I’m not sure we approached it in the most efficient manner. In fact, let me be more exact, I’m certain we did not. But let me describe how the process did pan out.

We came together in small groups for an hour or two a day for two and a half weeks, and even now I think we could add more detail.

It was as fun and insightful in parts as it was tedious in others. Bob rightly called one meeting to an early close for fear we’d lose enthusiasm permanently, yet we had abundant energy in the next. Marcus said it had been just the same when first approaching business performance management.

We teased out influences, one by one, and by stakeholder group for want of a better place to start. It is the first comprehensive list Attenzi has ever constructed of the ways in which our (as in all Attenzi stakeholders) thoughts and behaviors and decision-making are, well, influenced.

By way of a reminder, here’s those generic Six Influence Flows again.

1. Our organization’s influence with stakeholders
2. Our stakeholders’ influence with each other with respect to us
3. Our stakeholders’ influence with our organization
4. Our competitors’ influence with stakeholders
5. Stakeholders’ influence with each other with respect to our competitors
6. Stakeholders’ influence with our competitors.

For clarity, the list wasn’t a photograph so to speak of actual influence happening in real time on a specific date. It was the beginnings of a model of the typical influence flows that are important to the business, either by design or by default.

It recognizes our treatment of data, information and knowledge. It recognizes interactions in person, on the phone, on email, through the media, on the social web, every which way. It recognizes the kinds of market and societal characteristics that influence us. It maps into existing business processes (rather than functions), from new product development to procurement, from recruitment to customer account management, from performance appraisals to supplier audits.