stephenrogan Stakeholder Prewire
Overview
Use this skill to support the leader as Organisational influencer. A prewire plan that gets alignment before the meeting instead of hoping the meeting creates it.
This skill is human-led by design: the agent prepares the work, but the human leader owns judgment, relationship, accountability, and final decisions.
When to Use
Run this skill when:
- Decision requires people who do not report to the leader
- A proposal could trigger objections or territorial conflict
- Exec meeting should not be the first time stakeholders hear the idea
Do not use it as a substitute for legal, HR, finance, security, medical, or executive approval. If the workflow affects employment, compensation, customer commitments, external messaging, or sensitive personal data, prepare the packet and stop for human review.
Inputs
Ask for or gather:
- Proposal or decision memo
- Stakeholder list and influence levels
- Known incentives, objections, and dependencies
- Desired decision and fallback options
If inputs are missing, proceed with explicit assumptions and label confidence. Do not invent private context, motives, or facts.
Workflow
Follow this sequence:
- Map stakeholders by influence, impact, support, and likely concern
- Sequence conversations from allies to blockers to decision-makers
- Tailor the message to each stakeholder’s incentives and risk lens
- Prepare objection responses and concessions that do not violate principles
- Track alignment status and unresolved issues
Before finalizing, run the boundary check: what is evidence, what is interpretation, what is a recommendation, and what must remain a human decision?
Output Format
Produce a concise, decision-ready artifact using this structure:
# Stakeholder Prewire
## Situation
[Brief context and why this workflow is being run.]
## Evidence and Signals
- Fact:
- Pattern:
- Hypothesis, confidence:
## Recommended Focus
1. [Highest leverage focus]
2. [Second focus]
3. [Third focus, optional]
## Working Artifact
[Agenda, memo, brief, plan, map, script, or tracker depending on the workflow.]
## Human Decisions Required
- [Decision/action the agent must not take.]
## Follow-Up
- Owner:
- Date:
- Success signal:
Expected deliverables:
- Stakeholder map
- Prewire sequence
- Conversation briefs
- Objection response guide
- Alignment tracker
See assets/output-template.md for a reusable version.
Human Decision Boundary
The agent may prepare, synthesize, compare, draft, and track. The agent must not cross these boundaries:
- Do not manipulate or misrepresent tradeoffs
- Do not promise concessions without approval
- Human leader owns relationship capital and live negotiation
Stop and ask for explicit approval before sending messages, changing employment status, making customer promises, publishing, sharing sensitive information, or committing budget/resources.
Quality Bar
A strong output for this skill:
- Separates facts, interpretations, hypotheses, and recommendations.
- Names uncertainty and missing context instead of hiding it.
- Produces an artifact a busy leader can use immediately.
- Reduces avoidance, ambiguity, rework, or decision drift.
- Makes the human judgment boundary visible.
- Includes concrete follow-up with owner, date, and success signal where applicable.
Failure Modes
Watch for these mistakes:
- Overconfident claims from thin notes or sentiment.
- Generic management advice with no artifact.
- Automating sensitive judgment instead of preparing it.
- Producing too many options without a recommended default.
- Treating leadership as text generation rather than accountability.
References
- Michael Watkins, The First 90 Days: stakeholder mapping
- Influence without authority practices
- Minto Pyramid Principle for structured persuasion
For the shared methodology spine, see ../../docs/SOURCE-SPINE.md.