# The stakeholder map and influence without authority > Place everyone the launch depends on by how much they can affect it and how much it matters to them, find the stakeholder nobody mapped, and win help from people you cannot direct. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: People and stakeholders - Lesson 18/32, ~23 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/stakeholder-map ## Who can stop this, and who can help **Alex Tutor:** The responsibility table covers the people inside the project. Many who can stop it or speed it up sit outside it. A stakeholder map puts them on one page, by two questions. **Alex Tutor:** How much can this person affect the launch? And how much does the result matter to them? High on both: work with them closely. Strong influence, little interest: keep them satisfied. Affected but little influence: keep them informed. **Sofia:** Leo and Vira are clearly high on both. Hanna can stop the money, but physics isn't her daily concern. **Alex Tutor:** So Hanna gets the monthly check you built, with no surprises. And the support coordinators? **Danylo:** They will answer every physics question from families in February, and nobody has told them anything yet. > **Exercise:** Place each stakeholder on the map and pick how to work with them. ## The stakeholder nobody mapped **Vira:** Speaking of candidates: four of the six who passed teach at schools. They can't promise February slots until their schools publish the second-term timetable in early January. **Sofia:** Our brief assumes about 15 learners per tutor. That depends on a timetable nobody on our map controls. **Alex Tutor:** That is the stakeholder nobody mapped: the tutors' schools, through their timetables. You can't talk to them, but you can plan around them. Ask the candidates now which hours are safe whatever the timetable. **Danylo:** Evenings and weekends, probably. That's also when families want lessons, so it may work out. **Alex Tutor:** "May" is an assumption. Write it down with a check: confirmed weekly slots from each tutor by 10 January. > **Exercise:** Four of the six tutor candidates who passed teach at schools and can't promise February slots until their schools publish the second-term timetable in early January. The brief assumes about 15 learners per tutor. Why do these school timetables matter, although no school is involved in the project? **Alex Tutor:** Danylo thinks evenings "may work out". How do you record that? > **Exercise:** Danylo expects the school-teaching tutors to be free in the evenings and at weekends, when families want lessons anyway: "it may work out". What do you do with that? ## Roman says no **Alex Tutor:** Roman from tutor operations introduces tutors to the work. He sent a short reply to your onboarding request: > **Roman:** "January is our peak: spring English and math tutors start then. I can't run a separate physics onboarding before February. Sorry." **Sofia:** He doesn't report to me. Should I ask Leo to tell him? **Alex Tutor:** That works once and costs you Roman for the rest of the project. First understand what he needs: a calm January peak. Then look for a request that fits it. **Vira:** His English onboarding sessions run every week anyway. Physics tutors could join the second-week session, and I'd cover the subject part myself. **Alex Tutor:** That's influence without authority: a small, specific request that costs him little, with dates in writing. The From Specialist to Manager course goes deeper in its lesson on the authority you have and the influence you earn. > **Exercise:** Put the steps for getting Roman's help in a sensible order. **Alex Tutor:** Which message to Roman would you actually send? > **Exercise:** Roman runs tutor operations and has refused a separate physics onboarding before February. Which message to Roman is most likely to get a yes? ## When influence is not enough **Sofia:** And if he still says no? **Alex Tutor:** Then it's a real conflict between two parts of Klasna, and Leo should decide it, with both sides' costs shown. Escalation is a last step after an honest attempt, not the first. **Danylo:** And tell Roman before you go to Leo. Nobody likes to hear about it second-hand. **Alex Tutor:** Right. Update the map too: Roman moves from "keep informed" to "work closely" until onboarding is done. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** influence without authority means asking the sponsor to step in whenever a colleague says no. **Alex Tutor:** If Roman still says no, how do you escalate well? > **Exercise:** You made Roman a fitting offer and he still can't fit physics in before February. Leo, the sponsor, decides conflicts between parts of Klasna. Which steps are right now? Choose all that apply. **Alex Tutor:** Last: when is the map finished? > **Exercise:** **True or false:** once the stakeholder map is drawn at the start, it stays as it is until the launch. ## Your turn: the message to Roman **Vira:** Write it so he can say yes in one line. **Danylo:** And no "as discussed with Leo". That reads like a threat. **Alex Tutor:** Show you understand his January, make one small request with dates, say what you offer, and ask for a yes or a better idea by a date. **Sofia:** Short, friendly and specific. > **Exercise:** Write a short message (4–6 sentences) to Roman asking for help with onboarding the physics tutors, without any authority over him. Useful facts: his English onboarding sessions run every week anyway, and Vira, the physics expert, can cover the subject part herself. > **Key points** > > - A **stakeholder map** places everyone the project affects or depends on by two questions: how much can they affect it, and how much does it matter to them. > - Work closely where both are high; keep satisfied where influence is high and interest low; keep informed those who are affected. > - Look for the stakeholder nobody mapped: here the tutors' schools, through their timetables. Turn what you find into an assumption with a check and a date. > - **Influence without authority:** understand the other side's constraint, make one small, specific request, offer something, confirm it in writing. > - Escalate to the sponsor only after an honest attempt, and tell the colleague first. **Alex Tutor:** Next time: the weekly written status. Five lines that tell Leo, Hanna and Roman where the project really is, without a single meeting. - Previous lesson: [Roles: sponsor, lead, expert, one owner per task](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/roles-and-one-owner.md) - Next lesson: [The weekly written status and async habits](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/the-weekly-written-status.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.