This is a repost of the original Project Sociology article/video.

In the first episode of this series I used a very simplified model of how stakeholder behavior is determined:

• Stakeholders have needs
• Based upon there needs and their perception of project reality they will choose a strategy that benefits them most.
• The execution of this strategy is their behavior.

As I will progress in the series this model will of course be refined. The first item I want to add is the use of anticipated needs, strategies and behavior from other stakeholders. When determining the strategy a person will also weight in the expected behavior of others. This is very obvious in the subject of this second episode: the reluctance to commit to something.

The best way to illustrate this is by using a quote from Frederick Brooks legendary book The Mythical Man Month:

¦ the reluctance to document designs is not due merely to laziness or time pressure. Instead it comes from the designers reluctance to commit himself to the defense of decisions which he knows to be tentative. ˜By documenting a design, the designer exposes himself to the criticisms of everyone, and must be able to defend everything he writes. If the organizational structure is threatening in anyway, nothing is going to be documented until its completely defensible.

If the anticipated behavior of other is threatening some of the important emotional needs of a stakeholder, he or she may choose strategies that avoid some kind of confrontation. In this situation we are talking about needs like:

• Recognition among peers and within hierarchical organization
• The threat of not being admired, appreciated or in control
• But also some material needs like fear of loosing ones job or not getting a raise.

The stakeholder can use several strategies, which are all targeted towards avoiding a confrontation on the subject he or she is handling.

Delaying: pushing a possible confrontation to a later time frame, hoping it will go away; or be better at that point in time.

Creating smoke screens: by raising other subjects, by trying to bring other items to the agenda, the stakeholder may try to get the focus of his problems, and hoping to stay under the radar. When I was young I had to go to bed at 8 o clock in the evening. When this time was approaching, I just got silent and watched television, in the hope my parents wouldnt notice me.

Keep on giving counter arguments: this is actually a form of delaying, but so widely used it deserves an entry of its own: Just keep on raising questions or arguments why a certain task cant be finished.

No written testimony: avoid having something on paper, email or any other medium that is fixed after you have released it. In this way you are keeping things vague and they are impossible to measure. This is the one used in the earlier quote from Brooks.