aBridged: Stakeholders
The issue: The term Stakeholder is viewed through a tight lens, which causes confusion
Ever notice how much we communicate to our stakeholders throughout a project? Project stakeholders, business stakeholders, executives—the list goes on and on. Every project has “built-in” communication for the related stakeholders, yet when the time comes to agree on who communicates with these groups and when, things get murky. Who determines message timing? Should the last message in a campaign come quickly after project launch or once the project change is stable among its new users? Oftentimes Project Managers and Change Managers are not aligned, which puts Communication Leads and many of those stakeholders in the middle: why is that?
FIRST – LET’S DEFINE THE WORD STAKEHOLDER:
According to PMI’s Project Management Book of Knowledge version 6, the stakeholder definition is: An individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decisions, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.
Anyone from the CEO to the new intern could be a stakeholder, or entities outside the organization. In fact, anyone who believes, thinks, or knows that the change of the project will impact them or be impacted by them is actually a stakeholder. That’s a very broad brush to paint with.
Stakeholder Tunnel Vision: Interruption is everything
The Project Manager (PM) view is PRIMARILY concerned with those who affect the outcome of a project, program, or portfolio. The PM ensures the delivery of the project and reports timeline and budget.
The Change Manager (CM) view is PRIMARILY concerned with those who will be affected by the outcome of a project, program, or portfolio.The CM wants to ensure that they clear obstacles in order to help transformation and transition in an organization, along with adoption of new technology.
Communications Lead (CL) view is to have and maintain a very narrow and specific focus across any communications schedule and portfolio.The CL cares about the content, who controls communication channels, who approves content, and who the audience is.
PART 2: The Missing Piece: Who did we “forget”?
That's the wrong question.
Often when building out project stakeholder lists the question “who are we missing, who did we forget to add” is asked. The question shouldn’t be who did we forget, it should be “are we using who we have correctly.”
It’s not that stakeholders are missed or overlooked, it is that they are misunderstood in a project lifecycle and under-utilized throughout the transition leading up to the deployment. When PMs and CMs are not aligned with who best should communicate to whom, the opportunity to truly build the bridging partnership needed in any project involving behavioral change is at risk.
The first thing to do is incorporate the Communications Lead (CL) as early soon as reasonable – preferably at the planning cycle, which will allow them to understand the scope as well as help to foster the right partnerships early in the project. Most assume the Change Manager will perform as a Communications Lead; sometimes they do, but oftentimes in large organizations they are from different departments entirely. If they skip this opportunity for early collaboration, PMs and CMs may find themselves rushing to release a quick email message or website update without coordinating all of the tiny details that is CL’s focus – they spend much of their time maintaining or managing things like style and language guides. When a PM or CM focuses on those things, it not only slows the project down, but creates an opportunity for lower quality and delayed delivery to the impacted stakeholders that they care about.
Now, let’s review the Comms Lead (CL) perspective on Stakeholders to articulate further.
That's the wrong question.
Often when building out project stakeholder lists the question “who are we missing, who did we forget to add” is asked. The question shouldn’t be who did we forget, it should be “are we using who we have correctly.”
Siloed Stakeholders = Organizational Problems
PMs will focus primarily on the needs of the project, while the CM focuses on the needs of the stakeholders. When each role maintains their specific focus, it creates a tunnel vision resulting in siloed work streams.
The Bridge Mindset
Define the term “stakeholder”, and have everyone agree on the definition, as well as who will own the communications with each group or member.
The PM, CM, and CL roles should collaborate on how best to partner and communicate with these stakeholders in appropriate groups or clusters. This will not only confirm the who, what, when to communicate, but confirms the rationale behind why.
If each of these roles understand what is important to the others, then it will ease conflict when competing needs arise. Try this template with your team to establish your stakeholders.
The Conclusion
Remember that when people use the term “stakeholder” they could be referring to different ideas, so be sure to get clarity. Don’t think of stakeholders as only resources - connect with your colleagues to determine the right stakeholder management plan. And finally, by understanding how each role leverages their stakeholders, organizations can produce more realistic outcomes.