Improving stakeholder interactions

by Alex Roan on Jun 22, 2015

One easy way to improve the likelihood of a project or initiative being successful is to interact with stakeholders in a skilled way. Some of the benefits of good stakeholder interaction

I think I could list hundreds of ways I could have improved my own projects in the past by paying better attention to stakeholders. The reason I am writing this is I feel that project and initiative launch methodologies pay very little attention to stakeholder management. At the least they talk about status reporting and at the most they may explain creation of documents such as a stakeholder matrix. It's also true that project managers are often more structured than they are charismatic, so this may not come naturally.

Who Are My Stakeholders?

The first thing is to be clear on who a stakeholder is. They can be categorised, the most obvious groups are

The Basics Of Stakeholder Management

I do think a stakeholder matrix is useful. Create a list stakeholders by name and/or category. Then create a matrix to capture some information including

You can use this tool to capture any other information that may help you. Sometimes it is useful to make notes about their style and beliefs. Sometimes in project management documents are treated as checklist items. With the stakeholder matrix the benefit really comes in the time you spend to identify the stakeholders, understand their perspective and create actions and mitigations.

The Most Important Thing - Personal Relationships

When I was thinking about writing this, I thought - you should probably treat your stakeholders like a potential girlfriend or boyfriend that you like. That's a bit silly. But the point is, you should make an effort to interact with them in a positive way, no matter of whether they are positive or negative towards you or your project. Show them your best side. Listen to them, understand their perspective. Talk to them at their level, from their point of view. Build a positive relationship that works for their position. For some stakeholders that can be open discussions over a coffee, for others it would be highly professional status reports and formal presentations.

Issue 1 - Dealing With Senior Levels

This is a pretty big problem for some project managers. Sometimes your stakeholder is so much more senior than you it can be difficult to communicate. When I was a project manager with just a few years of experience at work I often felt shy or awkward in dealing with someone senior like the general manager or CFO / CIO of a business. That elevator pitch that people often talk about can be really tough to develop. How do you talk about your project that tells them what they need to know while keeping their interest. You are interested in your project, they are interested in sales and other more broad issues. Two things that may help are

Issue 2 - Dealing With Large Communities

Often you might have a large customer base or user base for a project or initiative. Communication should be tailored to share information they need to know. In my experience the best way to interact with these type of communities is frequently and informally. I also believe that updates direct from the project manager or project experts can work better here than 'PR' style messages that are highly polished. Authenticity is key with large groups. Some companies have internal tools like facebook / twitter etc. that may work for this, better still use notice boards and other tools that those communities normally use. Be careful of e-mail distribution which some people may find disruptive. If they are internal, you can ask their managers to include short 1 minute updates on your project in their regular meetings.

Issue 3 - Dealing With Influential Experts

I came across this often as a management consultant, experts within companies that disagree with the purpose or work of my project. Either because they genuinely believe we are doing something wrong, or because they are protective of their status as experts. I always found it best and more positive to proactively bring them into the project. If management agrees they can actually participate to whatever extent possible. If not you can create something like a design review group and put a mix of them together into that group and give them a review activity on the projects work. I have seen other project managers shut them out, but I feel this creates a lot of negativity. Often these experts just want to be heard. Decision making can still reside where it should, there is no reason not to give them a voice. You may also get an improved project or product using their expertise.

Issue 4 - Senior Negative Stakeholders With Influence

I've seen this mostly on acquisitions or shared services work where senior staff or their departments are being forced to significantly change. In this case I try to build a relationship with that stakeholder, ensuring they know that I understand and appreciate their position and will do what I can to help them. The second thing I do is ensure my most senior positive stakeholders are closely connected with them. Unfortunately sometimes this can degrade into minimising their ability to disrupt your work. In that case it's worthwhile to understand their network and who they are likely to communicate negative too. Make sure you communicate the true purpose and status to those people. These are four things that worked for me, but lots of difficult stakeholder situations come up, do you have any recommendations?