Kolawole Osinowo, CEO, Izili Group

Let me introduce you to a framework that really helps understand the driving force of every stakeholder.  I use a framework called TUFA, which has helped me in my career over the last couple of years. 

TUFA stands for Them, Us, Fit, and Action.

THEM is all about the customer or the stakeholder that you're engaging with. It's important that if you have 10 minutes with a stakeholder, you spend at least nine minutes on them, trying to understand them, not presenting your own solution or your company or your organization or your situation. Start with them.

One time, I met one of our stakeholders, a partner in the microfinance institution. Just before going to the meeting, I researched what has happened lately with the organization, and I realized that they just won a grant that would allow them to scale clean cooking across a particular country. We did not have that grant; they won it. So, the first thing I did when I got into the meeting was to congratulate the team and say, "Well done for closing this type of deal!"

In the process of explaining this deal, they were getting comfortable. They were in their element because they were now talking about themselves. That's what you want to do. You want to make sure that they are comfortable talking about themselves, and you're not just probing with different questions.

After they finished, I started giving them an explanation about the US. In explaining the US, you need to make sure that it's linked to them and what they shared with you. I didn't have to talk about digital or solar or anything unrelated; I just focused on clean cooking. In talking about clean cooking, I didn't even talk about our products. I just talked about what we've done, the outcome, and the impact of what we've done in the clean cooking space. We could do better if we had the opportunity to scale.

And that is me trying to set up the conversation for the third part, which is FIT. So, I started explaining that we are a last-mile distributor, but they didn’t have a last-mile distribution. We have over 800 agents; they don't have 800 agents. So, they begin to see that for them to really succeed with this project, they would likely need us. And, once I start seeing that they are interested in that fit, you go to the last part, which is ACTION.

An action could be, who is the project manager for this initiative? Can we set up a follow-up call? Can we have a follow-up meeting? Another thing could be, "Oh, do you want to see what we've done on the field?" That way, just to keep the interest going and have an action that closes that conversation.

Key takeaways

• Build alignment by understanding what drives each stakeholder, not just what they say they want. 

• Begin by listening to them and build a strategy together to create an us.

• Alignment works when you find the fit and end with clear action, not vague agreement.