Often, stakeholders can have great influence over how a project turns out, which is why managing them properly is so important. Managing stakeholders is often overlooked, and yet it is one of the most important factors of ensuring a project is delivered successfully. Failing to identify stakeholders, failing to manage a stakeholders expectations, failing to understand stakeholders conflicting interests and failing to resolve them and failing to recognise the power each and every stakeholder has over the project are all huge mistakes that could cost you time, money and even the success of the project.
Managing stakeholders needs to be prioritised because they are major players in your project and their power has the ability to make or break your goals and completion. Identifying all your stakeholders is really important. It is absolutely crucial you know who all your stakeholders are so that they can be acknowledged and so that you can understand them. You need to know who they are so you can understand how they work, what their strengths and weaknesses are and how you can rely on them throughout the project.
You should have an idea of conflicts so you understand ahead of time how you might manage resolutions. Eventually you will be sharing information with stakeholders, but before that you have to gain information about them. The more you can look ahead for potential signs of risk, the more likely you are to have created ways to minimise or remove that risk ahead of time, therefore protecting the project.
Your stakeholders should be contacted early on in the project, and then at regular intervals just as you would with senior management. Worsley and wanted to share my thoughts and take-aways from her book. These 5 tips will help you involve the IT helpdesk a crucial stakeholder in any project with an IT element in the planning and delivery of your project. Skip to content This post contains affiliate links. In this article: Why is stakeholder management important to project success?
What is stakeholder management? Free Resources 2. Reduce and Uncover Risk 3. Increase the Perception of Success 4. Easier Project Closure. One of my favourite project management books. Previous Previous. Next Continue.
Many times these team members will have been at the company or on the project longer than the project manager or project team. Project managers, or others who are in charge of deliverables, may not be experts on every project.
Key stakeholders can provide requirements or constraints based on information from their industry that will be important to have when understanding project constraints and risks.
Reducing and Uncovering Risk The more you engage and involve stakeholders, the more you will reduce and uncover risks on your project. When discussing initial requirements, project needs, and constraints, stakeholders may bring up issues or concerns about meeting those things. Uncovering risks and then discussing a plan to mitigate them before issues arise will dramatically increase the success of your project.
Against this backdrop of greater shareholder-centricity, it has never been more important to understand and respond to the needs of all stakeholders. NGOs can easily expose the climate-damaging behaviour of a particular business.
Regulators are demanding ever-greater levels of corporate compliance and standards of business ethics. Thanks to social media, each one has a public platform, and what they have to say can have a direct impact on your business. By focusing on the issues of high interest to their stakeholders, companies can engender goodwill, expand their business and improve their bottom line. The growing focus on ESG environmental, social and governance issues among investors, consumers and employees has given companies an opportunity to grow their stakeholder capital by being proactive in these areas.
Making commitments around sustainability, corporate social responsibility and good governance, and being a force for good in society can endear them to stakeholder groups.
Particularly those which might previously have regarded them with mistrust — campaigning NGOs, for example. That trust is fragile, however. With ambitious intentions come greater expectations, and a harsher backlash if you fail to live up to them.
Staying close to stakeholders, and understanding how quickly their opinions can shift, is vital to avoid falling foul of them. The lesson here is to avoid hypocrisy. ESG commitments, and any other management strategies undertaken to appease stakeholders, need to avoid spin and be authentic. There are benefits to stakeholder management beyond diluting the vitriol of dissatisfied stakeholders. Proactively developing and maintaining relationships with influential individuals and communities will garner increased stakeholder support.
This could make the difference between getting planning for a new plant or being unable to expand your business. It can reduce risk, and increase opportunities, because you know what your stakeholders are saying about you as they say it.
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