Maximise your network with a Stakeholder map

Work lesson

The ‘consultant toolkit’ sounds gimmicky but is real and legit. It’s a set of soft-skills, techniques, and methods, which consultants can apply to any client in any industry. One tool buried away in the bag is a method called “stakeholder mapping”.

A stakeholder map shows the different people around you ranked by their level of interaction and intimacy to you.

No, not intimacy in that way, you filthy animal.

I first learnt about this technique at Deloitte’s consultant induction week where the tutor urged us to use it early on in any new project. Why? Because every project involved a different client, that had a different ecosystem, with different people. Creating this map helps you identify who the key decision makers are and who can support you. It then forces you to make a choice on who to focus on. A consultant is often working up against the clock, so every interaction matters. It means you’ve got to be precise with communicating to people. Stakeholder maps; a big help here.

Mini-Story time/ example of Stakeholder maps in action

Later on, I applied it at my first key client — a city council — where I and a small team were brought in surprisingly not to process parking tickets, but to drive the council’s smart city technology initiatives.

Trust me. I wanted to dive right in the moment I arrived. “Smart city technology”, it sounds sexy, sounds futuristic. But I didn’t.

I met a few key people on the project and started to understand the lay of the land. Once a few days passed, I sat down and pulled together a Stakeholder map. From recollection it looked something like this:

As you can see I (the subject) am in the middle. Closest to me were the other consultants in my team, we were multi-skilled, with different roles but often teamed up on tasks and bounced ideas off each other. Next up, was an individual the council had assigned to be the ‘face’ (responsible) for ALL smart city projects in the council. Lastly, the council operations centre manager. The ops centre, a 800 square-foot restricted area, burrowed deep on the first floor, provided all capabilities for the council’s Smart City endeavours. If the ops centre can support it, chances are the smart city idea can happen. I knew I needed to stick closely to the ops manager and buy as many weekly donuts as I could. No lie, I actually did buy donuts.

The next layer has various business unit leads across the council. For instance the lead for highway maintenance, who had grand plans for smart city technology, in the form of smart street lamps and clever street gritting for when it snows. Only some business unit leads wanted to get involved — probably due to other commitments, budgets, vision. They were hard to pin down so I would touch base with them monthly for reviews.

The outside layer had everyone else I could think of in the council. I treated them more as ‘listeners’. They may pick up the newspaper to read the article, but definitely wouldn’t be involved in the creation process.

But how does it work?

At work I broke it down like this:

1)Inner circle:

• Interact on a daily basis.
• Feed their input into the work
• Sign off & approve all work with them

2)Middle layer:

• Interact occasionally
• Consult for certain things
• Review their input and feed in (if relevant)
• Sign off & approve ONLY work that concerns them

3)Outer layer:

• Interact rarely
• Share work if they are interested

Side point: As the outer layer is unfamiliar with what you do and you with them, it is the layer with the most opportunity to build your connections and overall awareness of the network. I’ve met some amazing people in polar opposite jobs to mine. For instance, at my current role I’ve met up with actual production staff who film TV content. I’m on standby if they need an extra.

Life lesson

As a recent entry into the 30-club I spend way too much time in my head thinking. The other day I was thinking about my network and how it’s changed. We spend most of our earlier years trying to hoard as many friends as we can. But something hits. We realise that instead it’s about the quality of relationships. At least I speak for a few of us! Maintaining our network is critical to our wellbeing. At the end it is in our DNA, as social creatures; our social network is a sign of security and longevity. I don’t scoff at managing relationships. We can take healthy strides by applying the stakeholder map to our lives.

How you can apply it

1. Start by writing down the closest people to you. 5 people maximum. It’s important that these people provide value to you (e.g. they support you or stretch your imaginations with ideas). If they were to give you advice you would respect it. If family members are present, keep them together as ‘Family’.
2. On a second list, write down others who didn’t quite make the 5. No maximum here. You respect these people’s opinions but they are just not as close to you.
3. On the final list, write down anyone who didn’t make it so far. I’d also add to the list ‘Everyone else in the world’.
4. Draw the stakeholder map with an inner circle, middle and outer layers.
5. Plot the 5 people in the inner circle
6. Plot the people on second list in the middle layer
7. Plot the people on the third list on the outer layer

I’ve got the stakeholder map with people on it, so now what?

The layer someone finds themself on on your map matters. My rule of thumb is this:

1)Inner circle:

• Check in with them on a daily basis — because life is too short
• Let their thoughts, ideas, feedback influence you

2)Middle layer:

• Check in occasionally
• Listen to but decide what influences you
• Consult them when you need & at key moments in your life (e.g. mentor)

3)Outer layer:

• Observe them
• Reach when you want to build your community
• Avoid this feedback from affecting you

With your network mapped out it should help you max out each type of connection. Really focus on those on your inner circle. Strategically use the middle layer as those objective to steer you at key moments in your life. Don’t be afraid to swap people in and out of layers — that’s life. Everyone else is everyone else, your time is your most valuable currency so lend it to them carefully and don’t let the outside ‘noise’ get to you. It’s cheesy but true.