Ignore Stakeholders at Your Own Risk
| I've been discussing stakeholders and communication for some time now without focusing on the key question: Why do stakeholders matter? Well, on most projects, stakeholders equate to risks. There are a few risks that don't involve people--inclement weather, for example--but 90 percent of the risks on most projects are caused by one or more people: • Quality risks almost always occur because people do not follow or not understand processes. • Design risks are usually the result of people not communicating. • Time and cost risks typically tie back to the performance of people doing the work. • Even inclement weather is influenced by people's perceptions--what's deemed "too wet to work" in a temperate climate may be seen as okay in a tropical monsoon climate. People also determine if a risk is acceptable or not. Whether a risk is perceived as acceptable or not is 100 percent inside a person's mind. As project managers, our job is to reduce risks to a level that gives the project the best overall chance of success. Yet extreme risk aversion will kill a project more effectively than a gung-ho attitude. Of course, what constitutes a sensible level of risk is totally dependent on the perceptions and risk attitude of your key stakeholders. That's why a central part of effective stakeholder management is ascertaining the risk attitude of your stakeholders. And then you must either adapt the project to fit within these parameters or provide the necessary information to help the stakeholder change his or her perceptions of what is acceptable. The more that people feel they understand a situation, the more willing they are to accept risks. Similarly, if you have a trusting relationship with someone, you're more likely to rely on their capability to safely manage risks on your behalf. The most useful risk management strategy you can use on your project is effective stakeholder management supported by good communication. What has your experience been? |
Are You Ready for Your Next Status Report?
Categories:
Leadership
Categories: Leadership
| Reporting project status can be exciting--or can be one of those things you'd do anything to avoid. By conducting frequent, but relevant and appropriate status reviews, including the stakeholders in the process and presenting fact-based information, you will help to avoid any unpleasant project surprises. To make the reporting process run smoother, project managers should consider these elements when preparing their reports: Timeliness: This is all about the reporting cycle, the aspects of "when" and "how often" you report. Pick times that will most benefit the stakeholders. Fact-Based Information: Validate information before it's reported to the stakeholders and produce trustworthy reports that others can base critical decisions on. These steps help gain stakeholder confidence and contributes to the overall success of the project. Relevance: Know whom you are reporting to and what information is relevant to that stakeholder. Appropriateness: Be aware of any sensitive information that should be presented only to specific individuals. Presentation: Spend a little time identifying the medium - such as handouts, e-mail, verbal, telephone -- as well as the method -- free form, discussion-based or single-person, etc -- for the report. Knowledge: When you don't have the full details on information to be presented, invite a direct resource that produced the result to the presentation. Audience: Focusing on specific individuals or groups allows you to provide relevant and appropriate information. By considering all of these elements, you can present a clear picture of the project's status to the necessary attendees. |
Who is a Stakeholder?
Categories:
Communications Management
Categories: Communications Management
| Everyone is talking about stakeholders these days. Surprisingly, this has not always been the case. The modern concept of stakeholders seems to have emerged from the work of the Tavistock Institute in London, England in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Forty years later, the concept of stakeholder has expanded to include all of the people and organizations that have a real or perceived '"stake" in the project or its outcomes. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) breaks down a stakeholder as a person or organization that: • Is actively involved in the project • Has interests that may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project • May exert influence over the project, its deliverables or its team members In my work on mapping and managing stakeholders, I have found it important to expand on this basic definition to understand the "stake" of the stakeholder. This helps determine the best way to engage with them. Here are some of the different stakes a person or organization may have (most have more than one): Interest: To be affected by a decision related to the work or its outcomes Rights: To be treated in a certain way or to have a particular right (including legal or moral) protected Ownership: To have a legal title to an asset or a property Knowledge: To possess specialist or organizational knowledge needed for the work Impact or influence: To be impacted by the work or its outcomes, or have the ability to impact (or influence) the execution of work or its outcomes Contribution: Relating to the support or assets including the supply of resources, the allocation of funding, or providing advocacy for the objectives of the project Once you understand the stake the stakeholder is seeking to protect, profit from or enhance, you can structure your communications to let the person know you understand their hopes or concerns. From this starting point, you're in a much better position to manage the relationship to the benefit of both the project and the stakeholder. |
Stakeholders: Changing Attitudes, Securing Support
Categories:
Communications Management
Categories: Communications Management
| My last post touched on stakeholder attitudes. Attitude is derived from perceptions--in this context, the stakeholder's perception of the project and how its outcomes will affect the stakeholder's interests. Fortunately, perceptions are negotiable and can be changed by effective communication. Change perceptions and a change in attitude will follow. In my research, I considered two key dimensions to attitude: 1. How supportive or opposed the stakeholder is toward the project 2. How receptive the stakeholder is to communication from the project team Although receptiveness may seem less important, you cannot change a stakeholder's level of support if they refuse to communicate with you. Levels of support can range from active opposition to active support. For each of the important stakeholders, the project team needs to understand the stakeholder's current level of support and then determine a realistic optimum level. Exactly what that realistic optimum is varies. For example, environmental activists can never be realistically expected to support a new road through a wilderness area. The realistic optimum may be passive opposition and a communications plan developed to negotiate an outcome that the environmentalists can live with. Your project sponsor should be an active supporter. Communication needs to be planned to engage the stakeholder in actively supporting the project. That means open communication. If the stakeholder is unwilling to communicate, ways need to be devised to open channels. This may involve using other stakeholders in the network around the project to open the communication, changing the way you communicate or just plain persistence. Only after communication channels are open can you start to listen to the other person and understand their needs, concerns or ambitions. Once these are known, you're in a position to either explain how the current project meets those needs or consider risk-mitigation strategies to modify the project to reduce issues and enhance opportunities. The whole point of stakeholder management is to optimize the overall attitude of the stakeholder community to allow the project to succeed. A very significant proportion of the risks around most projects are people-based. The only way to identify, manage and/or mitigate these risks is by effective two-way communication. More on this later. |
Start With Acknowledging Yourself
| After my last post, I received a thoughtful e-mail from a project manager in Barcelona, Spain. Because she was constantly criticized growing up, she said she had difficulty acknowledging others. One's ability to acknowledge is an interesting and important topic. Although it focuses on our personal issues regarding whether or not we were acknowledged in our families, our schools and in our early jobs, we are all people first and project managers second. Therefore I would like to address the heartfelt question that was raised, as it has importance for all of us. A person's ability to acknowledge others freely, generously and sincerely is linked to the way we're raised. If we were encouraged and praised as children, we're likely to grow up with a deep sense of self-worth and confidence. If we were constantly criticized, we have more work to do to gain a sense of self-worth. We have to become our own support system, which can be hard. And it's even harder to acknowledge others when we've feel like we have not been acknowledged for who we are and the contributions we make. If that's true for you, then you will have to push yourself more to deliver acknowledgments that may come to mind but that you may have trouble carrying out. We as human beings crave acknowledgment. Receiving acknowledgements releases a chemical called dopamine in our brains that makes us feel good, perform better and work harder to get more of what's called "the dopamine drench," per an article titled "In Praise of Praising Your Employees" published in the Gallup Management Journal. So here's my advice if you were underacknowledged in your earlier life: Start by taking stock of who you are and what your contribution is to your workplace, your family and to the world. Then you can exercise the muscle on the underside of your right arm, as you reach up and over to give yourself a pat on the back! In my courses, we always start by telling each other something special and unique about ourselves. I invite all of you to do just that--share something special about yourself with a friend or coworker--and send me an e-mail telling me about it. With your permission, I might even post it. |
