In my article “Interim Managers, Ninjas and a Road Map in a
Downsized World, I introduced the terms “Ronin” and “Ninjas”
in the context of the interim management industry. The Ronin
were
temporary soldiers, called in to bolster troop numbers, the
Ninjas were highly skilled and professionally trained
individuals, capable of exceptional specialist services. The
Ninjas return!
Let us fast track to twenty-first century society, in which
political pluralism has come of age, i.e. we recognise
multiple and countervailing political interest groups. I
would like to focus on how to achieve Stakeholder
Satisfaction on a major change programme, in a complex,
multi-cultural organisation, where we engage with all the
stakeholders (political interest groups). This article is
primarily focused on implementing a major change programme,
i.e. with a series of inter-connecting projects but the
principles apply to wider applications, e.g. environment
management.
Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder Management is now widely recognised within the
academic and popular literature. A quick search will find
much use in the areas of project management, public sector
services and environmental management services e.g. ISO
14001. Key steps to Best Practice in Stakeholder Management
typically include the following:
Identifying key stakeholders and their needs
Preparing stakeholder management plan
Conducting stakeholder activities
Testing stakeholder plan effectiveness
Continuous improvement
Within the public sector the following developments are
supporting the formalisation and pro-activity of the
stakeholder management process, including:
Appointing relationship managers
formalising relationships with other departments and
agencies
Establishing protocols to support representation from
the public and special interest groups
Active marketing of initiatives, raising awareness in
the public at large
Being flexible and adapting as stakeholders change,
along with new issues
Beyond
Best Practice
Speak to any experienced, top-tier, programme director or
manager and he or she will tell you that the in real world,
there is frequently not enough time to fully deploy best
practice recommendations. Expediency, milestones and
dominant stakeholders prevail, so it is almost impossible to
give all stakeholders sufficient attention, let alone
resources! Another way of expressing the same theme is to
highlight that best practice models do not generally take
account of context, for example, management style,
organization and external market, technology and political
dynamics. This is all a long way from recognizing, managing
and satisfying both internal and external stakeholders.
From Stakeholder Management to Stakeholder Satisfaction
Leading organizations around the World have been listening
to their customers and employees for some years. formal
surveys, focus groups and other research methods have been
deployed by outside consultants, with unbiased feedback to
the some of the stakeholders, i.e. managers and their
employees. On the other hand, the author is not aware of
similar research methods being routinely used for the wider
stakeholder community. Stakeholder management provides a
normative model of good practice but does not actually focus
upon achieving stakeholder satisfaction.
What Happens in a Typical IT or Process Improvement Programme?
Most large programmes are led by people with an outstanding
technical background. Sometimes they have a background in
methodology craft, learned in one of the major consulting
firms. Rarely are programmes led by skilled facilitators,
with a formal background in research tools deployed in the
Social Sciences, i.e. surveys, structured interviews, focus
groups etc. The consequence is that in many major
programmes, one or more stakeholder group are frequently
bitterly dissatisfied, frequently damaging the effectiveness
of the programme and blocking the achievement of the benefit
case, i.e. return on investment, improved customer
satisfaction etc.
Personal Insights
Because of my own formal background in research, I can
readily identify three cases in demanding, very well-known
organizations, where we have conducted stakeholder
soundings, using state-of-the-art tools borrowed from the
Social Sciences. This is the natural territory of the
Organizational Development professional (OD). I am always on
the look out for results-hardened, OD specialists, to add to
my network of Master Ninjas!
The Financial Improvement Performance Programme (FPIP):
An Executive Interim Manager diagnostic tool is the first
step in the Financial Performance Improvement Programme
(FPIP). FPIPs deploy leading edge research tools to clarify
stakeholder requirements and structured planning to achieve
stakeholder satisfaction. The methodology includes iterative
analysis and intervention.
FPIPs have been successfully deployed in some of the World’s
most complex organisations. Based upon research and
successful deployment, I have developed a simple
questionnaire to see whether an FPIP is appropriate to your
organization:
1.Has there been a pan-functional or pan-organisational
record of failure?
2.Have ten of millions of Dollars been invested without
benefit realisation?
3.Have major consultancies been deployed and failed?
4.Is the situation potentially embarrassing to senior
management?
5.Are reputations at risk?
6.Are there multiple stakeholders to satisfy?
7.Do line executives have conflicting views on solutions?
8.Is the issue multi-functional?
9.Is there a strong financial dimension?
10.Is there a critical IT or systems involvement?
11.Is there a need for change at the house-wide level?
12.Do other options not stack up?
If you have scored a yes to eight or more questions, you
definitely need to contact me via
alf@alfoldman.com.
Also, I am always on the look out for “Ninjas”, too!
