Project Stakeholder Engagement Overview and Guidance

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Project Stakeholder Engagement

Overview and Guidance
Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder Definition
A stakeholder is a person or group of persons having a stake or share in something, predominantly, in
the past, a financial stake or share. In the field of project management a stakeholder is an individual
and/or organisation having an interest in the success of a project.

Why engage stakeholders?

Winning and Maintaining Support for Projects
In the past, organisations often adopted a passive approach to informing stakeholders of
developments, relying upon traditional communication methods such as newsletters, printed
publications and annual meetings. Such organisations frequently adopted a one-way communication
strategy. Increasingly, successful organisations choose to more actively involve stakeholders in the
decision-making process particularly with regard to new project developments. They aim to encourage
and ensure wider, more positive engagement with the project outcomes.
As a Project Manager the actions you take and the projects you run will affect more and more people.
The more people you affect, the more likely it is that your actions will impact people who have power
and influence over your projects. These people could be strong supporters of the project or they could
block it.
Stakeholder Engagement is an important discipline that is used to win support from others. It helps the
Project Manager ensure that his/her projects succeed where others fail.

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When should you involve stakeholders?

As a Project Manager you should involve stakeholders at all stages of your project.

There are two major elements to Stakeholder Engagement: Stakeholder Analysis and Stakeholder
Planning. Stakeholder Analysis is the technique used to identify the key people who have to be won
over for the project. Stakeholder Planning is then used to build the support that helps the project
succeed.
The benefits of using a stakeholder-based approach are that:

You can use the opinions of the most influential stakeholders to shape your projects at an
early stage. Not only does this make it more likely that they will support you, their input can
also improve the quality of your project.
Gaining support from stakeholders can help you to win more resources - this makes it more
likely that your projects will be successful.
By communicating with stakeholders early and often, you can ensure that they know what you
are doing and fully understand the benefits of your project - this means they can support you
actively when necessary.
You can anticipate what people's reaction to your project may be and build into your plan the
actions that will win support.

Stakeholder Engagement Process

Stakeholder Analysis and Planning
Step 1 - Identify Your Stakeholders
The first step in the process of Stakeholder Engagement is to identify the project stakeholders. This
can however be a challenging exercise. It may mot be sufficient to focus only on the groups that are
actually impacted by the project, but also those who may perceive that they are adversely impacted or
who consider themselves the representatives of impacted people. Further certain stakeholder groups
may be pre-determined through regulatory requirements etc.

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As part of this, think of all the people who are affected by the project who have influence or power over
it, or have an interest in its successful or unsuccessful conclusion. The table below shows some of the
people who might be stakeholders in your projects:
Students
IS ITI User Services
Staff
Senior University
Executives
Future Recruits
Colleagues
Your Family
Disability Office
Government

Academic Staff

Alumni

Business Partners

Project Team Members

IS Management

Service Partners

Procurement
Human Resources
General Public
Press and Media
Customer Support Staff

Prospective Students
Suppliers
Trade Unions
Local Community
Other Interest Groups

Some tips and techniques for identifying project stakeholders are:

1. Be systematic- consider all aspects of the projects area of influence, e.g. technical, business,
geographical etc.
2. Remember the interest groups also identify those groups or organizations that are not
directly impacted by the project e.g. but whose interests determine them as stakeholders e.g.
Human Resources or Disability Office etc.
3. Use past stakeholder information referring to previous similar projects can save time and
flag up stakeholders risks, liabilities, or unresolved issues that can then be included in the
analysis.
4. Consider the entire project lifecycle it is important to remember that both stakeholders
and their interests may change as the project progresses. Consider all stages of the project
when drawing up the stakeholder list and review it regularly as the project progresses.
5. People matter - although stakeholders may be both organisations and people, ultimately you
can only communicate with individual people. Make sure that you identify the correct individual
stakeholders within each stakeholder group.
A quick and practical way of representing the stakeholders is to use a Stakeholder Map. A template for
a simple Stakeholder Map is available here.
Stakeholder maps can become quite complex depending on the size and nature of the project. There
are a many great resources on this subject available. This is however outside the scope of this
document. You are encouraged to consult these resources and consider how these techniques can
bring benefit to your projects.

Step 2 - Prioritise Your Stakeholders:

It is not necessary or practical to engage with all stakeholder groups with the same level of intensity all
of the time. Being clear on who you are engaging with and why will save both time and money. This
requires prioritising your stakeholders and, depending on who they are and what their interests are,
figuring out the most appropriate ways to engage. Stakeholder analysis will assist in this prioritisation
by assessing the significance of the project to each stakeholder group from their perspective, and vice
versa. It is important to keep in mind that the project is dynamic and that both stakeholders and their
interests might change over time. For example, some stakeholders will be more affected by a
particular stage of a project.

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You may now have a long list of people and organizations that are affected by your project. Some of
these may have the power either to block or advance it. Some may be interested in what you are
doing, others may not care. You can map out your stakeholders on a Power/Interest Grid as shown in
Figure 1, and classify them by their power over and interest in project.

Figure 1 Power/Interest Grid for Stakeholder Prioritisation

For example, your boss is likely to have high power and influence over your projects and high interest.
Your family may have high interest, but are unlikely to have power over it. The position on the grid
shows you the actions you have to take with the stakeholder:

High power, high interest: these are the stakeholders you must fully engage with, and make
the greatest efforts to satisfy.
High power, less interest: put enough work in with these stakeholders to keep them satisfied,
but not so much that they become bored with your message.
Low power, high interest: keep these stakeholders adequately informed, and talk to them to
ensure that no major issues are arising. These stakeholders can often be very helpful with the
detail of your project.
Low power, less interest: monitor these stakeholders but do not bore them with excessive
communication.

Step 3 Understand Your Stakeholders

You now need to know more about your stakeholders. For example, how they are likely to feel about
and react to your project. You also need to know how best to engage them in your project and how
best to communicate with them. Key questions that can help you understand your stakeholders are:

What financial or emotional interest do

they have in the project? Is it positive or
negative?

What information do they want from you?

What motivates them most of all?

What is the best way of communicating with

them?

What is their current opinion of the

project? What is this opinion based on?

Who do they influence? Do these people

become stakeholders in their own right?

Who influences their opinions generally,

and who influences their opinion of you
and the project? Do some of these
influencers therefore become important
stakeholders in their own right?

If they are not likely to be positive, what will

win them around to support your project?

If you don't think you will be able to win them

around, how will you manage their opposition?

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The best way of answering these questions is to talk to your stakeholders directly - people are often
open about their views, and asking people's opinions is a good first step in building a successful
relationship with them. However this may not always be possible and may be better at drawing out the
rational than the emotional reactions to your project. These emotional reactions also need to be
considered.
In general for people to commit themselves to the project, the following factors need to be present:

They must be dissatisfied with the current situation

They must like the way things will be after the project is complete
They must be able to see a straightforward first step
They need to be convinced that doing things differently will not cost them more than they are
willing to pay (cost and payment may be expressed in terms beyond financial such as security,
recognition, growth etc.)

If any of these factors are missing there will be resistance. There is a wealth of literature on the subject
of what causes dissatisfaction and motivates people. Perhaps the most important theories are:
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and Herzbergs Hygiene Factors. A further technique known as Other
Peoples Views, developed originally be Edward de Bono, can also be adapted for use on your project.
You can summarize the understanding you have gained on the Stakeholder Map and/or the
Power/Interest Grid so that you can see which stakeholders are expected to be blockers or critics, and
which stakeholders are likely to be advocates and supporters or your project. A useful way of doing
this is by colour coding e.g. showing advocates and supporters in green, blockers and critics in red,
and others who are neutral in orange. Figure 2 shows an example of this - in this example, you can
see that a lot of effort needs to be put into persuading Piers and Michael of the benefits of the project Janet and Amanda also need to managed well as powerful supporters.

Figure 2: Example Power/Interest Grid with Colour Coded Stakeholders

Be aware however that this approach must be used with extreme caution particularly if the information
is to be made publicly available. Stakeholders will generally feel that their views on the project are
entirely reasonable and may not welcome being publicly identified as a Supporter, Advocate,
Critic or Blocker by the Project Manager!
Stakeholder Maps and Power/Interest Grids should also never be used to imply criticism of individuals
or stakeholder groups and can never justify a cavalier or inconsiderate approach to project
communications. Such an approach will severely damage the projects prospects of success.

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The following are questions that may help in understanding the stakeholders and their influence:
1) Who will be adversely affected by potential environmental and social impacts in the projects
area of influence?
2) Who are the most vulnerable among the potentially impacted, and are special engagement
efforts necessary?
3) At which stage of project development will stakeholders be most affected (e.g. design,
implementation)
4) What are the various interests of project stakeholders and what influence might this have on
the project?
5) Which stakeholders might help to enhance the project design or reduce project costs?
6) Which stakeholders can best assist with the early scoping of issues and impacts?
7) Who strongly supports or opposes the changes that the project will bring and why?
8) Whose opposition could be detrimental to the success of the project?
9) Who is it critical to engage with first, and why?
10) Who is the optimal sequence of engagement?
A template for a simple Stakeholder Engagement Grid (based on the Power/Interest Grid described
above) is available here.

Step 4: Plan Your Stakeholder Communications

Having conducted a Stakeholder Analysis exercise, you will have most of the information you need to
plan how to engage with with your stakeholders. The next stage is to plan these communications so
that you can win them around to support the project. Stakeholder Planning is the process by which you
do this.
The amount of time you should allocate depends on the size and difficulty of your project goals, the
time you have available for communication, and the amount of help you need to achieve the results
you want. (Think through the help you need, the amount of time that will be taken to manage this and
the time you will need for communication. Help with the project could include advice and expert input,
reviews to increase quality, etc.)
To carry out a Stakeholder Planning exercise, start with a Stakeholder Planning Sheet. This is a table
with the following column headings:

Stakeholder Name and Group

Key Concerns
Communications Approach (from the
Stakeholder Engagement Grid)

Required Support (High/Medium/Low)

Required Actions
Key Messages Needed
Communications Plan

Using this table, work through the planning exercise using the steps below:
1. Update the Stakeholder Communications Planning Sheet with Stakeholder Map
information. Record the stakeholders' names and their key concerns about the project.
Note the comunications approach required for each stakeholder based on their
position on the Stakeholder Engagement Grid.
2. Think through what you need from each stakeholder. Work through the list of
stakeholders thinking through the level of support you need from them. Identify the
actions you would like them to perform. Record this information in the Required
Support and Required Actions columns.
3. Identify the key messages that you need to convey to each stakeholder to persuade
them to support the project. Typical messages will show the benefits to the person or
organisation and will focus on key performance drivers like increasing profitability or
delivering real improvements. Record this information in the Key Messages column.

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4. Finally work out what you need to do to win and maintain the support of your
stakeholders with the time and resources you have available. Focusing on the highinfluence/high-interest stakeholders first and the low-influence/low-interest
stakeholders last, devise a practical plan that communicates with people as effectively
as possible. Think through what you need to do to keep your best supporters engaged
and on-board. Work out how to win over or neutralize the opposition of sceptics.
Where you need the active support of people who are not currently interested in what
you are doing, think about how you can engage them and raise their level of interest.
Consider how you will communicate, how often and what feedback you need.
Consider how you will know if your communication has been successful. Record this
information in the Communications Plan column.
A template for a simple Stakeholder Communications Planning Sheet is available here.
Once you have prepared your Stakeholder Plan, all you need to do is to implement it! As with all plans,
it will be easier to implement if you break it down into a series of smaller, achievable steps and action
these one-by-one.
This approach will be suitable for most projects. However for more complex projects with multiple
stakeholder groups and issues preparing a more formal Stakeholder Engagement Plan is advisable.
Again there are a many great resources on this subject available. This is however outside the scope of
this document. You are encouraged to consult these resources and consider how these techniques
can bring benefit to your projects.

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Summary of Best Practice

There are many challenges to successfully engaging with project stakeholders, but they are small in
comparison to the risks of failing to engage in a timely and strategic manner. The following summary
principles for stakeholder engagement are based on industry best practice:

Engage in issues that matter - focus on clear objectives that require action.
Stakeholders have limited time and should engage on the most important project
concerns.
Be ready to act - use engagement to drive decisions, not as public relations exercise.
Engage the right stakeholders - identify the right stakeholders. Ensure the process is
inclusive and diverse. Consider stakeholder expertise, level of influence and
willingness to engage.
Engage empowered representatives - engage stakeholder representatives who are
empowered to take decisions for their constituents.
Seek shared value - ensure that each stakeholder benefits directly from engagement
and understands how project decisions will impact on other stakeholders.
Agree rules of engagement - Establish the scope, objectives, roles, rules and risks of
engagement at the beginning. Agree the process of decision-making, conflict resolution
and evaluation.
Manage exceptions - make certain that all parties have realistic ambitions and agree
on clear outcomes of the engagement.
Provide adequate resources - devote adequate resources (time, money and people)
to ensure success.
Choose the right formats - Choose the appropriate format (e.g. private meeting,
roundtable discussions, stakeholder panels, etc) to achieve the objective of the each
engagement.
Act fairly - be sensitive to perceived or actual power differences and facilitate the
process to allow fair participation.
Listen to (critical) stakeholder views - ensure engagement is a dialogue and not a
one-way information feed. Allow stakeholders to voice their views.
Build trust - take time to build trust based on the personal chemistry of the individuals
and the common values of the organizations involved. Commit to long term
relationships with stakeholders.
Be open - be responsive, consistent and timely in communications. Communicate well
in advance, document the engagement rationale and processes and allow for
stakeholder feedback.
Be accountable - link the engagement process to project decision making and
governance.
Look beyond the engagement - learn from the engagement. Involve stakeholders to
assess the success of the engagement as well as the project outcome. Examine
whether any next steps are required.

Stakeholder Engagement helps manage the politics that can often come with projects. It helps you win
support for your projects and eliminates a major source of project and work stress.

Mark Ritchie
Naresh Chappidi
November 2008

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