Understanding Stakeholder Mapping for CSR Projects

Are you in advocacy or influence and still using static spreadsheets as a stakeholder map? If so, you need to change course. Now. Why? Because your spreadsheet won’t properly navigate the SMH that is 2025: • Medicaid cuts in the “Big, Beautiful Bill” • AI disrupting everything • Budget deficits and stock market volatility • Wars in the Middle East, Ukraine, elsewhere • Trade wars, tariff escalations, job cuts. • Free speech fights, antisemitism, and extremism • Inflation, immigration crackdowns, data security concerns These aren’t normal times folks. And your advocacy strategy can’t be either. A real stakeholder map in 2025 should work like a live operating system: updating constantly, filtering by issue, engagement level, and digital footprint. You must constantly watering the proverbial 🌼 🌹 🌺 to win. Here’s what that looks like: Stakeholder Type: Media, Hill staff, trade orgs, agency heads, donors, advocacy groups, coalitions. The usual suspects. Still essential, but just one part of the bigger picture. By Issue: Map your landscape around what actually matters now. Different issues = different allies. Period. If you’re not tracking stakeholders across industry specific flashpoints like AI, Medicaid, trade, immigration, or DEI, you’re flying blind. By Position: Ally, neutral, detractor; on this issue, at this moment. Nobody is “always with you” anymore unless they’re on payroll. And even then. Get real about this. By Influence + Interest: High influence, low interest? Your job is to make them care. Low influence, high interest? They can still amplify or derail you. By Engagement Level: 1 = Active 2 = Warm 3 = Cold but still meaningful. Track across both allies and critics. Where’s your team spending time and why? By Relationship Owner: Who owns the relationship? What’s the origin? What’s your backup plan if they ghost? Redundancy matters more than ever. By Digital Footprint: Your map should surface stakeholders with domain authority in policy, media, and increasingly, AI platforms. If the names on your list aren’t being cited, surfaced, or scraped into training data, you’re not influencing the future conversation in the way that people search and advocate. Static stakeholder lists are a liability. They don’t flex. They don’t prioritize. They definitely don’t win. Build something smarter today, because you’re either at the table or you’re on the menu. 💪 📰 ❤️ 🏛️

Having the wrong stakeholders will definitely kill your project. When your main contact is too low in the organization? You watch your work get filtered through layers of hierarchy before reaching the real decision-maker. Most agencies have rigor around account management (selling new projects) and product delivery… …but not around true partnership. The solution is not complicated, but it requires structure. 💡 First, we use RACI charts to map every stakeholder's role precisely: - R (Responsible): Who handles the day-to-day decisions? - A (Approver): Who makes the final call? (usually the CEO or senior leader) - C (Considered): Who needs to be consulted? - I (Informed): Who just needs updates on outcomes? Then, we put a ton of structure around engaging these different tiers to ensure we are not wasting time. Understanding an approver's vacation schedule in March might seem trivial… but it prevents project slowdowns in July. And here is what most people miss: The agenda and note-taking are the unsung heroes of successful project management. They help us capture everything about our stakeholders' mindset and write the history of the project. Not just their project goals, but the full picture: - How are they looking at the bigger picture? - What other dynamics are happening in their business? - What decisions need to be made? - Who is accountable by when? When we document and understand these details, we can present work in the exact context they need for success. By engaging proper stakeholders at all levels directly, everything runs smoother. We use engagement mapping to make this happen: - Creative directors talk to creative directors - Marketing directors talk to project managers - Executive sponsors talk to C-level stakeholders Because if you are the CEO, you do not you need to be talking to someone with context of the project and the business. That is why we always try to present our work ourselves. So we can: - Hear the feedback directly - Address it immediately - Drive conversations forward - Ask follow up questions for context We are listening for different things than someone internally would. While big agencies might take clients to basketball games and focus on building friendships… We focus on what matters: Overdelivering every metric and keeping laser-focused on business objectives. Because true partnership is not about being friends. It is about delivering value in every single interaction.

Are stakeholders ghosting your meetings, blocking decisions, or suddenly objecting at the eleventh hour? The predictability/power matrix is a strategic approach to manage them effectively, reducing risks and opposition. This tool categorizes stakeholders based on two key factors: • Power: Identify high-impact stakeholders requiring close management. • Predictability: Assess behavior patterns to develop proactive engagement strategies. Some argue that stakeholder maps and models are outdated. While these models originated in a different business era, organizations can still benefit from tailored stakeholder mapping processes that align with their specific goals, leading to improved outcomes. Here's a step-by-step guide to using this tool: 1. List stakeholders: Identify all parties involved in your project. 2. Assess power levels: Evaluate each stakeholder's ability to impact your project. Consider their role and resources. 3. Determine predictability: Analyze how consistent each stakeholder's behavior is. Look at past actions and current attitudes. 4. Plot on the matrix: Place stakeholders on the grid based on their power and predictability scores. Master this tool and transform unpredictable stakeholders into manageable ones. — P.S. Unlock 20 years' worth of leadership lessons sent straight to your inbox. Every Wednesday, I share exclusive insights and actionable tips on my newsletter. (Link in my bio to sign up). Remember, leaders succeed together.