managing a delicate web of stakeholders?
August 19, 2019 7:01 PM Subscribe
I I just started an amazing job, one that I want to really shine at. I need a way to manage my interactions with and store knowledge about a large, complex stakeholder network. Do you know of tools or techniques that can help?
Most of the job relies on working with a large (in the scores) number of stakeholders, including donors, nonprofits, clients, just a whole slew. The position is within a close-knit but somewhat fractious religious community, and I'm new to the area, whereas many of these people have been tangled up with each other for decades. I'm considering using CRM software to track and plan communications, but I don't have much experience in that area and I don't want to waste time blundering around. Ideally I'd have a solution (very ideally free or low-cost, nonprofit here) that would allow me to: 1) track my/my agency's contact with stakeholders, 2) allow me to store and organize knowledge on individuals and groups, and it would be really amazing to 3) track relations and connections that exist and develop between stakeholders (ie, Alice and Bob both worked at acme.org 10 years ago, and Bob left and took Cindy's funding with him, but Cindy still likes Alice). I know this is a lot to ask, but I know that if anyone can help, it's the hive mind.
Most of the job relies on working with a large (in the scores) number of stakeholders, including donors, nonprofits, clients, just a whole slew. The position is within a close-knit but somewhat fractious religious community, and I'm new to the area, whereas many of these people have been tangled up with each other for decades. I'm considering using CRM software to track and plan communications, but I don't have much experience in that area and I don't want to waste time blundering around. Ideally I'd have a solution (very ideally free or low-cost, nonprofit here) that would allow me to: 1) track my/my agency's contact with stakeholders, 2) allow me to store and organize knowledge on individuals and groups, and it would be really amazing to 3) track relations and connections that exist and develop between stakeholders (ie, Alice and Bob both worked at acme.org 10 years ago, and Bob left and took Cindy's funding with him, but Cindy still likes Alice). I know this is a lot to ask, but I know that if anyone can help, it's the hive mind.
Best answer: I use Miro boards for this sort of thing. I think you get five boards free with an unpaid account. Miro lets me map ideas visually in a bunch of different ways. There are templates that can be adapted for stakeholder mapping exercises too (eg, “because Person A cares about X, I should focus on Y with them.”).
I usually type lists of things in excel, paste it into Miro which turns each cell into a sticky note, which I can the move around and cluster as needed. I use the flow chart feature to make hierarchy lists and org charts. There are a variety of punnet square templates and journey maps to sort out what to focus on or do next and the like.
Being able to move ideas around is critical to good stakeholder management. But also get some sort of crm or spreadsheet going to. You need a mix of messy and meticulous.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:08 PM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
I usually type lists of things in excel, paste it into Miro which turns each cell into a sticky note, which I can the move around and cluster as needed. I use the flow chart feature to make hierarchy lists and org charts. There are a variety of punnet square templates and journey maps to sort out what to focus on or do next and the like.
Being able to move ideas around is critical to good stakeholder management. But also get some sort of crm or spreadsheet going to. You need a mix of messy and meticulous.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:08 PM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I keep this kind of information in an Excel workbook. It's a bit clunky, but allows me to have sheets for organizations, people, I log our contact hours, etc.
Where it is clunky is that my current system doesn't allow for a many-to-many join on people and organizations. When people have multiple or past affiliations, I just have to note that in my "contact notes". This isn't a big deal for my work, but it sounds like having a more accessible history of affiliations is important to yours.
There may be dedicated CRM software that would be much better. But spreadsheets are good ways to figure out what you need in a more robust database.
posted by jb at 5:00 AM on August 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Where it is clunky is that my current system doesn't allow for a many-to-many join on people and organizations. When people have multiple or past affiliations, I just have to note that in my "contact notes". This isn't a big deal for my work, but it sounds like having a more accessible history of affiliations is important to yours.
There may be dedicated CRM software that would be much better. But spreadsheets are good ways to figure out what you need in a more robust database.
posted by jb at 5:00 AM on August 20, 2019 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I have to do something similar in my job, and part of my job involves recalling information for my boss on occasion. I don't have a tracking system for interactions between stakeholders and our company, but what I have found to be very useful is getting to be very, very good at storing information in and searching through Outlook.
If you use Outlook (or similar), I highly recommend spending an hour or two playing around with it to really get the search feature down. I am able to bring up information very quickly by searching a specific way, whereas I have noticed colleagues will just search for the sender or recipient and scroll through every single e-mail until they find what they want. As well, if you store your contacts in Outlook, there is a space to add notes. If I know I am not likely to be in touch with someone for a while and I want to remember certain details of our last interaction/something to ask about in the future/where we met/etc., I just mark it in their contact card for future reference.
Because I am in Outlook all day everyday any way, for e-mail and my calendar, I find it very useful to just keep everything in there. I also use the "Appointment" feature in the calendar to remind myself of things and intentions that might otherwise get lost/forgotten - e.g. if a contact says they are traveling to the UK for a conference that is relevant to what I do/our work, I will set a reminder for myself to e-mail them 3 days after their return and ask about the conference.
It's not elegant and may not be big enough to do everything you want, but I would say Outlook is a good place to start. Apologies if you use Outlook already or this seems way too basic.
posted by gursky at 10:02 AM on August 20, 2019
If you use Outlook (or similar), I highly recommend spending an hour or two playing around with it to really get the search feature down. I am able to bring up information very quickly by searching a specific way, whereas I have noticed colleagues will just search for the sender or recipient and scroll through every single e-mail until they find what they want. As well, if you store your contacts in Outlook, there is a space to add notes. If I know I am not likely to be in touch with someone for a while and I want to remember certain details of our last interaction/something to ask about in the future/where we met/etc., I just mark it in their contact card for future reference.
Because I am in Outlook all day everyday any way, for e-mail and my calendar, I find it very useful to just keep everything in there. I also use the "Appointment" feature in the calendar to remind myself of things and intentions that might otherwise get lost/forgotten - e.g. if a contact says they are traveling to the UK for a conference that is relevant to what I do/our work, I will set a reminder for myself to e-mail them 3 days after their return and ask about the conference.
It's not elegant and may not be big enough to do everything you want, but I would say Outlook is a good place to start. Apologies if you use Outlook already or this seems way too basic.
posted by gursky at 10:02 AM on August 20, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks for the advice, everyone. I was hoping that there was a secret magic bullet out there, but it looks like we're all in the same boat! For those who are interested, I've decided to proceed with Excel workbooks, using these templates as a foundation, and then looking at Miro to do spatial mapping. I am also interested in NodeXL from an earlier AskMe to model relationships, but I think I will need to build up a significant amount of data before that becomes particularly useful or relevant. Also, thanks for the reminder about contacts in Outlook; I do use Outlook, but I've never paid much attention to managing contacts. I'll see if that's a fluid way to keep some notes. Thanks for your help, everyone, and good luck with your own flocks of cats to herd.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 4:57 AM on August 21, 2019
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 4:57 AM on August 21, 2019
Best answer: Funny. I just responded to your post from today and, as an afterthought, looked at your recent posts. Lo and behold you actually do need a CRM! I can only share about Salesforce. It does exactly as you describe and much more. Big pro: they donate your first 10 licenses. Beyond that their pricing is very competitive. Con: initial discovery and implementation can be spendy. Not in your budget? You need a grant for technical assistance, probably about $25-30k. Unless you don’t have much data. There’s a thing called a Quick Start for about 5k that only works well for small datasets, and even then you’d want to add more customization. You can reach out for pro bono assistance as well, though you’d want someone with demonstrated implementation experience. There are other CRMs, but I can’t speak to them.
Another important thing: it’s one thing to have a CRM, but you also want a skilled person to manage it. If you engaged an implementation partner, you’d want the project to include extensive training, and at a minimum to have a very data-savvy person eager to take that training and run with it and continue learning and troubleshooting. In Salesforce, an otherwise green but savvy and driven person has lots of options to learn in the free online training world (Trailhead) and the Trailblazer community. Good luck. Happy to answer more questions if it’s useful.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 6:44 PM on September 23, 2019
Another important thing: it’s one thing to have a CRM, but you also want a skilled person to manage it. If you engaged an implementation partner, you’d want the project to include extensive training, and at a minimum to have a very data-savvy person eager to take that training and run with it and continue learning and troubleshooting. In Salesforce, an otherwise green but savvy and driven person has lots of options to learn in the free online training world (Trailhead) and the Trailblazer community. Good luck. Happy to answer more questions if it’s useful.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 6:44 PM on September 23, 2019
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posted by rcraniac at 7:47 PM on August 19, 2019 [1 favorite]