The Apple of Discord: Why the Uninvited Stakeholder Derails Delivery
Christopher Nolan’s summer epic The Odyssey has captured the imagination of audiences world over and firmly planted Greek mythology back in the public mind. Long before Odysseus began his ten-year voyage home, the Trojan War itself started at a wedding feast, a story that links directly to our fourth discipline of team effectiveness: Connecting.
King Peleus invited every god on Mount Olympus to celebrate his wedding to Thetis, except for Eris, the goddess of strife and discord (Goddess of strife and discord!?!? that seems like a rather significant oversight that could only ever lead to the greatest war of the mythical age). Slighted by this oversight, Eris arrived anyway, bringing a “gift” of a golden apple inscribed with "To the Fairest" she threw it right into the middle of the wedding feast.
For a wedding feast with three particular goddesses famed not only for their beauty but also their ego (which deity isn't!?), the result was inevitable. The ensuing feud between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite escalated until the city of Troy was in ruins and poor old Odysseus facing a ten-year ordeal just getting home from work (anyone who has been subjected to a mandatory return-to-office diktat can relate).
How does all this relate to team effectiveness and connecting? In my experience, the stakeholders who are forgotten or mismanaged are often the ones who end up throwing their own "apples of discord" into a team. While it might not start the Trojan War, it can seriously undermine team performance. Teams routinely invite key stakeholders (thank Zeus in our example) and comfortable allies, yet by accident or design leave out, or fail to fully engage, inconvenient or challenging voices such as risk, compliance, or audit.
Often, these inconvenient stakeholders are treated more as problems to solve or work around. A team might engage them initially, but over time things drift until that apple of discord gets thrown into the mix, usually at a critical point in delivery.
The Bywater Insight
In Peter Hawkins’ 5 Disciplines model, the fourth discipline is Connecting. This discipline requires leadership teams to look outward, building systematic relationships across their wider organisational network.
Connecting requires looking beyond passive updates and town halls. Real engagement involves creating the right conditions to invite uncomfortable voices early in the planning process. When leadership teams encourage healthier challenge from overlooked partners, they move from reactive firefighting to clearer thinking, protecting strategic momentum and ensuring progress that holds.
Practical Application: Engaging the Overlooked Stakeholder
Here are four evidence-informed steps to build systematic connection across your wider business:
Audit your stakeholder map to locate overlooked authorities, identifying functions holding operational veto power who currently lack a seat at your planning table.
Schedule structured inquiry with challenging partners before strategic plans freeze, asking explicitly what operational friction or systemic risks they foresee.
Establish a fixed review cadence with cross-functional partners to prevent initial alignment from degrading into transactional status updates or total silence.
Treat awkward feedback as essential governance, ensuring that uncomfortable operational realities surface while time remains to adapt.
The ‘Better Thinking’ Question
Which overlooked stakeholder in your current strategic initiative holds the power to throw an apple of discord onto your table six months from now?
Work with Bywater
Moving a leadership team past isolated delivery and into sustained stakeholder alignment requires structure, honesty, and clear direction. I work with leaders, senior teams, and HR directors across the UK to help teams clarify their collective priorities, resolve structural friction, and build the right conditions for sustained progress.