Any project is successful when it achieves its desired objectives. However, to achieve these objectives, the stakeholders' expectations must be met or exceeded. Stakeholders are individuals or groups interested in your project or task at hand because they are involved in the work or affected by the outcomes directly or indirectly. Hence we must practice stakeholder management.
Stakeholder Management is the art of maintaining good relationships with those impacted by our project. We need to engage them to ensure they stay interested and supportive of the project. Conversely, the critics converted to see the benefits or at the very least kept at bay to ensure the project continues with minor interruptions towards its intended outcome.
One needs to look at five steps:- Identify, Analyze, Response, Engage and Monitor.
- Identify Who Are the Stakeholder
In any project, there will always be individuals and groups interested in the success or failure of the project. These stakeholders could be performing the work, the owners, shareholders and customers of the work. Other stakeholders are those affected by the project, for example, the house owner affected by the construction of a flyover right in front of his house. Finally, let not forget the statutory and regulatory bodies and even the vested interest groups. All these people must be identified as early as possible in any project so that you can plan how to engage them.
- Analyze the View Point of the Stakeholder
The main aim is to determine the stakeholder's viewpoint, is the stakeholder an Advocate, Neutral, Critic of the project. Even as a Critic of the project, will the stakeholder actively or silently criticize the project. All these factors are the Power, Interest and Attitude model.
- Power (high or low) is the right given to that stakeholder to make decisions on the project.
- Interest refers to whether the stakeholder sees the project as beneficial to them.
- E.g. A stakeholder may be high power but have low interest in the project. Implying that the stakeholder may have a carefree approach to the project, but many others may want to influence them
- Attitude is the likelihood a stakeholder is a Supporter or Critic of the project
There is a more detailed article of "Stakeholder Analysis- A Point of View."
- Plan Response for Each of the Stakeholder
Once we understand the views of the stakeholder, we must start to engage them. Before that, we need to be clear of the message we seek to convey to persuade the stakeholders to support the project. Each stakeholder has a different definition of what is a success.
You will need to determine the needs and wants they seek. Is there information that they are unaware of or any further benefit that they seek? We are looking at any information/ that can move them near towards supporting the project.
- Engage the Stakeholders
Once you are confident of your response to that stakeholder, it is time to engage them. It is always essential to focus on the most important stakeholders (refer to your stakeholder analysis). There are some stakeholders that we need to engage closely constantly; others kept satisfied. Others continuously updated whereas another group keep them in view.
Devise plans to communicate with each of the crucial stakeholders as simply and efficiently as possible. It is important to remember that not all information is critical to all shareholders; each stakeholder only wants to know their interests and benefits.
- Monitor the Situation
Once you have started engaging the stakeholder, continuously monitor the reaction from them. You need to consistently check if the stakeholder is supporting the project or still critical of it. The situation is constantly reviewed; the communication plan is updated. This process continues to the end of the project and many times beyond it.
A few final pointers for managing stakeholders in any project:
- Just because a project is approved does not imply overall consensus, including those who voted for them. Expect some resistance even from them.
- A stakeholder position can change during a project. For example, someone who was an advocate can turn critic and vice-versa. It is your task to ensure support is high always.
- Always remember to keep an eye on the influencers, many of them may not have the power to make or change a decision, but they may have the ears of those that can.
- Each of the significant stakeholders must have their bespoke communication addressing their needs and wants. If any key stakeholder is unhappy, the rest of the project will become a long and tedious journey.
- There is no need to inform everyone that there is a stakeholder communication strategy for each stakeholder. Instead, limit this to a need-to-know basis.
