I read AVC.com every day. I often stumble upon useful bits of wisdom. Mostly about technology and business. Sometimes about high-level decision making and governance. Here's one about why it's important to do a stakeholder analysis when you make decisions.

Stakeholders have vested interests and they potentially clash.

“Consider a neighborhood school. There are students, parents, teachers, administrators, non-teaching staff, taxpayers, the community, homeowners (whose home value is impacted by the quality of the school), and possibly other stakeholders. In theory every one of those stakeholders has a vested interest in the success of the school but in reality there is often conflict between them.”

Stakeholders might not agree with you but they still need to be considered.

“All complex systems have many stakeholders and while they all want the system to succeed, because they have a stake in it, they rarely view success in the same terms. You never want to surprise or be surprised by your stakeholders. They may not like you, agree with you, or even support you. But they must be understood, respected, and considered in your decision making process.”

Interests might be easier to align over a long period of time.

“Done properly, a stakeholder analysis attempts to determine what each and every stakeholder desires and the impact to them of an important decision. It is like a scorecard. It is often helpful to look at short term, medium term, and long term impacts. I find that it is often the case that conflicts are the most extreme in the short term and that if you can frame a decision and the impact of it over a very long time horizon, it can be easier to get alignment.”