The challenge of stakeholder buy-in
One of the biggest challenges in achieving a successful transformation is getting stakeholder buy-in. But what about how to retain stakeholder buy-in once you have gained it?
Initial stakeholder buy-in depends on the strength of your business case, or of your argument, or possibly even just the strength of your personality.
Two problems, not one
It sometimes seems that everything ever written about change management talks about stakeholder engagement, so why are we writing yet another article about it?
Because there are actually two problems.
The first is the problem of getting stakeholders to agree with you in the first place. This is hard enough. It really does depend on how compelling you have made your case.
Each stakeholder will see the strength of your case differently.
How you deliver the message will also have a huge effect on the strength and distribution of stakeholder support for your transformation.
But the second problem is the subject of this post - how do you hold on to stakeholders once the change or transformation gets underway?
How to retain stakeholder buy-in - the hidden trap
How you retain stakeholder buy-in is really one of those hidden or lurking traps in transformation.
Some stakeholders that you won over at the beginning get lost or turn away.
Some may encounter issues themselves, or just hear about issues from other people, some of those may be imagined and not even real.
Stakeholders can have poor experiences with the change or the change delivery project team and some get influenced by others with opposing objectives.
Finally, the circumstances of a stakeholder may just change. Not surprising in the lifetime of a major transformation running over several years. The case that was once supported no longer suits the stakeholder.
And you didn't know.
Where does Gluestep come in?
So why are we interested?
Because we designed Gluestep to help you keep stakeholders on board.
We designed Gluestep to show when stakeholders are starting to drift away or have poor experiences or otherwise have something important to tell you.
Other change and project reporting approaches can miss these issues completely. This is a major gap during the early stages of a transformation when measurement and reporting can be patchy.
Gluestep tracks stakeholder satisfaction or readiness from the very beginning, using a template-based approach, and Gluestep lets you know when sentiment changes or when issues arise.
Gluestep shows you when you are winning them back, and Gluestep shows you when you are not. But with Gluestep you will know, so you can do something about it.
Want to know more?
So if you are interested in using Gluestep to retain stakeholder buy-in in your organisation, visit us at https://gluestep.com or get in touch at info@gluestep.com and start your journey to transformation success!
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