Managing Stakeholders (Virtual Classroom)

This interactive course is designed to give you practical tools to help you better understand your stakeholders; to build relationships with them and an opportunity to put practice using those tools in a safe environment.

This course will give you an opportunity to

• Understand what good stakeholder management looks like
• Better understand your own preferences, behaviours and working styles
• Develop a technique to gauge the preferences, behaviours and working styles of others
• Learn how to use that knowledge and understanding to build effective working relationships
• Consider your existing stakeholder relationships and what steps you might take to improve those

What we mean by stakeholder management?

• What is a stakeholder?
• How do you identify your stakeholders?
• What kind of stakeholder relationship are we aiming for?
• What does good stakeholder management look like?
• The value of good stakeholder management

The challenges being faced by course participants

To get the most out of the course, participants should come armed with a particular relationship or indeed relationships that they would like to improve. Those relationships do not need to be difficult relationships currently; taking a relationship from good to great is also just as relevant. Once we understand the challenges being faced then we can introduce the tools to help address those challenges.

Tools to use to help build relationships including:

• Stakeholder mapping
• Prioritisation of stakeholders
• Understanding stakeholder motivations
• Stakeholder working preferences
• Questioning techniques to help you build relationships

Understanding your working preferences

To do this we will utilise Business Chemistry. This is a powerful research-based analytical, yet practical, Deloitte tool that provides an insight into an individual’s preferences, behaviours, and working styles, leading to more collaborative and efficient teams, and ultimately greater success.

Expressly designed for use in a business context, Business Chemistry draws upon computational and analytical technologies to reveal four patterns of behaviour. It provides useful insights about individuals and teams based on observable traits, and practical tips on identifying, codifying, and adapting behaviours to create stronger connections between team members; all via the simple Business Chemistry language.

The Business Chemistry workshops is an interactive experience, delivered via a series of engaging and interactive exercises. These explore behavioural dynamics, what they mean, and how to adapt styles for greater success.

Putting those tools into practice using the course participant’s real life examples

During this session, we will take the opportunity, in a safe environment, to try out some of the tools and techniques we’ve just shared. You will have the opportunity to:

• Create your own stakeholder map
• Use what you have learnt from Business Chemistry to identify the working styles and behaviours of your key stakeholders
• Determine what your stakeholders’ motivations might be
• Practice questioning techniques to open up

Creating an action plan for course participants to take back to their workplace
Our final session of the day will be for you to create your own action plan of next steps. What practical things will you do on your return to the office to improve your stakeholder relationships?

During this time when it’s essential to keep our physical distance, it’s just as important to maintain connections, education and ambition.

The IDM Virtual Classroom is face-to-face, peer-to-peer learning – in the digital world. It lets you keep learning, wherever you are, and to connect with others, no matter the distance.

The IDM’s Virtual Classroom offers:

• An interactive classroom environment
• Peer-to-peer collaboration
• An engaging platform experience
• Practical learning through hands-on exercises
• Online access anywhere you can get an internet connection

Courses are structured in a time friendly format consisting of three to four sessions per day, broken up into 60 to 90 minutes of learning, instead of the conventional approach of listening to lectures and notetaking.

Before starting your course, you’ll receive joining instructions outlining any technical requirements, plus a unique login link via Zoom.

This course will be of interest to senior marketers who

• have recently been promoted
• are transitioning into a new role or organisation
• or those who are managing new stakeholder relationships

Why should you attend?

Do you have personal ambitions to progress your career? Perhaps be a future CMO?
Then strong marketing skills alone will not get you to where you want to be. Strong stakeholder management skills are vital in order to fulfil your aspirations.

Why the topic is important and what the course will do to support their organisations marketing activities

This is important if you are ever to effectively execute your marketing strategies. Indeed good stakeholder management can help you be more efficient saving both time and money. Poor relationships can mean multiple iterations of copy and artwork; leading to spiralling costs and inefficient ways of working