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Contact Awareness “I’ve heard about the project”

Understanding 2

3

4

5

6

7

Engagement “I want to know more about the project”

Acceptance “The project is going to happen”

Commitment “I want to help make the implementation work”

Internalisation “It’s the way we do things here”

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Stakeholder Management

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What is Stakeholder Management?

Stakeholder Management is forming and maintaining relationships with stakeholders and influencing them in order to achieve an objective – or at least not undermine it An objective might be identifying new opportunities, winning a bid or delivering a project A Stakeholder is any person or group with interest in or impacted by the objective – either positively or negatively

Stakeholder Management is two-way communication and incorporation of feedback to:

build and sustain appropriate levels of commitment to the objective

identify and mitigate resistance

Who are the most important stakeholders?

Those who can stop you achieving the objective

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The Business Network

Objective

Stakeholder Management

Budget Owners Users Partners Account

Management

Project Delivery Bid Capture Campaign

Influence to achieve an objective

Gather intelligence to inform a bid

Managing stakeholders common

to an organisation

Delivering a winning bid

Delivering a successful outcome

Keeping all stakeholders

on board Miller Heiman:

Economic Buyer

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When is Stakeholder Management done?

Stakeholder Management starts as soon as the objective is agreed

and continues until the objective has been achieved

A pre-defined approach should include:

A process of stakeholder identification, analysis and on-going monitoring to drive the actions required to build appropriate levels of support and deal with any issues Key messages around business rationale, benefits, transition plans & impacts Stakeholder Management roles and responsibilities

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Why do Stakeholder Management?

Stakeholders may significantly influence the success or otherwise of achieving the objective Stakeholders will have a variety of understandings, expectations and levels of commitment So it is vital to understand:

Who are the interested parties? What is their reaction to the objective? What is their role within the interested community? What are their current and future levels of commitment? What level of power and influence do they have? Who or what influences the stakeholder?

Stakeholder Management will enable effective time management

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Stakeholder Management Process

Identify Name each stakeholder and determine their interest in the objective and what information they will require

Assess Understand the level of interest, influence and commitment of the stakeholder to appropriately manage them

Plan Record the required level of engagement, any change needed and name of the gatekeeper in a Stakeholder Management Plan Create a Stakeholder Map to visualise groupings and relationships

Act Engage with stakeholders as planned Regularly review and update the Stakeholder Management Plan

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Identify Stakeholders

Stakeholders can be individuals, groups, functions or organisations and fall into categories:

Those groups or individuals impacted by the objective

Those whose involvement is essential

Those able to influence the outcome

Those who just need to be kept informed requiring communications but not themselves impacted by the objective The Gatekeeper is the main point of contact who will manage each stakeholder All contact should be co-ordinated through the gatekeeper There may other colleagues who play a supporting role It may be necessary or desirable to manage a stakeholder indirectly – perhaps by managing someone who has influence over them

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Identify Possible Stakeholders

Objective

Business Development

Division Heads

Executive

Support Groups

Engineering Groups

Commercial

Procurement

Executive

Requirement Owners

Users

Business Development

Commercial

Executive

Operational

Commercial

Standards General Public

Lobbyists Groups

Internal

External Customers

Suppliers

Partners

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Assess: Where are they on the Commitment Curve

Where they are now

Where we need them in 5 weeks

Contact Awareness “I’ve heard about the project”

Understanding 2

3

4

5

6

7

Where we need them in 3 weeks

Engagement “I want to know more about the project”

Acceptance “The project is going to happen”

Commitment “I want to help make the implementation work”

Internalisation “It’s the way we do things here”

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Visualise where stakeholders are now and where we want to get them to in the future

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Assess: Analyse for each Stakeholder How are they affected? What are the changes they will face? What are the benefits and disadvantages to them? What is their reaction? Ch

ange

Driv

ers

Where are they now on the commitment curve? How do we know? What are our concerns? What are their concerns? What issues do they have?

Where do we want them on the commitment curve? How will we know when they are there? What will we be seeing / hearing? What do we need them to do? Do they have any requirements of us?

Requ

irem

ents

Co

ncer

ns

Actio

ns

How do we get them up the commitment curve? Who owns the actions? When do we need to contact them? What contact has there been to date? Who has been speaking to them? What category stakeholder are they?

Impacted – Involved – Influencers – Keep Informed

Supporter – Opponent – Enthusiast – Neutral – Unknown

Light Touch or Firm Control

To build commitment and surface resistance

in the required timescale

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Plan: Stakeholder Map

Internal

Objective Name – Project Manager

+5 D H

Name – Technical Authority

+5 D H

Users

Customer

Gatekeeper

User – Function – details

+2 U M

Prime

Gatekeeper

P Rime – Prime PM – details

+2 D H

Name – System Architect

+5 D H

Gatekeeper

Name – Customer PM – details

+5 E H

Sub Contractors

P Rime

S Contractor – SC PM – details

+2 T M

Stakeholder Template

Stakeholder – Title, Location

Gatekeeper

U M +2

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Plan: Stakeholder Management Plan

Stakeholder Analysis

Project Name: ProjectID ProjectName

Stakeholder Marker(s) & Influencer(s) Change Drivers Rating How Affected Commitment Curve

#

Buyi

ng

Influ

ence

Name Title Location Role Degree

of Influence

Mode Gatekeeper (Gatekeeper Supporter)

Stakeholder Influencer(s)

Key Wins & Results Benefits & Disadvantages

-5 to +5

Involve Inform

Impacted Influencer

Now Desired By When

Customer 1 Y I L

2 Y E M

Macro to copy selected Stakeholder data (those selected as Buying Influence in column 2)

to Miller Heiman (MH) Blue Sheet for Single Sales Objective Analysis

Place the Stakeholder on the Commitment Curve

Decide how the Stakeholder is affected

MH Rating for the Stakeholder

+5 (Enthusiastic Advocate) to -5 (Antagonistic Anti-Sponsor)

MH Buying Influence Role

E/U/T/C/D/I

MH Mode G/T/EK/OC

Main Point of Contact

MH Wins & Results

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Plan: Level of Control

Firm Control Stakeholders whose engagement requires very tight co-ordination and control

Light Touch Stakeholders who don’t require tight control

Contact or communication with a Stakeholder where not the Gatekeeper: ASK the Gatekeeper first

Contact Process

Gatekeeper authorises and provides current status of the relationship from their information and Stakeholder Management Plan

Contact the Stakeholder, document any significant outcome and send to Gatekeeper

Contact or communication with a Stakeholder where not the Gatekeeper

Contact Process

Refer to Stakeholder Plan to obtain latest position Optional: Ask Gatekeeper for their view on current status of the relationship

Contact Stakeholder and inform Gatekeeper of significant outcomes

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Plan: Gatekeepers

Lead Stakeholder engagement maintaining an overview of current relationship status Act as the co-ordination point for liaison with Stakeholders, pre-authorising contact with Stakeholders in the Firm Control category Identify and implement the activities necessary to build the required levels of Stakeholder support and buy-in Record all analysis and regularly update the Stakeholder Management Plan to provide a complete history of contacts and significant responses Highlight issues as they arise and identify actions to address them Escalate serious Stakeholder issues & risks as required Communicate consistent, clear and agreed messages

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Act: Flagging Stakeholders - Examples

There are issues or concerns present for which no resolution is currently identified

Stakeholder has refused to sign off material

Stakeholder has the power to delay the project and is deemed likely to do so

Stakeholder is communicating negative messages about the project

Stakeholder not at the required point on the commitment curve but unlikely to delay progress

Stakeholder raised issues or concerns which are being managed, unresolved to date, but can be resolved

Stakeholder not signed-off or seen material on schedule but no reason to believe they will raise issues

Insufficient contact to enable Gatekeeper to make reliable status assessment – status unknown

Stakeholder has seen and approved all relevant material for the current stage of the project

All Stakeholder issues addressed to their satisfaction at this stage

Stakeholder at the required point on the commitment curve for this stage of the project

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Act: Validation & Maintenance

Has the whole lifecycle and every aspect of the programme been considered? e.g. all technical, managerial and organisational impacts All appropriate reporting lines covered for the Stakeholders identified? Avoid ‘black holes’ i.e. ensure an awareness at all appropriate levels Does everyone understand the content of the Stakeholder Management Plan? Is it clear, specific and unambiguous? Actions sufficient to build required commitment and surface resistance in the timescale? How will progress along the commitment curve be measured? What will Stakeholders be saying and doing at each stage? Do the actions focus on priority Stakeholders in relation to timing of impact?

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Cautions

Stakeholder Management Plan content must comply with Data Protection Legislation Data protection legislation entitles individuals access to information recorded about them Only record fact, not assumptions or perceptions

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Author Profile

In my board role I led a team of 22 Project Managers and 5 Quality Engineers, and ensured Roke’s £79m project portfolio delivered better than budget profit. I set-up and ran a virtual PMO and created REP, the Roke Engineering Process, also managing the engineering tools to support it.

After 4 years as an electronics engineer for Siemens, achieving Chartered Engineer, I moved into project management for 14 years, at Siemens and Roke Manor Research. Successfully delivering Roke’s most challenging whole lifecycle product developments on time and under budget led to a role as Director and board member for 6 years. In 2013 I returned to hands-on project management as Programme Director at Cambridge Consultants, founder member of the Cambridge Science Park.

Creator of the APM corporate accredited PM Excellence Programme, I chaired a quarterly PM forum to share best practice and built a supportive PM community. I coached seven PMs to RPP, five to PQ, and all passed APMP.

These investments in PM professionalism led to a turn-around and annual improvement in project results across a 400 project portfolio and delivered an above budget performance in five consecutive years with profits totalling £7.9m above budget.

Passionate advocate of PM professionalism, Fellow of the APM and the IET and author of articles published in Project and PM Today.

Professional Development

Winning Project Work

Planning

Estimating

Risk Management

Earned Value Management

Change Control

Stakeholder Management

3 Steps to Professional Project Management: Case Study

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