They can make or break your change initiative.
By Lisa Hochgraf
When credit union executives are trying to lead, they need to get buy-in from a variety of people--or stakeholders. For example, if the VP/lending wants to purchase a new loan origination system, he might need to get support from members of his own team, the CIO and the CEO of the organization. How can this best be accomplished? At the first-ever summer CEO Institute I: Strategic Planning held in August at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Gregory P. Shea, Ph.D., provided attendees with a process for stakeholder analysis and management. Shea is co-author of Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work. Shea suggested first defining what exactly you're trying to do. Ask yourself, "What's the end state and what's at least an outline of the path you need to take to get there?" Next, Shea recommends creating a list of people who might think they have a stake in the strategy, change or project you have defined. "List as many as you can," he encouraged in a class handout. "Press yourself." Third, break the list of stakeholders into three categories--those who control the success of the strategy, influence it, or just appreciate whether it has succeeded or failed. "Beware of too readily assigning stakeholders to a category based solely on their organizational position," he wrote in the handout. Shea suggests to keep the number of "control" stakeholders to a maximum of six overall, or at any given point of your change initiative. And, from this point on, he recommends that detailed planning for the project focus only on the "control" stakeholders. Next, consider what each control stakeholder values, including which objectives, initiatives and projects, Shea wrote. You might need to go visit them to do some research. Find out who influences each control stakeholder and who each control stakeholder influences. Then see if you can shorten your list of control stakeholders. Now focus in your list: What do you know about the remaining stakeholders' styles? Do you know enough to plan how to manage your working relationship with these people? Use what you know to help support the outcome you outlined in the beginning of the process. "Repeat as needed," Shea concluded on the handout. What change are you trying to implement at your credit union right now? Who are the control stakeholders? What are you doing to garner their support?
Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES senior editor. Read other posts about this year's summer CEO Institute here, here and here. Learn more about CEO Institute and the Certified Chief Executive designation.
