The Washing Machine Morning
Picture this: You end your day with your clothes neatly arranged in your closet-shirts by color, pants by season, everything in its place. You wake up the next morning, open the closet, and… it’s all gone. Instead, you find your wardrobe spinning in a washing machine: socks with suits, sweaters with shorts, everything mixed up, drenched, and unrecognizable. Isn't that’s what stakeholder management feels like today?
From Order to Chaos
Not so long ago, managing stakeholders was about knowing who mattered, what they wanted, and where they stood. You could map them out: investors here, employees there, regulators in their own corner. If you kept everyone happy, you could move forward.
But the world changed. Now, a single news headline, a new regulation, or a technological leap like AI can throw your stakeholder map into a spin cycle. Yesterday’s ally becomes today’s critic. A quiet observer suddenly takes center stage. The rules of engagement are rewritten overnight.
Why the Old Maps don't work so well anymore
Classic models like the Power-Interest Grid or Salience Model gave us order. But they’re built for closets, not washing machines. They assume stability-fixed roles, clear loyalties, predictable moves.
But what happens when:
- A neutral regulator becomes an outspoken opponent after a policy shift?
- Employees, once content, rally behind a union in response to a new work policy?
- An investor, once supportive, demands a sudden change in direction?
A New Way to Navigate the Spin
We need a new kind of model that doesn’t just show where stakeholders are, but how quickly they can move, change, and even swap places.
The P-APIN Model stands for Perspective-Driven Adaptive Polarity-Influence Network, is built for the real world’s messiness.
How Does It Work?
- Polarity Tracking: We don’t just ask who’s for or against us-we track how their stance can shift, sometimes overnight.
- Multi-Focal Mapping: We look at the map from different eyes: the CEO’s, the employee’s, the regulator’s. The picture changes depending on who’s looking.
- Adaptive Networks: We visualize not just connections, but how strong or weak those links become as the context evolves.
Real-Life Spin Cycles
- Union Strike: One client, facing a sudden union strike, used our approach to see the world from both the CEO’s and union leader’s perspectives. They spotted not just obvious allies and opponents, but surprising swing players-like a local media outlet that could tip the public narrative.
- Corporate Merger: Another company, mid-merger, mapped out how employees’ loyalties shifted week by week, helping leadership address concerns before they boiled over.
The P-APIN Model has been tested with dozens of organizations-NGOs, SME's, global corporations-helping them navigate everything from restructuring, transformations to policy crises. It’s the engine behind our Gerositus® Stakeholders platform.
From Nice-to-Have to Strategy
Stakeholder management is now about learning to read the spin, spot the patterns, and act before chaos takes over. If your mornings feel like opening the closet and finding a washing machine-maybe it’s time for a new kind of map.
Curious? You can look into the Gerositus® Stakeholders platform, it is free to try for 3-days. Or feel free to reach out and discuss how the model can be tailored to your story.
Inspired? Share your own “washing machine” story in the comments.