Stakeholder planning and management

Now that you have completed the identification and analysis stages it is time to develop your stakeholder engagement strategy.

Identify 'win/win' strategies

Document the results of your analysis in a table which lists each stakeholder or group and their place on the interest/influence matrix. Add two columns and use one to describe their goals and the other to identify win/win strategies for engaging with them.
 
The last two areas will require some effort, but it is well worth the time as it will help to ensure that your stakeholder engagement strategy is focused and effective. Your final stakeholder engagement plan should look something like this:
 
Stakeholder Engagement
 
Ok - you know who your stakeholders are, you have identified the key players and you you know what they want. You could stop here and you would have increased your chances of project success. However, you need to put the results of your hard work into action.

Stakeholder Engagement: Develop the communication and reporting plan

Using the information you have gathered in the previous steps write a communication and reporting plan that documents:
  • the information requirements;
  • frequency of communication;
  • communication provider;
  • and channel of communication for each stakeholder.
Make use of your existing reporting structure to manage and communicate with your key stakeholders and don't forget to make use of technology e.g. webinars, video conferencing, internet, intranet.
 
Existing company communications are also worth considering. Updates on your project will receive a higher profile if they appear in the company magazine, and you will get your message distributed for free.
 
To get your message across you may need to use more than one channel. Some people won't read emails that are longer than two paragraphs, but they just might listen to a podcast or login to a webinar. Here are some stakeholder engagement channels that you should consider using:

Printed materials

  • magazines
  • newletters
  • leaflets
  • memos, emails, letters
  • display boards

Audio/visual

  • pod casts
  • video
  • blogs
  • forums
  • intranet/internet
  • online collaboration area e.g. erooms or QuickPlace
  • webinars
  • video conferencing
  • Teleconferencing

Face to face

  • project meetings/briefings
  • surgeries for individuals with specific questions
  • presentations to wide audience
  • targeted presentations to particular groups
The results of your work should now be pulled together to form your Stakeholder Engagement Plan.

Resources

 
Next step - stakeholder engagement
 
 © 2008 T Morphy.
 
 
Stakeholder
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