The Complexity and Dynamics of Stakeholders

2 Hour Topic

Managers, Directors and Executives

Often called the “landmines” of organizational projects and change initiatives, all stakeholders must be taken into account if such projects and initiatives are to have a chance of succeeding. All action-oriented initiatives will have multiple stakeholders, and rarely do changes or recommendations have an impact on only a single individual, interest group, or agency. Stakeholders existing internally and, in many cases, externally, to any organization will form a complex web of interests which will be impacted by your initiatives. These stakeholders will include those who will have to implement initiatives and those who will have live with, and adapt to, the consequences of implementation. Despite the complexity and dynamics involved, stakeholders can and must be managed if change efforts and other organizational projects are to succeed.