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Systemic Board

A systemic board can help visualize relations between project stakeholders and between
stakeholders and relevant elements in a project, like the project itself, project roles, certain
interests, conflicts and values. The stakeholders and the elements are represented by blocks
of different shapes (and sometimes colors) and placed by the person who is constructing
the board, such as the project manager. A facilitator helps the person in charge to reflect
on the board by asking questions. A relevant audience, for example members of the
project organization, may be present so that they also can benefit from seeing the board
and listen to the dialogue between the facilitator and the person. A variation is that more
persons work together on the construction of the board and the dialogue, such as the
project manager and a couple of team members. The method helps to abstract a situation
and simulate possible solutions. The systemic board is well-suited for dealing with the
increased complexity that the management for stakeholders approach adds to the project
stakeholder management. Thus the systemic board is especially suitable in development
or change projects (Huemann and Zuchi, 2014), or other projects with an extremely
varied stakeholder landscape. Figure 14.5 shows a sketch of a systemic board work setting,
while Figure 14.6 shows an example of a systemic board applied for an infrastructure
project (Huemann et al, 2013).

Systemic Constellation

A systemic constellation resembles a systemic board. The difference is that the stakeholders
and the elements are represented by persons instead of blocks. This means that they
can take on the roles of the stakeholders and the elements – and speak on behalf of
them. Further, the person doing the constellation can try the various positions – and feel

Figure 14.5 Systemic board work setting

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Figure 14.6 Example of a systemic board

how this stakeholder or element (in the person’s perception) relates to the project. This
gives a deeper understanding of the relations between the stakeholders and the selected
elements, as well as opportunities to try out various solutions. The method requires an
experienced facilitator as well as a number of people to undertake the representations.
Figure 14.7 shows an example of a systemic constellation applied for the stakeholder
analysis of a development project of a municipality in Denmark.
The analysis was part of a research project Rethink!PSM Rethinking Project Stakeholder
Management funded by Project Management Institute and in which the two authors are
principal researchers. The man on the table represents the vision of the project. He was
placed on the table so that he can be visible for all stakeholders. The woman on the right
is the facilitator. She asks well-thought questions to make all the participants reflect about
the situation at hand. The Systemic Constellation can be best applied for analyzing the
stakeholders for complex settings such as change projects or public investment projects.

Selected Methods for Project Stakeholder Engagement

Info Materials

A classical way to engage project stakeholders is to provide them with info materials,
like project brochures, project newsletters and a project website. Info materials may be
a cost-effective way to inform the project stakeholders about the project. This is very
much in line with active project marketing and selling of the project to the stakeholders.
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Figure 14.7 Example of a systemic constellation

However, a two-way communication with the stakeholders is typically more suitable for a
management for stakeholders approach as it may be difficult to take on their perspective
without direct communication with them. Info materials should therefore be seen as a
method to supplement other engagement methods. The application of info material is
especially useful if the project needs to deal with large groups of stakeholders, such as the
people living in the community in which a new tunnel is built.

Stakeholder Workshops

Stakeholder workshops are well suited for engaging the project stakeholders in a
management for stakeholders approach because they give the possibility for project
representatives and stakeholders to interact on a real time face-to-face basis. Thereby it is
more likely that they can get a better understanding of each other’s situations, interests
and expectations – and search for or develop (innovative) win-win solutions. If this is not
possible it may be easier to work on trade-offs that are less harmful than if the project
organization came up with trade-offs without involving the stakeholders. A stakeholder
workshop may address one project stakeholder (group) only, or it may be an arena for
more stakeholders to meet.