Effective stakeholder analysis: A vital process for successful engagement
Understanding your stakeholders is crucial when developing a stakeholder engagement strategy. Stakeholder analysis is more than just identifying who the stakeholders are. It is about understanding how they could be affected by a project, plan or initiative, their level of interest or influence, their values, attitudes or opinions about the project and what motivates them.
If you get your stakeholder analysis right at the start you can communicate and engage more effectively with each of your stakeholders.
Not spending time analysing your stakeholders at the start can cause problems during the engagement phase, including:
leaving some key stakeholders out, which can lead to anger or criticism of the engagement process
prioritising the wrong stakeholders, leading to wasted time for you and your stakeholders
misjudging the influence and interest of stakeholder groups
misunderstanding stakeholders’ level of awareness or position about the project
adopting communication and engagement methods not suited to the stakeholder groups.
These unintended problems can impact the effectiveness of your stakeholder engagement process, and ultimately the outcomes for the overall project.
The importance of stakeholder analysis can often be underestimated. Some common mistakes include:
Generalising stakeholders as one large group – ‘the public’ or ‘the community’. It is highly unlikely that everybody in the community will have the same level of interest, concern, knowledge or influence over your project.
Assuming that only the people living or working near the project would have a high level of impact or interest in the project, and not considering people outside of the geographic footprint of the project.
Leaving out important stakeholder groups, such as Indigenous, elderly or non-English speaking people.
Not committing enough time and resources to engage with stakeholders who require more effort to engage with.
The key steps for stakeholder analysis:
Think of all of the stakeholders that this project might impact either positively or negatively.
Research individuals or groups that might have an interest in the project.
Identify and consider each potential issue for the project.
Assess the level of impact of the issues on each of your stakeholders and stakeholder groups.
Using the International Association for Public Participation IAP2 Spectrum for Engagement, consider the level of engagement required for each stakeholder.
Consider the best ways you can communicate and engage with each stakeholder about the project.
Getting your stakeholder analysis right from the beginning could mean the difference between a successful engagement process and engagement that is ad hoc and doesn’t meet the expectations of stakeholders or the project requirements. Effective engagement is more likely to lead to better project outcomes and more satisfied stakeholders and project proponents.
“If you get your stakeholder analysis right at the start, you can communicate and engage more effectively with each of your stakeholders.”