2 stakeholder questions. One answer.

A CIO asked me how to get their digital transformation business case approved, after initially being rejected.

A HR manager asked me how to get their leaders to participate in their change initiative, when they’re indifferent.

In both cases, involving your stakeholders early in your project (business case or change initiative) will ensure they have a stake in it and won’t reject or ignore it later. Dr Robert Cialdini, well known psychology academic, describes the influence principle of “consistency”: people seek to be consistent in their actions. If they’ve been involved in developing something, they are most likely to support it later.

Here is an unusual example, a former politician who was recognised last year as a top 100 innovator by The Australian newsletter. See here for an example of how Victor Dominello gets large scale public support for hard-to-implement digital initiatives.

Try these 3 techniques he uses to influence his stakeholders:

1. He interests others in his mission by solving a specific pain point for them. People are more likely to pay attention to painkillers (fix an immediate problem), rather than vitamins (less urgent). Find your stakeholder’s pain points and solve for these.
2. He gathers a broad community of supporters around him with transparency throughout the change journey.
3. He selects bold innovations, and explains them very simply so anyone can understand.

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