Category 09 · 10 frameworks

Stakeholder Management

Tools for identifying who matters to your work, understanding what they need and keeping expectations aligned.

Power/Interest Grid

Aubrey Mendelow (1991); often called Mendelow's Matrix A two-by-two grid that places stakeholders by their power over your work and their interest in it, to decide how to engage each group. 02

RACI Matrix

No single originator; emerged from project and organisational management practice A chart assigning each task or decision to people who are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed. 03

Trust Equation

David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford; book The Trusted Advisor (2000) A model expressing trustworthiness as credibility, reliability and intimacy, divided by self-orientation. 04

Stakeholder Salience Model

Ronald Mitchell, Bradley Agle and Donna Wood; Academy of Management Review (1997) A model that prioritises stakeholders by three attributes: power, legitimacy and urgency. 05

Stakeholder Onion Diagram

Ian Alexander, in requirements engineering A diagram of concentric rings showing stakeholders by how close they are to the product or change, from the system itself outwards to the wider environment. 06

Managing Your Boss

John Gabarro and John Kotter; Harvard Business Review (1980) An approach to building an effective relationship with your manager by understanding their goals, pressures and working style, and your own. 07

RAPID Decision Roles

Bain & Company; described by Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko in Harvard Business Review (2006) A tool that clarifies decision roles: who Recommends, who must Agree, who Performs, who gives Input and who Decides. 08

Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix

Project Management Institute; A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) A matrix comparing each stakeholder's current engagement level with the level the project needs, using categories from unaware to leading. 09

Empathy Map

Dave Gray, XPLANE; described in Gamestorming (2010) by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo A one-page canvas for capturing what a stakeholder says, thinks, feels and does, and what pressures and goals they have. 10

Contracting

Peter Block; book Flawless Consulting (1981) An explicit conversation at the start of a piece of work to agree what each party wants, offers and expects from the other.

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