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As part of your project change management process, one of the most important elements is stakeholder management. Poor stakeholder management leads to uncomfortable or unhappy clients, confusion, and worst of all lack of support for the change. If you don’t have support you are going to have a hard time successfully delivering a good quality and embedded change. A couple of tips on stakeholder management that should be a consideration for your change management process: Get stakeholders involved early – start your relationship with your stakeholders as early as possible. Bring them along the whole project journey with you so they have a full understanding of each and every point in the process. Value their input – continually seek their input. This not only improves the quality of the outcomes but increases their support as they feel they have more ownership. Communicate to everyone – when you communicate messages, don’t leave anyone out. A sure way to put someone off side is for them to hear rumors of some information that they didn’t receive directly. Remind regularly – your sole job may be to work on this project, so you have no problems keeping up with your tasks and understanding of what is happening. In many cases stakeholders have many other priorities on top of the project, so continually remind them of the required input and why it is all happening. Review regularly – continually look for ways to improve. For example, consider if your current means for dealing with your stakeholders is still effective for your current status in the project and the organizational structure. Do you need to be more active in the relationship or change how you communicate with them. Be prepared, don’t waste time – as mentioned above, stakeholders can have numerous priorities other than the project so when dealing with them always be prepared and do not waste their time. Never enter a meeting without a purpose and the preparation required to reach a required outcome. Always give the why – it is easy to get complacent when requesting people do things because you understand so well the significance of particular tasks or the benefits of the project as a whole. So tell your stakeholders, in their language and focus on the things that they would care about. Don’t just tell someone to do something or that something is happening without giving a reason why. Remember ultimately you are tasked with achieving an outcome that will benefit, effect or impact your stakeholders. So manage them carefully because you need their support. Louise Ledbrook has over 15 years’ experience in business and project management across a variety of industries. As the founder, Louise is able to help project professionals and organizations run more effective, efficient and successful projects. Find Change Management Process and Stakeholder Management related information at Projectcommunityonline.com
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