As we develop our IT Strategy we need to have a good understanding of our stakeholders and a good understanding of how we manage them. I’ve written previously around stakeholders, but thought it might be useful and fun exercise to share some rough key archetypes i’ve seen when developing IT strategies.

The Baggage Carrier

Something, maybe multiple things happened or didn’t happen for this person and they are carrying it them into any interaction with us. Our challenge will be overcoming the baggage/resentment/scepticism to turn them into a constructive stakeholder (if we need them to be), or to engage in damage control if we don’t need them to become a constructive stakeholder.

The Active Obstacle

This stakeholder may be a more proactive version of The Baggage Carrier, this stakeholder may, to our perspective play an active role in obstructing the design and activation of the IT Strategy. Usually this is for a valid reason, an unmet need, or a historic slight. Our challenge is to understand the root and try and address it.

The Passive Obstacle

This stakeholder isn’t going to put any effort into obstructing our strategy efforts, but they aren’t exactly going to help either. Our challenge here is to a) identify them as a passive obstacle and b) identify how we work around them.

The Positively Selfish

This stakeholder is constructive and helpful, because they expect the execution of the strategy to give them something, regardless of whether the something is of material importance to the success of the organisation. Our challenge is to harness this stakeholder as a supporter for our strategy, but manage and challenge the expectations e.g. we are creating an IT strategy for the benefit of the organisation, its strategy and goals, not this individual.

The Positively Unclear

This stakeholder is constructive and engaged, but has no real clue what an IT Strategy is and what it means, and why should they? Our challenge is to not talk techie shite, understand their needs and work to move them to being a True Collaborator

The True Collaborator

This stakeholder has a clear understanding of what their needs are, engages constructively to communicate them and challenges us in a positive way. Our challenge is simply to engage and harness this type of stakeholder, and build an alliance that will help us through the design and communication of the strategy and build a relationship that will help us navigate the usually bumpy journey of activation.

The Checked Out Floater

Similar on surface appearance to the Passive Obstacle, the checked out floater is like a Jellyfish floating in your strategy sea, they’ll only become a problem if the current takes them towards us.

What about you, what other types of IT Strategy stakeholders have you seen?