Stakeholder Matrix Template – What You Need To Know About Stakeholders

John Follett

Identifying and understanding your stakeholders is important for any business or project because these individuals have a great amount of impact over whether your efforts will be successful. If you understand your stakeholders well, you can use key information about them to help you make the most educated decisions about the future of your project.

The first thing that you need to know about your stakeholders is who they are. It's important to take the time to identify all of your stakeholders so you aren't neglecting a key demographic that may prove to be valuable to your enterprise later on. Stakeholders may include chairpersons, clients, investors, and anyone else who is influenced by your company. If someone is going to be significantly impacted by your project, you may consider them a stakeholder in it.

Stakeholder Matrix Template

Primary stakeholders are directly influenced by your actions. Secondary stakeholders are indirectly affected. Key stakeholders are the individuals who have a significant influence over either primary or secondary stakeholders. You should identify people in all three groups for the most comprehensive analysis.

Once you have identified your stakeholders, it is beneficial to create an analysis matrix that will help you understand key pieces of information about these individuals. Information that should be included in this matrix includes the following:

  • Interest held
  • Power over your project
  • Level of support for your actions
  • Flexibility

With these key pieces of information, you can begin your analysis of your stakeholders. If you take the time to analyze your stakeholders before making big decisions, you can ensure that these choices have the most positive impact possible on your company or project. Stakeholder analysis can help you to anticipate any push back that you may get from stakeholders. If you ensure that there are more stakeholders in favor of your actions than there are stakeholders opposed to them, you're safe to proceed with confidence in the fact that the majority is in your favor.

Good stakeholder analysis tools will help you gain and maintain support for your projects. You can make each decision with your most important stakeholders in mind to ensure optimum success. Regularly communicating with your stakeholders, updating their profiles, and tweaking your analysis matrix will also ensure that the most important people are kept in the loop. Anticipating and preparing for stakeholder reactions is an important part of any project, and stakeholder analysis is the first step to achieving this goal.

 

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