Stakeholder Management Playbook, Step by Step for 2027

Build support among people you do not manage, with six plays to find every stakeholder, map power and interest, plan communication, build influence and turn resistance into engagement.

Who it's for

Managers, project and change leads, consultants and founders whose work depends on people they do not manage: those who approve it, fund it, are affected by it or could stop it. Each play works as a 60- to 120-minute workshop or a week of short conversations.

What you'll learn

• Build a Stakeholder Register from R. Edward Freeman's broad definition of a stakeholder, and rank it with the salience model of Ronald Mitchell, Bradley Agle and Donna Wood
• Place priority stakeholders on the power–interest grid, usually credited to Aubrey Mendelow, using evidence, and agree an engagement strategy for each quadrant
• Separate positions from interests, as Roger Fisher and William Ury do in Getting to Yes, and measure the gap between current and needed commitment
• Plan who hears what, from whom, through which channel and in what order, with a route for every reply
• Influence without authority through exchange and “currencies” (Allan Cohen and David Bradford) and Robert Cialdini's principles of influence, and build a coalition before the decision
• Diagnose resistance as don't know, can't or won't, match the response to the cause and track trust and support every month

What's inside

• 39 pages, 6 plays
• Every play sets out its objective, when to use it and when not to, the time, people and materials it needs, numbered steps, a diagram, a ready-to-use template, an illustrative example from a fictional UK organisation and common mistakes to avoid
• One template per play: Stakeholder Register, Power–Interest Grid with Engagement Strategy, Stakeholder Profile and Commitment Gap, Stakeholder Communication Plan, Influence and Coalition Plan, and Stakeholder Resistance and Relationship Tracker
• A closing action plan, Your First Six Weeks of Stakeholder Management, with a one-page checklist that runs all six plays across the first six weeks of a project, programme or change
• PDF in A4 format — read on screen or print
• Instant download after purchase

Contents

1. Identify Everyone With a Stake
2. Map Power and Interest
3. Understand What Each Stakeholder Needs
4. Plan the Conversations and Communication
5. Influence Without Authority
6. Turn Resistance Into Engagement

Part of The Business Library

This playbook is one of the 55 ebooks in The Business Library, available together for £109 (worth £1,437 if bought separately: the total of the individual prices of the included titles in our store). It is also included in The Ultimate Business Bundle, which adds 8 checklists and toolkits and 10 workbooks — all 73 products for £147.