A2: STAKEHOLDERS***

...after DECISION DECLARATION, the people who will be affected by and who will affect your decision should be involved in the process.

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Including too many people in the decision process would make it hard to reach a decision. However, missing critical people in the process would lead to issues in implementation.

Involving key stakeholders at the right time in the process is essential in achieving commitment to the decision and having a successful implementation stage. We would usually like to include all the stakeholders in the beginning. There are two reasons for doing so. First, involving the key stakeholders early on would increase the chances of buy-in. We know that people who are latecomers to the process are more likely to disrupt the process and that can hurt the motivation of the group. Second, with all the stakeholders involved early on, different perspectives and corresponding values will become explicit sooner. It decreases the chance of someone coming later in the process and asking why certain things were not included in the frame and the analysis.

Missing the stakeholders that will be affecting or be affected by the decision would lead to reaching a solution that would not work for everyone, causing conflicts and issues in implementation. Once the stakeholders are identified, sometimes it makes sense to build a stakeholder matrix to map the stakeholders and their values, especially when the number of stakeholders and the variance in what they care about is high.

Therefore:

• Identify the stakeholders who are affecting or who will be affected by the decision process, and involve them in the process early on.
• Ask the decision maker who would be the best person to talk to, the person they trust the most whom can help you with the decision. That does two things: gives you access to high-quality information and brings legitimacy to the process.

Note: Sometimes, due to limitations in time or access, you will not be able to involve any stakeholders other than the decision maker. In those cases, you can ask your decision maker to put herself in the shoes of the possible stakeholders and think about the different perspectives.

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With the right people involved, it is time to draft a DECISION PROCESS CHARTER to bring everyone to the same page on the purpose of the decision process.