George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Reading Miha Lenic's article "Leveraging Your Stakeholder Register" https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles...holder-Register it reminded me that there is a problem with the Stakeholder Register that most authors shy away from because of its ethical implications - the fact that it is being shared with others!
I think we can all agree that the Register has only as much value as the completeness and correctness of the information included. I've seen hundreds of Stakeholder Registers, but I still have to see one that is shared with the entire team and has an accurate description of a negative stakeholder in it!
Everybody records positive or at most neutral statements in the Repository because the person you're writing about may see it, and nobody wants to have a Director coming down on you "How come I'm a blocker to your project? Do I look like a Dangerous stakeholder to you? Don't answer that if you want to keep your job!"
So, if one doesn't accurately record columns such as "influence", "impact", "interest" or similar for the negative stakeholders, is it worth bothering with it at all? We all know that the problems come from negative stakeholders, not from the supportive ones....
My solution is to keep 2 registers, one shared and one for my exclusive use, that expands the shared register with columns that I actually need (see above). Now, ethical purists are saying that this us unethical because I'm hiding information, and my response is that my assessment about someone is private information and does not qualify under "need to know" criteria for information distribution.
What is your perspective about sharing or not, or do you have any other solution to keep useful records (negative) without further destroying the relationship with corresponding stakeholders? Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Very interesting posts, and as expected the opinions are quite polarized - so let me add some fuel to the fire.
Sergio brought into the discussion our responsibility as project managers - excellent point! However, to me our main responsibility is to successfully complete the project and deliver expected results. Wouldn't that imply that sharing our thoughts or not would be a judgement call regarding to what we think it would help or impact the successful delivery?
And following this line of thought (potentially having to withhold information to increase the chances of successful delivery), how do we reconcile the following principles from the Code of Ethics:
2.2.3 We fulfill the commitments that we undertake – we do what we say we will do
5.2.4 We make commitments and promises, implied or explicit, in good faith.
5.3.1 We do not engage in or condone behavior that is designed to deceive others, including but not limited to, making misleading or false statements, stating half-truths, providing information out of context or withholding information that, if known, would render our statements as misleading or incomplete.
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Jan 19, 2018 12:12 PM
Sergio Luis Conte
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First of all, success metrics must be defined and related to project those metrics has to be reasonable in terms of all the project manager and project team can manage: scope, time, cost, quality. With that on hands you plan and define what process to include or not and for each process what/when/how/who to include. When you decide all these stuff then you must follow it. Regarding the code of ethics it has no sense beyond the need to agree with them to get the certification. Code of Ethics of the organization where I am working on is what matters to me. The PMI´s Code of Ethics is not legally actionable so it has no sense beyond the fact it could serve as a guide, no more than that.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Jan 19, 2018 11:06 AM
Replying to George Jucan
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Very interesting posts, and as expected the opinions are quite polarized - so let me add some fuel to the fire.
Sergio brought into the discussion our responsibility as project managers - excellent point! However, to me our main responsibility is to successfully complete the project and deliver expected results. Wouldn't that imply that sharing our thoughts or not would be a judgement call regarding to what we think it would help or impact the successful delivery?
And following this line of thought (potentially having to withhold information to increase the chances of successful delivery), how do we reconcile the following principles from the Code of Ethics:
2.2.3 We fulfill the commitments that we undertake – we do what we say we will do
5.2.4 We make commitments and promises, implied or explicit, in good faith.
5.3.1 We do not engage in or condone behavior that is designed to deceive others, including but not limited to, making misleading or false statements, stating half-truths, providing information out of context or withholding information that, if known, would render our statements as misleading or incomplete.
First of all, success metrics must be defined and related to project those metrics has to be reasonable in terms of all the project manager and project team can manage: scope, time, cost, quality. With that on hands you plan and define what process to include or not and for each process what/when/how/who to include. When you decide all these stuff then you must follow it. Regarding the code of ethics it has no sense beyond the need to agree with them to get the certification. Code of Ethics of the organization where I am working on is what matters to me. The PMI´s Code of Ethics is not legally actionable so it has no sense beyond the fact it could serve as a guide, no more than that. Saving Changes...
Jeff BallSenior Project Manager| Gas Liquids EngineeringCalgary, Alberta, Canada
are 2 versions really necessary? creative descriptions can be interpreted in many fashions Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
It really depends on the organizational culture and I agree with my colleagues here. I don't share all stakeholder information with everyone. Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Great conversation, thank you all!
If you have the chance please attend my upcoming webinar https://www.projectmanagement.com/webinars...Project-Success to continue having some interesting conversations on this and similar topics - I'm not shy to open Pandora's box and I will approach couple of controversial topics. Saving Changes...
Kathy CastleAuthor at https://www.projectcubicle.com/| FreelanceTx, United States
Classification of Stakeholders is one of the most important processes in a project. A stakeholder register may include below information ; – Name, – Department – Title – Role on Project – Expectations – Influence (Low/High) – Impact (Low/High) – Category However detail level of a stakeholder register is based on your project's and organizational requirements.
