Expectation Matrix

If you had different stakeholder groups involved in planning a project, you might share the experience of finding out that what works well on paper can look very different during implementation. Often, it turns out that some stakeholder groups or individual players have quite different perceptions of who is supposed to do what in the implementation. This is often the start of a big controversy, which leads to a decline in the efficiency and effectiveness of project implementation.

You should use this tool at the end of a workshop - or you could organize a special event for this - and you might prevent some of the conflicts described above.

There is a long and a short version of this tool. The long one takes about an afternoon, the short one can be done in about one to one and one-half hours.

List the main groups involved in the project implementation. If it turns out that key players are missing, you'd better get them involved or represented in your workshop. Draw a matrix on one or two pin boards, where the columns as well as the rows represent the titles of the groups. Cross out those boxes of the matrix which match. If you have five groups, consequently you will have five columns and five rows, i.e. 25 fields of which 5 are crossed out.

Table 1: Step 1

Now, start with the group, which represents the first row, i.e. "project management team". Proceed in a horizontal sequence and ask the representatives of that respective group, what they expect from the other groups in terms of roles and responsibilities during project implementation. Go column by column and write the answers into the respective boxes. At that stage of the exercise, the group is not supposed to comment on what role they want to assume by themselves, and the other groups are not supposed to make remarks either.

Once you finished the first group, continue with the second row, and repeat the process.

Table 2: Step 2

After having filled all the squares, you go back to the first group. Now are working in a vertical sequence. Read all the statements in column 1 aloud and ask the representatives of group number one (in this example, the project management team) for their reaction to what is expected from them. Are they willing to comply with these expectations? If not, mark disagreements. Finally, ask the representatives of group 1 to add additional tasks and responsibilities they want to assume for themselves.

Continue the process for the other groups. Debrief thoroughly. If there are any disagreements left, you might need to add an additional negotiation process until there is a consensus of all participants. Summarize and debrief.

Long version:
Instead of doing the entire process in the plenary, you might send the respective stakeholders into working groups, in which they discuss what they expect from the others. They write their statements on paper cards and present them in the subsequent plenary session. The paper cards are traded and the groups again retreat. In the following working session they discuss, with which of the expectations they want or can comply. These results again are presented in the plenary, and the process continues as described above.