Before you can engage stakeholders, you need to know who they are and what they want. A stakeholder analysis tool can help you identify and prioritize stakeholders based on their power, interest, influence, and impact on your organization and strategic plan. Business owners should consider stakeholders in any major company decision or development project. In most cases, stakeholders are those who have a personal interest in what a company does, but they are not the ones who actually make the decisions.
For example, a local council and its representatives are interested parties in a new real estate development, even if they are not part of the company that develops the land. The roles of the stakeholders vary depending on the business circumstances or the type of project.
At Prosper, we believe it's vitally important to involve not only management and the board of directors, but also a wide range of internal and external stakeholders in your organization's strategic planning.
Our most successful customers include everyone from their program staff to volunteers, donors, community members, and those who use their programs and services in their planning process. However, involving so many people in such important work can also be overwhelming, especially when everyone has different perspectives and priorities. This post will help you think about who to involve, how, and when, so you can shape your strategic plan for success. Every organization must have a strategic planning committee.This is the group that will lead the strategic planning process from start to finish. In most cases, it's made up of your nonprofit organization's leadership team, and sometimes it can include members of the board of directors. We recommend that this group does not exceed seven people. These are the people who will do the heavy lifting in developing the plan and then take responsibility for its implementation. Implement your communication plan: After developing a communication plan as part of your organizational strategy, remember that it is crucial to ensure its implementation along with your strategic plan.
Surveys can be used to help gather the opinions of a wide variety of stakeholders before strategy sessions for the management team to consider. Develop a communication plan: Although the rest of the stakeholders (in all four quadrants) will not be part of your strategy sessions to create or revise your strategic plan, it is essential to design a plan for how you will continuously communicate with them on an ongoing basis. While this method is very attractive, it is time consuming and may not be practical for all key stakeholders. The rescue organization is a stakeholder, because it has a great influence on the community of animal lovers, so it is imperative to have an advocate rather than an adversary. This is your priority group of stakeholders who will require regular, robust, and bidirectional two-way communication tactics to keep this group satisfied.
By first mapping your stakeholder groups, your organization can develop a plan to interact with each group in the way that works best for them. With the groups of stakeholders and the functions of the strategic planning process clearly identified, you can now map out your project plan and think about how and when to involve each group based on what is expected of them. Town Hall Sessions: Organizing another round of town hall sessions for key stakeholders after you've reviewed or created your strategic plan is a great way to promote alignment and engagement. Proactively follow your stakeholder map & Involve your stakeholders: this is a reminder that stakeholder engagement is ongoing and ongoing. It will be of utmost importance to prioritize key stakeholders and ensure that they understand and accept the plan as soon as possible.
In addition, your stakeholders will have a wealth of relevant knowledge and experience that your senior leaders may want to consider to help your organization be more impactful, sustainable, and viable in the long term. In conclusion, identifying and prioritizing stakeholders in strategic planning is essential for success. It's important to involve not only management and board members but also internal and external stakeholders in order to create an effective strategy. A stakeholder analysis tool can help you identify key stakeholders based on their power, interest, influence, and impact on your organization. Additionally, surveys can be used to gather opinions from various stakeholders before strategy sessions.
Finally, town hall sessions should be organized after creating or revising a strategic plan in order to promote alignment among key stakeholders.
