The Art of Insightful Stakeholder Conversations
We should choose our words with people as thoughtfully as we craft prompts for AI systems in order to have more effective conversations and gather valuable insights from stakeholders like employees, partners, and customers.
Summary
- The article offers 6 guidelines for initiating productive discussions with stakeholders:
- Use open-ended questions and comparative prompts
- Show understanding and thoughtfulness through reflective probing
- Convey empathy and humility
- Inject appropriate humor, emotions, and playfulness
- Acknowledge challenges openly
- Practice active listening and patience
- Good stakeholder communication provides contextual info and knowledge beyond AI capabilities
- Nintendo's former CEO personally interviewed stakeholders over 9 years to steer the company forward
- Prompting stakeholders shares others' perspectives, builds connections, and gathers insights
- Tailor and optimize guidelines depending on situation and goals
- Thoughtful stakeholder communication is key, despite promise of AI systems