Stakeholder Management The case of Umgeni Water 7 October 2016

Mapping your stakeholders Using a systems map What are the boundaries of the domain? Who is included and who excluded. A hierarchy of purposes

An awareness of mental models What are the different discourses What are the contributions to the narratives.

An awareness of outputs and outcomes Intended outputs and their optimisation Constraints Unintentional outcomes Intentional outcomes

Ulrich’s four groups of stakeholders Beneficiaries Designers Decision takers Witnesses

Customers or Beneficiaries Those who are intended to benefit from the organisations core purpose Those who depend on the organisation as employer The upstream and downstream beneficiaries Leveraged beneficiaries

Designers Designers of hard systems Designers of soft systems

Decision takers Those responsible for Determining priorities Planning and scheduling work Securing resources Managing supply chains Monitoring work Complying with regulations

Witnesses Those responsible for political oversight Those who hold professional perspectives Those responsible for accountability issues Those who articulate responses in the public media

Ulrich’s 12 boundary questions (Is vs ought) Who is the client of system S to be designed or improved? What is the purpose of the system S? What goal state is envisaged? What is the measure of success of S? Who is the decision taker re the measure of improvement? What components of S are controlled by the decision taker? What resources and conditions are part of the environment? (Outside direct control) Who is the designer of S? Who are the experts and what expertise do they bring? Who is the guarantor for the designer of S? Who are the witnesses representing concerned citizens affected? How are the affected given a chance to make significant inputs? What worldview is being privileged by S?

Dynamics Professional, administrative and legal norms vs cultural, social and economic norms of those affected

Planning collaborative action Collaborative action requires applying systems thinking principles: Advocacy, participation and responsiveness to learning together Sensitivity to stakeholder perceptions Sensitivity to prevailing conditions Co-construction of project pathways A continuing process of co-learning and learning transfer

Seven steps of SSM Situation considered problematical Problem situation expressed Root definitions of relevant purposeful activity systems\Conceptual models of the relevant systems (holons) named in root definitions Comparisons of models and the real world Changes: systematically desirable and culturally feasible Action to improve the problematical situation

Collaborative learning tools Rich pictures Root definitions CATWOE Application and critiquing of root definitions Building new Human Activity Systems (HAS)

CATWOE Customers or beneficiaries Actors Transactions (from – to) Worldview Owners Environment

Tests for actions Is it effective? Is it efficacious? Is it efficient? Is it ethical?

Root definition A system to do P by Q in order to contribute to achieving R What to do? How to do it? Why do it?