Stakeholder Management

Thanks to Sudeeptha from Transandix for a wonderful training session - both the trainer and training were captivating:


Any person, group or organisation who is affected by our work, would be our stakeholder.

For the project for which we are the Project Manager; our stakeholder could be:
 Project/programme team
 Shareholder or investor
 Public Interest group
 Government
 Community
 Upper Management
 Mid Management
 PM’s Manager
 End user
 Non Team Member
 Client owners
 Suppliers
 Internal & External Consultant.

Top 5 Qualities of Tom Kosnik and his stakeholders; where plotted on a graph, and an assessment was plotted of once own performance and that of the stakeholder. These can be jotted as a web, and linked to match the preferences.

 Integrity at the centre
 Chemistry/Sense of Humour
 Perspective/Humility
 Empathy
 Cooperation/Commitment
 Responsiveness
 Reliable
 Fairness
 Competence
 Communication
 Vision
 Grace Under Pressure
 Entrepreneurship


Stakeholder Management Involves two parts:

Paret 1: Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder Analysis means mapping and analysing your stakeholders. This involves Identifying, Prioritising and Understanding the Stakeholder:

Basic Analysis can be done using the Power interest Grid, and placing the stakeholders in 4 quadrants, and plotting them, to know if they have high or low power and interest.

Power HPLI: Keep Satisfied HPHI: Manage Closely
LPLI: Monitor LPHI: Keep Informed
Interest


Stakeholders would fall under one of the below category:
a. Advocates
b. Supporters
c. Blockers
d. Critics
e. Neutral
We need to remove the blockers – especially those who are in high power/high interest grid.
General points – based on role play:
 Don’t assume you know customers’ needs
 Asking people’s opinion is the first step in building relationship
 To gain trust of one stakeholder, never let other stakeholders down (ego)
 Stakeholders are not interested in why it did not happen, they would want to know how it would happen
 Patience
 1st Build trust
 Don’t say we failed, say we messed up
 Don’t get overly submissive – apologise and move on.
 All questions are equally important, answer first questions first.
 Clients/stakeholder likes to be heard, so hear.
 Don’t micro manage.
 Did a great job – seek help.
 Ask right questions
 What is important is how you enquire and what you enquire
 Push back, don’t push yourself
 If the conversation is going nowhere – start another line of discussion


Part 2: Stakeholder Planning – involves communication strategies:

1. Plan your Approach :

This has to be done, before during and after the project –
 Seek opinions/ideas
 Discuss the positives
 Discuss the challenges

2. Think Through your stakeholders
 Desired support
 Desired Project Role
 Actions Desired

3. Identify the message you need to convey
To persuade them to support you and engage with your projects or goals show:
a. Show the benefits to the person or organisation of what you are doing
b. Focus on key performance like increasing profitability or delivering real improvement.

4. Identify Actions and communciations
Work out and focus on
 HP/HI stakeholders first
 LP/LI Last

Always remember to include communciation in your project plan.
Implementation
T - Trust
I - Inquiry
P - Patience/Push Back
S - Satisfy

Three pillars of a project are: Trust, Patience and Expectation.


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Stakeholders are those who have a 'Stake' (investment or interest) in the success or actions taken by an organization. They include shareholders, management, and their families, industry in which the organisation operates, customers, competitors, suppliers, business partners, future generation etc. Corporations maximise shareholders value through profit maximisation.

Social obligation must complement and not compete for profit maximization. Business apply social responsibility approach by adopting socially responsible practices that wil be a positive force for change and help improve the quality of people's lives. Organizations naturally encounter a number of challenges in attempts to be socially responsible. For example, insider trading, layoffs, diversity issues, advertising, employee privacy issues, environmental issues, competition and international operations.

Even for Strategic Planning Organisations perform stakeholder analysis which provides a framework for weighing all the various claims and stakeholder concerns so as to reach a socially responsible decision. It also helps an organization learn:
- How people feel about the organization and the industry it is in
- What issues the organization should rethink/reevaluate its position on
- What the organisation should do differently to improve its position.