Stakeholder management: isn’t it time we changed the narrative?

Over the past few years, I’ve heard from and seen a lot of posts from content designers, concerned about the amount of time they have to spend with stakeholders, particularly relating to the challenges of working with them.

I’ve worked in publishing (print and digital) for 30 years, so I know a lot about difficult stakeholders. For example:

• When I worked for the University of London, an academic described my team as ‘Stalinist’ and told me he didn’t want to work with us.

• Another academic emailed me and the entire senior management team to say that the Birkbeck website was the worst she’d ever seen.

• A group of academics - rejecting our ‘evidence’ (Google Analytics) as ‘statistically insignificant’ - refused to engage with our consultation and walked out of a consultation meeting.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In 2019, I joined the Government Digital Service (GDS), almost 10 years after the incredible and inspiring project that birthed GOV.UK. The blogs I read, the training sessions I attended and the speakers I listened to transformed my practice and the discipline of content design. So when I joined GDS, I genuinely thought things would be different.

Guess what?

• A policy expert at a key stakeholder meeting crossed her arms and refused to talk to me once she knew I was there on behalf of GDS. When I asked someone else why she was so hostile, they told me she had still not forgiven GDS for what ‘we’ had done to ‘her’ website 10 years before.

• A policy expert I was negotiating with told me that she didn’t like working with content people because ‘we’ didn’t listen to her. And we didn’t respect her expertise. And information would be available faster if we simply got out of the way.

Do you know this story?

Do you see what I did there? I just started to tell you a story. One where a happy-go-lucky little content designer (me) tried to engage with difficult stakeholders, who didn’t respect me and refused to work with me.

Only that’s not the whole story.

In my 25 years at the University of London, I never worked with an academic who was difficult simply because they wanted to undermine me. Like me, they were driven by passion. And although their objectives may have been different to mine, and we didn’t always agree, we definitely figured out how to work together.

And throughout my career, I have watched talented content designers share brilliant content stories with policy experts, and showcase evidence that helped them understand the problems our users were experiencing, and run HMW (how might we) workshops, and pair write with subject experts. And do all kinds of things to convert distrustful stakeholders into partners.

And I watched those same tricky stakeholders change their minds about our content staff, and learn to value the opportunity to collaborate.

Here's what I'm wondering

Inclusion is at the heart of great digital content design.

So any model that excludes non-digital staff from the creative process of shaping and publishing digital content doesn’t feel quite right to me. I think this dynamic sets up adversarial relationships that don’t make anyone feel good.

So I wonder:

• What if I told you that learning to manage stakeholders well is actually the same thing as people management - and that learning these skills will stand you in good stead in other parts of your life. Would that interest you?

• What would happen if we told all of our content people that their job is to be great at partnering with our stakeholders? And that we’ll empower them by teaching them the influencing and negotiating skills that will help them? Would they accept the challenge?

• What if we told our content people that flexibility and open-mindedness and the ability to change their minds are far more important than a dogmatic adherence to house style? Would this interest them?

• And what if we asked our teams to start sharing their content stories - the ones that they save for prospective employers in interviews. The ones that showcase their ability to work in effective partnerships and deliver value for users. Would they do it?

Isn’t it time we changed the narrative?

I feel like a lot of content stories I’ve read in the past have focused on the craft of content design - and I understand how exciting it is to learn and practise these skills. But the application of these skills has only ever been a small part of the story. And I really want to hear the other parts of the story.

Stakeholders have always and will always play a key role in digital content design. I think it's time we embrace this and apply our shared knowledge and experience to making the best of this engagement - whatever it takes.

Isn't it time to change the narrative?

About me

Hi. I’m Jane Van de Ban. After decades of working in the UK public sector, I now work for myself, so I can spend time on what I love. Right now, that means 2 things:

• Stakeholder management training for content designers: I was a union activist and content design lead for years, and that meant that managing stakeholders was the key to getting things done. So I’m good at it, and want to help you.

• Coaching for content designers: Before I was a content designer, I was a web editor. Before that, I was a print editor. Content is something I know a lot about - and as a former team lead, I understand the challenges you face. If you’re struggling with an aspect of your work, I’d like to help.

Let’s have a chat! Contact me to find out more.