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Chapter 2 – Stakeholder management

2.3. Stakeholder management

Authentic, two-way engagement is one of the keys to successful change programmes or projects. The success of any implementation depends on how listened to and informed people feel during the change journey.  Proactive stakeholder management helps ensure that influencers are engaged, their position is understood, and that resistance is recognised and managed. It also helps to:

  • Identify stakeholders and understand the needs and concerns
  • Assess the stakeholders’ level of influence and support
  • Prepare an engagement strategy and plan with tailored interventions and activities which both addresses concerns and amplifies support
  • Execute the plan, track, and monitor reactions and buy-in across the project lifecycle.

A stakeholder is “an individual, group or organisation that may affect, be affected by, or perceived itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, programme, or portfolio.” – PMBOK Guide 6th Edition

The goal of ongoing stakeholder assessment is to understand the current and target levels of commitment for key individuals and groups to inform engagement and communication activity.   The objective is to move stakeholders from awareness to ownership.

All projects and programmes will need to interact with a range of stakeholders to deliver change.  Groups will have varying levels of influence and impact on success.  How these groups are involved, engaged and communicated with will therefore differ.  The diagram below highlights how stakeholder groups may be ranked during your project life cycle and the target level of engagement that will be required. 

2.3.1 Stakeholder management – the process

1. Identify your stakeholders

  1. Use the stakeholder pyramid to map the key groups influencing and /or impacted by the change
  2. Next, identify and list the names of individuals who will directly or indirectly influence or be impacted by the change
  3. Consult with your project team or peers to pinpoint the names of possible stakeholders including their role in the project
  4. Once you have identified who your stakeholders are, consider how you will group and categorise them. You will need to customise the type and grouping of stakeholders to meet the needs of your project.

2. Assess and understand your stakeholders

Assessing project stakeholders will inform your change management strategy, types of stakeholder engagement, communication, and training activities. A workshop is a simple way of gaining input and consensus on stakeholders.

  1. Work with the project team to identify the following for each stakeholder and/or group:
  2. Degree of influence – the extent of power or sway an individual, group, or organisation have on a decision or an activity from successfully taking place.
  3. Degree of impact – the extent to which the change will affect stakeholders of the project or initiative in their current role
  4. Use the output of the stakeholder assessment to map the groups to the appropriate quadrant. Enter identified stakeholder groups in the register
  5. Use the mapping results to define the engagement needs of each stakeholder group (i.e., level of engagement, frequency of engagement, etc.).

Reminder: Stakeholder assessments contain sensitive information, are highly confidential and should not be shared beyond necessity.

3. Develop and implement stakeholder engagement and communication plan

  1. Identify the actions required to ensure groups or individuals are appropriately involved and engaged in order to meet project timelines. For example, regular briefings, involvement at key decision points, training etc.
  2. Develop the Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Plan for key influencers and Change Leaders, including the on-going engagement monitoring approach. To include:
    • Process and frequency for tracking stakeholder support
    • Suggested interventions and activities
    • Roles and responsibilities
    • Educate programme or project owners on their stakeholder management responsibilities
  3. Execute stakeholder engagement activities and receive/prompt regular updates
  4. Monitor stakeholder engagement levels, identify and mitigate risks, lessons learnt and key concerns
  5. Regularly review stakeholder database/register and refine stakeholder engagement and communication plan, as necessary.

2.4. Communication and engagement

Through communication and engagement activities, projects create awareness of the change; communicating the vision and case for change and the likely impact on the way the organisation needs to operate in the future.

This activity ensures that the right messages are delivered at the right time to the right people, taking them on the journey from unaware to aware and from buy-in to commitment.  Activities include:

  • Identifying and understanding the starting point for communication and engagement activities
  • Preparing a communication strategy and plan with tailored interventions and activities to:
    • Develop a holistic approach and defined key messages to maintain consistency throughout the project lifecycle
    • Proactively distribute critical information in a logical manner to targeted audiences to prevent confusion
    • Incorporate “What’s in it for me” as defined from the stakeholder assessment in messages so they are relevant and meaningful
  • Leveraging diverse communication methods (i.e., videos, one-on-ones, town halls, social media) to maintain employee engagement
  • Tracking and monitoring reactions and buy-in across the programme or project lifecycle and updating the approach to focus on what works.

2.4.1. Communication and engagement – the process

1. Understand your communication and engagement needs

  1. Understand the vision and goals of the project
  2. Analyse communication channels and make recommendations to feed into the communication plan
  3. Determine the guiding principles for communication and engagement for the program to feed into the communication strategy and plan
  4. Draft the key messages, leveraging the purpose, vision, case for change and other workstream inputs
  5. Create and agree on a visual identity: leverage the GOJ | MDA or project brand identity.

2. Create a communication plan

Analyse the stakeholders, communication channels by running a “communication planning,” workshop

The workshop session

  1. Identify the audience and communication objectives
  2. Define the timing, frequency and method of deploying key messages to target stakeholder groups in a logical order
  3. Explore diverse communication methods (i.e. videos, town halls, etc.) to increase engagement levels throughout the programme, project, or initiative
  4. Validate the plan with programme or project leads and sponsors to ensure alignment with overall programme or project timelines and objectives. Create communication synergies, leveraging existing venues or channels wherever possible to avoid information overload
  5. Include the communication plan in the overall change plan so key activities are captured.

3. Implement, monitor, and review communication effectiveness

From the workshop output:

  1. Deliver programme or project communication and engagement activities in keeping with the plan
  2. Evaluate on an on-going basis to inform future communication and engagement activities and to refresh the plan based on what’s working
  3. The communication and engagement strategy and plan is a working document and this document and its supporting materials will need to be reviewed and updated as the dynamics of the project or programme communication needs change.
  1. Review the examples.
  2. Use the stakeholder and communication template to run your workshop 
  3. Develop a communication plan for your project.

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