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A Quick Guide to Effective Stakeholder Management

May 26, 2010 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Guides, Project Stakeholder Management

A Quick Guide to Effective Stakeholder Management
By Chris Young

After more than 15 years success in delivering large business transformation and IT projects I have found that effective stakeholder management is the single most important factor in ensuring successful delivery.

When it comes to your own project, ask yourself the following questions. How is my project going to effect various stakeholders and stakeholder groups? Who are my biggest advocates and supporters and who is actively working to undermine my delivery? Do my stakeholders understand the benefits of the project and their role in helping to deliver those benefits?

Know your stakeholders - complete a stakeholder inventory

Often, influential stakeholders may not initially be obvious and it is important to leverage expert judgement to help you identify all of the relevant parties within and external to the organisation.

Review project documentation and interview team members and other key stakeholders to assist you in compiling a comprehensive list of all the individuals and groups who are impacted by and can impact your project.

Whilst every project and organisation is different, consider some of the following as possible stakeholders for your project;

  • The business line management and staff impacted by your delivery
  • Other departments who may provide or receive services impacted by the project
  • Support areas including human resources, finance and information technology
  • Vendors - of products, services, software and electronic and computer equipment
  • The company’s clients!

Stakeholder influences - complete an engagement matrix

For each stakeholder (or group) rate them on the basis of how positively or negatively they will impact the project.

Consider factors including how the project will impact individuals and groups, previous experiences which may influence perceptions and the political environment within the organisation and departments concerned.

I use a simple scoring system to identify stakeholders who are extremely supportive, through to those stakeholders who are significantly resistant.

Stakeholders may resist projects, both actively and passively, for many reasons, including:

  • Fear of change
  • Previous bad experiences
  • Perceived loss of control
  • Job reassignment or potential redundancy
  • Increased workload during project execution

Knowing how your project is going to effect various stakeholders increases your ability to influence and persuade them to support your delivery.

By identifying your biggest advocates and supporters and who is actively working to undermine your delivery, you are able to seek more effective assistance and also focus on and address potential issues early in the project life-cycle.

Effective communication

Communicating effectively means that your stakeholders clearly understand the message you are attempting to convey, whether it be in written form, phone conferences or presentations.

By now, hopefully you have identified all of the important people who might influence your project and categorised them by their level of engagement and support. Do these individuals understand the benefits of the project and their role in helping to deliver those benefits?

The next step is to ensure you engage and communicate with each stakeholder effectively.

Whilst sounding deceptively simple, this is where you can have the most impact on your project’s success.

To achieve this, consider the following factors:

  • Do your stakeholders understand the terminology you are using?
  • Do you understand what your stakeholders want and need to know?
  • What new information about the project do you want to get across?
  • What old information is redundant and can be left out or summarised?
  • What is your objective for this communication and how do you intend to achieve it?
  • Are you selecting the right communication medium?

In order to maximise the value of your communication, avoid the use of jargon and use the information you have gathered in your stakeholder analysis to identify the “hot topics” that you should focus on for a specific individual or group. Use a range of different channels, such as email, status reports and group presentations to deliver your message and ask for feedback to determine how effective your communication is and which formats work best for specific individuals and groups.

Effective stakeholder management is the single most important factor in ensuring successful delivery and using these simple and effective techniques will help you to achieve exceptional project management outcomes.

Christopher Young is a senior consultant and executive coach with a broad knowledge and experience in financial services, project and change management, personal empowerment and information technology. His areas of focus include developing highly successful leaders, creating high-performance teams and implementing best practices in process improvement, project management and software development process.

White Water Consulting ( http://www.whitewater.com.au ) is one of Australia’s leading project management consulting firms, specialising in exceptional delivery of projects for the Financial Services market.

Achievement Coaching and Consulting ( http://achievementcoaching.com.au ) assists professionals to reach their individual goals of enhanced business performance and personal satisfaction.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 and is filed under Project Management Guides, Project Stakeholder Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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