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> Over a series of conversations, Kacie and I worked through the situation. She revisited the stakeholder map she had created in her first few weeks in the role

> Over a series of conversations, Kacie and I worked through the situation. She revisited the stakeholder map she had created in her first few weeks in the role, which clearly showed that Marta’s collaboration and partnership were essential for getting the business results Kacie wanted. Is this something people do when they start a new job?

theevilsharpie 7y ago
For executives, yes.
manmal 7y ago
If your role depends a lot on coordinating people and building rapport with your superiors, it intuitively makes sense to do so. Similar to how a dev will get familiar with how the team communicates, does pull requests, estimates etc. - just in a different work environment.
CaptArmchair 7y ago
I have done this once, when I started in a middle-management role. During the first weeks, I was introduced / introduced myself to a couple of dozen people in various capacities with whom I would need to collaborate. I kept a text document in which I listed who's who and what's what, and what their relation was to the organization I worked for. Nothing too fancy, just names, organisations, contact info and a few keywords. It's a useful exercise to do at the start of a new position for several reasons. For instance, you want to ensure you didn't skip or include the wrong people when sending out an e-mail. Or you have to attend, or organize, a meeting, so you want to know who's going to sit around the table and how they tie into the goal of the meeting is. When the lay of the land shifts fundamentally, it's useful to revisit the exercise. If you're in a purely operational role and your territory doesn't extend beyond your team or your office floor, there's not much point in doing such a formal exercise.
- matwood 7y ago
  Very useful in a big company setting, even if you're an IC on a team without much contact beyond your team. It's relationship building and helps to know who is who.
hathym 7y ago
Sounds like corporate bs to me
rm445 7y ago
It can be extremely useful when starting a project, and is part of accepted project management techniques (APM body of knowledge and similar). It genuinely helps to consider important people's level of interest, level of influence, and preferred communication styles. I can easily imagine it becoming so ingrained as to be used in all new situations. I've also heard of it being used in situations with difficult colleagues or excessive office politics. Of course, by the time you are writing a stakeholder management plan just to deal with your own manager and peers, you probably need a new job, but it can be useful to keep you going for a while.

theevilsharpie 7y ago

For executives, yes.

manmal 7y ago

If your role depends a lot on coordinating people and building rapport with your superiors, it intuitively makes sense to do so. Similar to how a dev will get familiar with how the team communicates, does pull requests, estimates etc. - just in a different work environment.

CaptArmchair 7y ago

I have done this once, when I started in a middle-management role. During the first weeks, I was introduced / introduced myself to a couple of dozen people in various capacities with whom I would need to collaborate. I kept a text document in which I listed who's who and what's what, and what their relation was to the organization I worked for. Nothing too fancy, just names, organisations, contact info and a few keywords. It's a useful exercise to do at the start of a new position for several reasons. For instance, you want to ensure you didn't skip or include the wrong people when sending out an e-mail. Or you have to attend, or organize, a meeting, so you want to know who's going to sit around the table and how they tie into the goal of the meeting is. When the lay of the land shifts fundamentally, it's useful to revisit the exercise. If you're in a purely operational role and your territory doesn't extend beyond your team or your office floor, there's not much point in doing such a formal exercise.

matwood 7y ago
Very useful in a big company setting, even if you're an IC on a team without much contact beyond your team. It's relationship building and helps to know who is who.

hathym 7y ago

Sounds like corporate bs to me

rm445 7y ago

It can be extremely useful when starting a project, and is part of accepted project management techniques (APM body of knowledge and similar). It genuinely helps to consider important people's level of interest, level of influence, and preferred communication styles. I can easily imagine it becoming so ingrained as to be used in all new situations. I've also heard of it being used in situations with difficult colleagues or excessive office politics. Of course, by the time you are writing a stakeholder management plan just to deal with your own manager and peers, you probably need a new job, but it can be useful to keep you going for a while.