Who could destroy your ability to deliver by postponing something? Whose cooperation do you desperately need?
Know your powerholders
All these people are powerholders. They're a sub-group of your stakeholders. They can make a real difference – their actions and decisions are critical for your ability to achieve your goals.
If the project you're working on will be visible externally, you need to find out with who is the ultimate boss to turn to concerning matters of PR and investor relations. Knowing this, you can incorporate these people's motivations into your project.
If you are a member of a team that is geographically scattered, you need to understand who is in control in each distinctive area, according to an article on the management-issues.com website.
Understand what matters to people with power
Just sharing the knowledge of who holds power may help a lot in understanding your organization. When you have more accurate idea of who has power over what, and what incentives are in play, that can change how you approach your activities. You can better guess who these people listen to and what goals they respond to.
The second step is to think about what you can do for these people to get them do what you want. Useful insights may be generated by a discussion with your colleagues. When you start with this kind of information, you have a better chance of gaining support by the right people across the organization.
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