regular reviews are supported and trends are measured. The map can be shared to help teams consider consistent treatment of key messages and hot topics across all stakeholders. This reduces risks of ill informed team members compromising project success.

Key Features of Stakeholder Maps

  • Captures stakeholder information which can be plotted and compared against other stakeholders
  • Maps can be shared across pam members
  • Information can be exported to MS Word or Excel
  • Stakeholders information can be updated and positions plotted over time
  • Trends can be observed and managed
  • Historical data is accessible through the table showing all updates associated with each stakeholder

Getting the best from Stakeholder Maps

  • Have a session with your team to brainstorm potential stakeholders and their ‘stake’ or interest.
  • Timing and style of stakeholder communication is crucial; leave it too late with high powered stakeholders or fail to engage with them personally in important decisions and they will end up ‘being red’ (unhappy).
  • If you or your team don’t know a stakeholder well, or one is unhappy, then consider if an advocate (someone high powered and green) is likely to know them better and help manage them on your behalf.
  • Stakeholders with low power and high interest are likely to be a source of future delivery and need to be kept motivated. Carefully consider how and when you keep them informed; communicate too late and you risk major disruption. Generally speaking sooner is better than later.

Instructions

You’ll find the Stakeholder Map on your Tools screen, accessible via Initiatives > Tools on the main menu. Pictured above is the Stakeholder Map icon, you can choose to view a previous map, where you can edit and delete past maps as well as view them. For this guide, you will create a new Stakeholder Map.

tool-stakeholdermapcreate

Creating the map

  1. Give your map an appropriate name for future reference
  2. To insert your first stakeholder, enter their name and roll in the fields pictured above
  3. Select the power and interest level of the stakeholder
  4. From the drop down menu select the stakeholder’s support level for the initiative or activity, happy, neutral or unhappy
  5. Select a member of the team to manage the relationship
  6. Selecting a reminder date will send an email notification and add to the responsible team member’s to-do list for the chosen date to review the stakeholder
  7. The barriers field is a free text box, a useful area to note any areas of concern that can be managed by the responsible team member but available to all sharing the Tool
  8. Key messages and Advocate relationships are also free text boxes, all text entered (once saved) will appear with the stakeholder, so include all relevant information
  9. Click ‘Save’ to add the Stakeholder to the map
tool-stakeholdermap1

Stakeholder Map

Pictured on the next page is an example Stakeholder Map with six stakeholders. The colour of the stakeholder’s icon represents its ‘happiness’.

For example we can see from looking at the map that Stakeholder A has high interest and power, and is happy. Whereas Stakeholder E also has relatively high interest and power, but is unhappy. Hovering over a Stakeholder’s icon will display their name, and clicking on their icon will open their Stakeholder details, here you can edit their details and set a reminder to their responsible team member.

tool-stakeholdermap

Stakeholder List

Below the Stakeholder Map is the table pictured above. Here, you can filter the view of your Stakeholders simply by clicking the category. For example, the table below is filtered by Interest, and you can see the Stakeholders are displayed in order of the lowest to the highest Interest. You can also access the Stakeholder details from here, by clicking on the Stakeholder’s name in blue.

tool-stakeholderlist

Sharing the Stakeholder Map with your Team?

  1. Click on the ‘Team’ icon at the top right of the page.
  2. Type the name of the Team member you wish to share the Tool with (this person must be an existing pam user). and click Add when their name appears at the side.

Helpful Hint – To export your map to MS Word or Excel, simply click the corresponding buttons pictured above, and the file will download straight to your computer.

tool-stakeholdermapexport

Need further help? Get in touch...

Message us via pam, email us at support@pam-it.com or call 01273 041 042.
  • Sam Peters
  • Roy Crombleholme
  • Stuart Johnson