Halloween Episode - Taking the ‘scare’ out of stakeholder management

Hello everyone, and welcome to this edition of the IG Light Tasts. This one, a special Halloween special talking about a scary topic that is not artificial intelligence or what's the other scary thing in the worlds of information governance or emails or badly labelled files or really horrible multi-message subject access request or insert scary complex thing here and do excuse my cough it's still playing up. We're not going to talk about any of those things however do let me know what is your scary if there was going to be one top scary thing in our world of information governance what would that scary thing be? Whereas in this episode I want to talk about a stakeholder management because it's something we kind of have to do as information and records managers excuse me as to protection officers etc we have to do it and we are either good at it or we are bad at it. Now I'm going to start by talking about what I mean about stakeholder management and I kind of interpret it as how to win friends and influence people how to get what you want. Just asking doesn't work just demanding doesn't work just saying yes but we are we must comply with the law we must comply with FRI or data protection or whatever it doesn't always work it does work on occasion and people will have their success with it but most don't because you're one of many people that say we must do X you've joined the long list of different things that an organization must do so what makes you so special I always remember I spoke at an event in London this would have been 2017 80 oh no it might have been earlier than that actually thinking about it and I gave a talk about selling the message excuse me selling the message getting people's buy in that sort of thing it was definitely when GDPR was coming in and I understand it the front room for about 50 people and one of the questions was how do well that's all very well and good but why should I have to take this message to the business the business should come to me and my response was a little bit facetious and I did apologize I did you know I always knowledge I was being seizures but I did say what how's that working for you is that actually successful and if it isn't successful and it's not working for you are you not engaging in the definition of madness was it excuse me was the Albert Einstein that said if you do something repeatedly expecting a different outcome when it isn't clearly isn't working that's the definition of madness same thing with this you get lots of people that will go the business is not engaging with me stakeholders don't engage no one gives me what I ask for and when you ask them okay well what have you tried in the past often the response is very little or we've expected them to come to us or it say I ask that in a particular way I prepared a bog standard paper and I got this response okay have you tried something else because if that didn't work have you tried something else and did you put that proposal for example did you actually consider your audience so other reasons why I want to talk about stakeholder management is that we don't do it and we should we do it in projects but often we're the stakeholder we molly do it if there's an official reason to but actually sitting down and working out who are the people that you need to get on board how do they work and what do I need to do to manage them that sounds really nefarious and a little bit oh how do I manipulate people into getting what I want and it kind of ease a little bit and it also kind of isn't it's accepting that the world businesses councils charities any organisation works by yes your formal structures but also people personalities relationships working styles actually sitting down and going do you know well my syro for example my senior information risk owner they are someone that is pulled in a thousand different directions all day long they can only ever spare me 10 minutes of their time therefore rather than bringing them a list of problems I'm actually going to say to them look what do you need from me to give me authority to do something or to approve something just ask them and for they say I need a no more than a one paragraph summary I need it in this format sent to me with before like an hour before the meeting at least I need it with options because I'm an options person or I need it visually or no I'm a stand-up and brief me person whatever it is actually working out what it is they need in order for them to give you what you want pays off and sometimes it could be something that's very very simple let's just asking what do you need I accept you're a busy person I accept you've got a lot of things to do I've already got 10 minutes of your time I want to maximise those 10 minutes so we can get the most out of it it's possible what do you need from me so that I can get what I need from you have you done that if you have brilliant that is the embodiment of stakeholder management there are other things to it about scoring them and where do you want to be and putting them on a little map and all that other good stuff and I would definitely recommend doing that but sometimes stakeholder management can be as simple as just going to your Siro or senior director and just asking them what they need from you in order to accept reject risks proposals whatever same thing another example would be if you take something to your working group or governance board or board or anything that needs to go through some form of governance where you need people to approve something I was always taught that don't go into the room if you don't know how it's going to go so if you're taking a proposal for example to your governance board whatever that governance board might be if you are absolutely certain then it's going to get approved and you know that because you've looked to everyone in the room and this is genuinely a rubber stamping exercise fine but if you're for example taking it to your I don't see the management team for example that's got a diverse range of people and opinions can you say with 100% certainty or even as 95% certainty that it's going to whatever it is you're asking for is going to be given to you if the answer is no look at each and every person on that committee board whatever it might be and work out well what would make them say yes what is it that's holding them back what are they interested in you give it the obvious things like the finance director is interested in money so I need to make sure there's a monetary commercial element in there or if the sales director is interested in how it can bring in further sales. or "HR director is interested in how it's going to affect staff, the logistics of director is interested in logistics." You can go with obvious things like that, but you can also just find out again through talking to your director because they all work with them. What are they about? Because some of them will also be people that prefer figures. They're a figures person. Or they are a don't do figures or you do short-sharp to the point. Or they are a details person. They want a detailed analysis. There will be things and preferences that they have in order to relate to what it is that you're asking for to then either understand it and say yes, I get it. I get what you're asking me for. Don't necessarily know that in the workings of it, because you're the expert and I'm not, but I understand the ask. You're asking me to give you a green light for whatever it might be. Have you done that? What we've done in the past, or what I've done in the past, is if I'm taking something that isn't obviously an easy win, it is something that does require some commitment, that can be money, time, resources, whatever, is literally sit down and list every single member of that governance committee board, whatever it might be. And just go right, what are they interested in? What will it take for them to understand what I'm asking for, for one, and then give me a yes. Obviously that doesn't include things like how much will it literally cost me to bribe them or anything like that. But if I know this person is a numbers person and I don't give them any numbers to work with, then they're going to struggle. Similarly, if someone is not details oriented, they like big picture, and I go down into the reads, then I'm going to lose them. It say, is there something in my proposal? Is there something in my business case that appeals to the different elements that are wrong that board? That to me is stakeholder management. That is saying, these people are stakeholders. They have approvals or powers of approval. I need to understand what they need from me in order to get from them what I need from them. A two way process. We are a stakeholder to them. They are a stakeholder to us. So have you done that? Have you right now in your role? What you're doing? Have you worked out who are your supporters? The people that you can rely on to say, yes, we are someone that's sold on the message. We're people that are literally support your ideas and will usually, not always, but all usually, go along with what you ask them. Who are they? Who are the people that are neutral? That are sometimes they'll go along, sometimes they'll block, they're about 50/50. And who are the ones that get in your way that stop you from achieving your objectives and achieving your goals and targets? Who are they? And why do they do that? Is it a, yes, there will be a personality thing in all of this. That's just life. But have they raised key point? What have they actually said when they've blocked you for something? Have they thrown money at you or prioritisation or they just haven't got it? They haven't understood what you're asking. Therefore they're never going to approve it. What exactly is it that they've shot you down on? And what can we do to learn from that and counter it? If they have shot us down on, it's not worthwhile in terms of return on investment. What can we do to try and bolster that return on investment? If they've said it's not worth it or there isn't enough people, for example, not enough people time to commit to it. What can we do to try and slim that down or find ways around it? Is there anything? If it's a political thing, who can we talk to that is, excuse me, enough to make a political swinging. So actually, if your friends with them, if you convince that person, that person comes with you, that sort of thing. Stakeholder management, yes, is about communication and if you're running projects, keeping them up today, keeping them happy, that sort of thing. But it's also about looking at what you need from other people and what they need from you in order for you both to achieve your objectives. And it can, for us as information professionals, be quite scary because you've got to rock up to people. You've got to put yourself out there. You've got to have a brass neck to ask someone for something and be a little bit cheeky, maybe, in asking for different things. It's very much a, it's not everyone's cup of tea and not everyone will be good at it. But it is something we've got to do if we want to achieve our overall strategy and objective for improving data protection, FLI, records management, whatever it might be. We've just got to. Waiting for the business to come to us doesn't work. Waiting for the business to go, oh yes, we must all comply with records management because we must. That's not going to happen. If the business isn't coming to you, it's not miraculously going to start doing it. That isn't going to happen. Therefore we're going to try and look at something new and something new could quite literally be a they're not going to come to me. So I'm going to go to them. So who are they? And what do I need to take to them in order for them to do what it is I want them to do? If you've ever read the book, how to win friends and influence people, it is pretty much like that. How do we win friends and how do we influence people to get the message across to achieve what we want to do and go where we want to go. It won't work every time. Absolutely not. You'll have setbacks, you'll have people that no matter what you do, they will always be a naysayer. It will always be a blocker. But can you work your way round that by getting enough allies and options and finding out what people need enough to be able to manage your program? That is a really, really useful skill to have. It's something that takes patience, time and finesse, but it's something that if you can do right and get right, it will help you out massively in the future. If you haven't looked at any sort of training programs or internal or external courses on stakeholder management, do so. It can be quite formal. So for example, when you map them out, it can be a bit and the seems a bit clunky, but roll with it. The basic core elements of spotting who your key people are, what they need from you and what you need from them, either as a one off or an ongoing basis, is the basic elements of how you succeed and get what it is you need to get, even if it is in bits or if it's in bulk. It's that's how you do it because that's just how the world works. It's people, it's relationships, it's you scratch my back and ask you to scratch yours, that's just how it all works. So while it seems scary to come back to our original point at the beginning, actually it's not it's just people and people aren't that scary, they're quite simple when you boil them down to their core elements. That sounds weird, a Halloween episode talking of boiling people down to their core elements. On that note, I think we'll end it there. Up next in our next episode we're going to be looking at change management with our guest speaker and then that will be it for the, am I believe we might have another episode we'll see. Either way, like, comment and subscribe, squarely appreciated. Let's just know what your scariest Halloween IG thing is, could be something simple. Oh no, I've got another subject access request. Oh no, I've got to do a policy review right the way through to. Oh my god, I've got a troll through 10,000 emails. Oh, watch yours. As always, like, comment, subscribe and thanks again for listening. (upbeat music)