Cultivating stakeholder relationships

Stefan Kreil & Patricia Crazzolara

Introduced by Eva Rampini

Smuggling solution focused ways of working into a company without them even noticing, is one of my favourite things to do when working as a project manager. This is why I really like the stakeholder relationship tool that Stefan Kreil has developed with input from many of his SF friends.

He uses a well-known project management tool, the stakeholder matrix, and adds a solution focused relationship sheet. And there you go: you get a tool to understand and cultivate your relationships with your stakeholders in a SF way.

Stefan presented his tool together with his colleague Patricia Crazzolara at the SF 24 HR global online conference in May 2024.

In this video they explain how they use the tool and how it has helped them to bring their projects to a success. They will walk you through:

• the matrix plus the relationship sheet …
• how they use the tool online …
• a real life example …
• how to build on existing good relationships …

Stefan’s usual projects, he says, are IT projects, “where thousands of people are somehow involved, but none of them say, how they can work together…, so this is how we usually start to try to find a way to cultivate this kind of relationship that is needed”.

Patricia explains why the tool is also helpful, if you are in a position with low visibility: “It’s about positive gossiping and about leveraging and identifying those people who can influence people that you … do not have that influence to”.

In essence the tool can be used to “identify those people who help you to be successful”, says Stefan.

Have a look yourself!

This video was filmed during SF24/2024. With thanks to the organisers for permission to feature this edited version.