Each project or change management course teaches it: involve all stakeholders. So, I see many organisations setting up large meetings to bring all stakeholders at the table to try to kickstart collaboration. 

Here's the typical scenario:

An organisation has an idea, partners are needed, so they gather them all in one meeting to explore and discusses the collaboration.
The result is most often a babble box arena where many things generic statements are made, no strategic information is exchanged, resulting in a typical "Blah Blah" without the "Boom Boom" ending.

I even dare to say that it’s a great way to kill collaboration to bring all stakeholders to the table at the start of the process .

So are all project management courses incorrect? 

Of course not. 

While the project management courses provide the knowledge that we need to involve all stakeholders, a trained partnership builder has the wisdom not to put all stakeholders at the same table from the start. 

To build successful partnerships you need to consider when and how to involve the stakeholders in your project building process. Some core partners need to be there from the start, others can join later. There are partners that need to be involved but don't need to collaborate in the full sense of the word. Some stakeholders will never collaborate but should not have a negative perception of your collaboration project.

So next time when you are tempted to invite all stakeholders to start collaboration, think carefully whom to send the mail to.

A carefully designed approach allows you to build successful partnership that result in smooth collaboration tracks leading to great results.

To be a successful partnership builder you need to identify, manage and interact with the different types of stakeholders.

In our masterclass Win Win Collaboration we zoom in on the different types, when to involve them, and how to approach them. The registrations for the upcoming session are closed, but we are scheduling new dates later this year. Check out my website or send me a message if you want an earlier update.