I wish people would use the term 'stakeholders' more often. It forces people to think about everyone who has something at stake.
I've witnessed more than one major project or process get completely shut down after months of effort because the initiators completely disregarded a stakeholder who had to slam on the brakes.
I've seen months of meetings, software written, and training provided, all to have it come to a screeching halt when Legal asked "what the hell?" and had to inform the process owners that "we still need the current way to be able to walk into court with it."
Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable are two other stakeholders that get left out with severe consequences. I quickly got myself off of one project after the project leader responded to the question (not from me), "Did you run this by Finance?" with "We're going forward and will have them align when we're implementing it." Needless to say Finance simply said "No. That does not meet the legal requirements for audits." 18 months later and that was the quiet end of the project.
“It forces people to think about everyone who has something at stake.”
I think you clarified my thinking on why I like the term. And corrected my spelling of it - just one word. It is fairly new to me so that is probably why I don’t like it.
“I’m a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess.”