With limited frontline experience, Marty was nominated for this project given his policy credentials and attention to detail. And as head of his state government policy unit, Marty certainly got things done. Of course with a stable team of only three, there was very little dissent as everyone seemed to get along just fine, which certainly created a productive working environment. As Marty prepared for his first stakeholder meeting, he knew exactly how he would engage with, manage and control this cohort of project stakeholders. Not only did he need to work with the government ministers, advisers, the governance committee, project board, different department heads across the state and industry bodies; he would also be dealing with senior managers, consultants, SMEs and junior staff from different departmentsin short, a dynamic mix of roles, egos, agendas and influence. Once Marty came to realise how his fear of engaging with these 'powerful' people could be broken down into just a couple of steps, he felt more at ease. All he needed was a couple of columns on a page where he could record the points Ellen had suggested. A quick Google search produced myriad designs for stakeholder management, communications management and stakeholder