Author: Mike Urgo
Yes, there is a difference.
Yes, you should make sure you identify it.
No, it’s not complicated.
Whether working on a formal project, informal initiative, or looking to generate new business, knowing your stakeholders and communicating to them appropriately is key.
You really want to focus on making sure meetings and communication to each group has the right frequency, size, and subject matter.
When meeting with executive stakeholders the goal of the meeting should be tight and organized, focused on the following:
- Executive status update
- Discuss any critical risks or issues (if any)
- Make any executive level decisions
- Identify the next milestone and target date
If the C-suite executive isn’t involved enough to participate appropriately, then either the VP needs to replace them and update them after the call, or the VP needs to do a better job updating the executive on the project.
Identifying your executive stakeholder list first and having the necessary conversations is paramount. This will be the most difficult meeting to schedule. Once your executive stakeholders have been identified, then you can start on the stakeholder list. Stakeholders are decision makers of what I call day-to-day decisions.
It’s important to be tactful and understanding when having to separate executive stakeholders. Being sensitive to egos and explaining the reasoning for any decision is important. There can be a perception that if someone is not in the room during an executive stakeholder meeting, that they are not important. Combat this feeling by explaining the benefit to having a smaller group and highlighting the value they provide as being an engaged stakeholder in other meetings. This is also a great opportunity to explain the importance of good communication between stakeholders and their executives.
To illustrate this, let’s use the example of implementing a new onboarding system owned by the human resources team and supported by an internal IT team in a typical large service organization of two thousand people.
Executive Stakeholders:
Chief HR Officer (Sponsor)
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Operational Office
Chief Information Officer
Chief Marketing Officer (Optional)
Chief Executive Officer (Optional)
Stakeholders (some examples):
VP of HR
Director of HR
1 or 2 Managers of HR (champion)
Benefits Director
Recruiting Director
Brand Manager
(Depending on the size of the project or client, there can be exceptions, especially for smaller scenarios.)
Using the example above, here are two examples of executive stakeholder decisions or topics and two examples for regular stakeholders.
Executive Stakeholder Examples:
- The HR team saw the new AI Chatbot feature and are requesting to add it to the scope of the project.
- The HR team would like to expedite the implementation and is requesting additional funding for resources.
Standard Stakeholder Examples:
- When does the team want the onboarding process to start in the new system?
- What color scheme should be used in the new system?
The segregation is so important, because as you can see in the example above, organizations don’t need C-Suite executives discussing granular process or color schemes. By separating these items and the frequency of the meetings, you will find that decisions are made quicker. It also helps manage enthusiastic executives who can slow down initiatives by inserting themselves too much into the granular details.
Unlike squares and rectangles, where a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle can’t be a square; executive stakeholders and stakeholders can act in both roles. There are many organizations, especially smaller ones where there are less layers at the top. Therefore, you may have one person performing the duties of both the stakeholder and executive stakeholder.
Whether you separate one meeting into two parts or hold two separate meetings, it’s important to differentiate the executive stakeholder responsibilities and the stakeholder responsibilities. It allows the people in the room to be in the right mindset for more macro thinking as opposed to micro.
The value of following this philosophy is having more productive meetings with your stakeholders, driving execution through efficient decision making, and keeping projects and initiatives on track and on budget. All done by communicating effectively with stakeholders of the right type on the right topics.
Do you need help implementing this type of model? Want to know more about how this type of thinking can have a positive impact on your organization?
Schedule a call to see how I can help you or perhaps you are an organization that is a good fit for my next full-time career move.
The ability to take the time to understand your organization, your people, your processes, and translate to technological solutions is what makes Intellectual Nebula so effective!
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