Stakeholder Driver Mapping
The Trap
Stakeholder mapping usually stops at role and formal authority: who approves, who's informed, who contributes. It never captures why that person actually cares about the outcome.
The Reframe
For each stakeholder, map their underlying driver alongside their role. What personal stake, commitment, or incentive is attached to this initiative for them, specifically?
Two people can hold the exact same formal role, for example both "overseeing" a project, and have completely different reasons for caring. One might be protecting a commitment they made upward to their own boss. Another might be using visible involvement in the initiative as leverage toward a promotion. The role alone predicts what they're authorized to do. The driver predicts how they'll actually behave under pressure, and where they'll push back hardest.
Steps
- Build the standard role-based stakeholder map first (who approves, who's informed, who contributes).
- For each person on the map, add one line: what do they personally get out of this going well, or lose if it goes badly?
- Where two people share a role but have different drivers, expect them to behave differently when the initiative hits friction. Plan your communication and negotiation accordingly.
Why It Works
Behavior under pressure comes from incentive, not title. A map that only captures roles will consistently mispredict how a stakeholder acts once real tradeoffs appear. This isn't something most people are explicitly taught to do, since most stakeholder mapping guidance stops at role.