A model for managing competing stakeholders

At the Government Digital Service (GDS), I managed a team that worked closely with more than 20 government departments. But when I realised that all formal management with these teams was expected of me, I knew we needed a new stakeholder management model.

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What I did

I knew there were risks to our approach to stakeholders:

• We would struggle to understand the priorities of all of our stakeholders.

• We were unable to effectively plan our work, and set priorities.

• Escalations were referred to senior managers, rather than the appropriate operational level.
   

I developed a new model of stakeholder management, comprising a network of teams, each of them responsible for formal stakeholder management:

• Each team was staffed by members of my team - one for every stakeholder.

• Each member of the team became part of multiple stakeholder teams.

• I became the first formal point of escalation and oversaw the groups - I no longer held the formal relationship.

• The delivery manager and I set up peer-to-peer learning meetings and Q&A sessions to embed this new practice. We then organised a retro after 6 weeks of operation.

• We iterated the model, and then publicised this to the wider GOV.UK community through presentations and wiki description

 

The results

• The number of escalations and department complaints dropped.

• We initiated team planning meetings that enabled us to prioritise our work and team resources.

• Colleagues in departments raised concerns and identified project priorities earlier.

• Team members got hands-on experience of formal stakeholder management, and we were better able to share learnings.