When the same stakeholder keeps showing up with last-minute requests from the comms department, Alan Shoebridge, chief communications officer at Providence, puts them on a map. For Shoebridge, the map is a guide to help him decide what relationships might need more attention and what comms can do about it.
“I never want to be on the other end of somebody saying, ‘What does Alan do? I don’t understand his job,’” Shoebridge told Ragan. “The best way to get in front of that is to build the relationship: sit down, explain what the team does, ask what they think is working and find out what stories they have that we don’t know about.”
A good stakeholder map should show comms where the next problem is likely to come from. A weak relationship today can become a surprise request or a missed story tomorrow.
“It’s always too late when somebody is already upset and asking, ‘Why haven’t we communicated about this?’” Shoebridge said. “I’d rather build the relationship early so when they have a concern, they come directly to us. And when they have a great story, they already know who can help them tell it.”
Here are three steps internal comms pros can use to build an effective stakeholder map.
1. Decide who actually belongs on your stakeholder map
Shoebridge said that he uses two main criteria when determining who earns a spot on his stakeholder map:
- Who has influence within the organization?
- Whose work does comms need to explain more or tell stories about to the rest of the company?
In addition, an internal communicator should figure out three things about a stakeholder once they’re on the map:
- Why they matter to the internal comms department
- Where the relationship stands
- What comms pros need from that relationship
New leadership is another cue to update the stakeholder map. Shoebridge recommends establishing relationships early when the org chart changes rather than waiting until a new leader needs something from the comms department.
“If we have a new leader that’s joined, let’s get off on the right foot with that person,” Shoebridge said. “Explain what comms does and how we can help them, so they’re not here six months and frustrated because they’re not getting something. A lot of it is just being proactive.”
2. Ask four questions to see how your stakeholders view comms
Once you’ve got a stakeholder on the map, you need to determine the stakeholder’s perspective on communications. Shoebridge recommends a check-in with stakeholders that dives into four main questions:
- What type of communications do you engage with?
- What do you think we’re doing well?
- What can we do better?
- What are we missing from your part of the company?
Shoebridge said that these one-on-one conversations tend to create much needed clarity on the part of both parties.
“I find in about 95% of situations, people are just transparent,” he told Ragan. “They’ll tell you. I’ll say, ‘What’s working and what’s not working? Tell me. Give me the truth. I want to hear it.’
What you hear from the stakeholder should then become another layer on the map. Communicators should pay close attention to where a stakeholder’s perception of comms differs from the team’s knowledge of its own strategies and tactics. These differences don’t always necessitate change on the part of comms, but instead call for explaining the thinking behind the messaging.
“People will either talk about a tactic we’re doing and they don’t understand why, or they’ll bring up a tactic we’re not doing and ask, ‘Why aren’t you guys doing X?’” Shoebridge said. “That’s the opportunity to educate them: Here’s why we do this tactic, here’s what works and here’s how we measure it.”
3. Add your upcoming work and follow-ups to the map
Keep in mind, the map should evolve and change as the work changes. Shoebridge said that annual comms planning at Providence is a natural moment to reconnect with stakeholders and refresh the map.
“I like to do something in the fall as we’re getting ahead for next year and say, ‘What’s coming up on your plate?’” Shoebridge said. “If we hear something really interesting or unusual, we can adjust our plan to make sure we’re going to cover that.”=
The updates obtained during a map refresh can turn into impactful assignments and a source of inspiration for future internally-focused stories. When something worth following up on comes out of a map refresh, comms pros should make note of it instead of hoping someone remembers it and prioritizes it later.
“Sometimes somebody will tell me about something operational that they don’t really think is a big deal, and I’m like, ‘Wait, that could be a story. That could be something we need to tell our employees about,’” Shoebridge said. “Those feedback sessions unearth ideas we probably never would have heard about, or we would have heard about them way too late.”
Sean Devlin is the senior internal communications editor at Ragan Communications. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here.
