Where a stakeholder sits on the scale from unaware to leading, judged on observed behaviour rather than on stated position.
The usual scale runs unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, leading, and it is an ordering rather than a set of categories, which is what allows the distance between two levels to mean something. Unaware is the normal starting position on any large piece of work and is not a criticism. Neutral is the level most often misread as safe: the stakeholder has heard and has found no reason to care, so nothing holds them when a competing demand arrives. Levels are assessed from what a stakeholder does rather than what they say, and they move on their own as circumstances change.
See also
The actions, owners and dates for moving named stakeholders from their current engagement level to the level the work requires.
Identifying who holds a claim on a piece of work and classifying those claims, so that attention is allocated deliberately rather than by whoever shouts loudest.
Where this comes up
One row per stakeholder, one column per engagement level, and two marks per row. The distance between the two marks is the only thing on the grid you can actually act on.
Three attributes, seven classes, one question: whose claim gets attention first. Hold all three and you are a definitive stakeholder, and definitive stakeholders do not wait.
A reward is set in advance and conditional. Recognition is retrospective, unexpected and free. Most project managers control the second and none of the first, which decides where the effort goes.