Stakeholder Management

Who are stakeholders

Any group or individual, internal or external who is directly or indirectly impacted by or can have an impact on the project.

 

What is stakeholder management

A comprehensive way of analysing, planning and implementing actions to build stakeholder support and commitment.

 

Ensure the individuals

1. understand the project, the reason for the project and what the project will result in

2. become aware of the changes that the project will bring about and the implications of these changes (for them personally and for their teams)

3. act to support the change - even if the going gets tough

4. make the change happen in their organisational areas and activily promote the change to their colleagues and others throughout the organization

 

Why make time for stakeholder management

Save the project and save project manager

Description

1. Stakeholder management provides an opportunity for the project team to communicate details of the project to the stakeholders and explain to them the role in helping to successfully deliver the project.

2. Stakeholder management builds critical support for the change in the individuals or groups that are key to the success of the project

3. Stakeholder management enables the project team to understand their issues and resolve them before they become too severe and cause harm.

4. Effective stakeholder management provides you with information about how key people in the organisation are reacting to the changes that the project will bring about. It also provides a means of assessing stakeholder feelings continuously thus providing early warning signs when stakeholders are turning negative.

5. Stakeholders need to have the opportunity to discover how the project addresses their personal agenda before they will act to make the project a success.

6. One way of effectively combating politics in the organization

 

Stakeholder management principles

1. Everyone's change rate is different: do not expect everyone on-side before 'live' date.

2. Resource: stakeholder management will take time - budget for it in your plan, invest time in building relationships and opening dialogue as soon as possible - it will save considerable time and effort later.

3. Awarenes: know your stakeholders - it is the direct contact which creates the greatest leverage and influence with them.

4. Involvement: develop a plan for getting them engaged and involved in your project, building a growing body of champions and supporters.

5. Credibility, honesty and openness: keep a balance between communicating the benefits of your project and recognising the issues and concerns of stakeholders. You must listen actively to identify any upcoming risks or issues as soon as possible.

6. Objectives: where possible relfect the successful implementation of the project in the stakeholders performance measures to align the direction of the change with their own performance.

 

Steps in stakeholder management

1. Identify stakeholder

    a. Brainstorm and identify all the stakeholders

    b. Identify all the people who are affected by the project and who have influence or power over it or have an interest in its successful or unsuccessful conclusion

    c. Although stakeholder may be both organization and people, ultimately you must communicate with people. Make sure that you identify the correct individual stakeholders within a stakeholder organization.

2. Understand stakeholder

    a. Classify stakeholder groups and key influences

        i. Challengers

        ii. Followers

        iii. Enthusiasts

 

   

b. Analyse stakeholder groups to determine each one's requirements, priorities and readiness to

embrace change brought about by the project.

        i. Low influencers

        ii. Medium influencers

        iii. High influencers

 3. Influence stakeholder

    a. Determine action plans to influence each stakeholder group to make them support the project

    b. Carry out the action plans

    c. Review results and find tune action plans

    d. Repeat this cycle throughout the project

 

Benefit of stakeholder management

1. Communication channels with all stakeholders gets established

2. Enable the assessment of the change readiness of all the stakeholders

3. Helps to manage resistance to change adequately

4. Provides an opportunity to articulate the scope and benefits of carrying out the project to all stakeholders

5. Enables the identification of sources of possible resisitance and blockages for the project's implementation

6. Improves the chances for the project's success enormously

 

Risks of inadequate stakeholder management

1. Stakeholders may be unclear on the rationale, scope and benefits of the project

2. Stakeholders may have unrealistic expectations

3. The project may not receive the needed priority for applying resources

4. Stakeholders may be concerned about impacts at a personal level

5. Stakeholders may be working at cross purposes

6. Rumour mill may become the main source of information

7. There will be high probability of the project failing