Mastering Stakeholder Engagement: Effective Communication in Projects

STAKEHOLDER REQUIREMENTS GATHERING - and the Communications Plan

The Project Director will oversee the development of the change and communication program that will run all the way through the accommodation project.  

The Project Director will have oversight of the information extracted from the business during stakeholder requirements gathering and cutting through general information to find that information that is of high value to meet the objectives of the project.

It is important to remember there can be personal agendas and turf grabs during fitout projects and inadvertently somethings may be exaggerated by stakeholders during the stakeholder requirements gathering if it is perceived there can be a better result for a business unit or team delivered.

To keep things on a level playing field, it is important to make sure that the PCG, Project Sponsor, and the executive leadership teams endorse the nominations of their business unit representatives and that the message is clear that their contribution is for the greater good of the organization,  therefore reminding everyone why this project is happening and repeating any messages from the CEO on what the project objectives aim to deliver.

Let’s take a look at the fundamental things that should be communicated during the stakeholder requirements gathering and stakeholder engagements, and what may make it into the Communications Plan to support the employees and project.

 

Meeting Project Objectives Through Stakeholder Management

Who are Stakeholders?  Stakeholders are people and organizations that will be actively involved in the project or who will be positively or negatively impacted by the project.  At the beginning of the project, the Project Director and Change Manager will go through the list of stakeholders that need to be involved in the project, their role, their department, what their interest will be in the project - so they can sell the stakeholders the big picture, and an understanding of their knowledge level expectations and influence on the project.  

It is fair to say that if both the Project Director and Change Manager are new to the client organization then the last requirement of identifying stakeholders’ level of influence may be difficult to do, as they don’t have the history on the people in the business, but the Project Sponsor will be able to help here.    

 

Stakeholders will take part in requirements gathering and will champion the project

 

Effective communication and stakeholder management will increase the likelihood of meeting project objectives and achieving the expected business benefits. The benefits include: 

 

Improved likelihood of success by engaging with stakeholders connecting various representatives from across the organization, client representatives and third parties to increase awareness, contribution and commitment to delivery.

Increasing confidence in the project director and project team where project information is accurate, informative and distributed to the correct people on a timely basis.

Increased sense of project momentum, i.e., regular updated communication progress and documents achievements.

Actively managing communication stakeholders leads to less stakeholder issues and thus reduces the risk of disruptions and delay to the project.

 

Requirements Gathering Completed with Stakeholders

Requirements gathering can be completed a number of different ways. Requirements gathering should be thought of in a similar fashion to when the Property Manager goes to the business to start in understanding the needs of their Client, as it is the main document which the accommodation design will be based on, and it is what will then be developed into a strategic brief and eventually a full project brief.  

In a similar fashion, the findings that the Project team, particularly the Change Manager with support of the Project Director will discuss with the Stakeholder Groups, supported by the Strategic and Tactical leads nominated to socialise and support the accommodation project.

·         The appropriate workshop or activity should be kicked off

·         Discussions with stakeholders should be captured and documented to enable requirement documentation to be created.

·         The Project Director will want evidence that the change process has captured the source of requirement of stakeholders to ensure: 

·         All stakeholders have participated

·         The collection of stakeholder information helps the project assist in prioritisation

·         All teams functional and non-functional requirements are observed and captured

·         The impact of the project on the organisation and specific business areas and external entities is considered

·         All future support and training requirements are considered

·         The wider business can continue delivering against contracted requirements throughout the project and after the project

 

So what may be included in a statement of needs from any of the stakeholder requirements gathering exercises?

 

·         IT/AV Requirements

·         Specialist user consideration to support the design brief requirements (i.e., Specialist build room/control room requirements, comms room requirements)

·         General approach and requirements for storage wellbeing/WHS area requirements, L+D training requirements

·         Security requirements

·         Special needs for training and events

 

At the beginning of requirements gathering with stakeholders, project requirements may be high level but by the end of the process, they should be progressively more detailed.  There must be a repository of stakeholder requirements so that there is an audit trail of who is holding carriage of the requirements being exacted, or if the requirements need to be challenged, thus managing stakeholder expectations.

Formulating the Communications Strategy

The communication strategy or plan helps the client organization to define the communication objectives, audience and articulate the brand messages to the customers or team members. 

In formulating the communications strategy/plan the the Project Director and  Change Manager will:

·         Determine Method for engaging stakeholders and influencers. 

·         Select Audiences with the help of their overarching support team, the PCG and Project Sponsor.

·         Develop the Communication Objectives of what is being delivered, why and when.

·         Select Strategic Approaches.

·         Decide on Positioning of messages.

·         Identify Key Benefits and Support Points.

 

#1 Determine Method for Engaging Stakeholders and Influencers 

Roles and responsibilities will be provided as part of Communications Management.  The nominations of strategic business leads and tactical leads in your project is important so that members of the project support project communications.  Roles and responsibilities towards communication can be captured in a roles and responsibilities matrix.

The Project Director must document the client, stakeholder groups and individuals. Each stakeholder group or individual will have their own set of project priorities and outcome objectives which must be identified and documented.

The Project Director must identify how the project intends to deliver on each stakeholder’s priorities and objectives, what influence each stakeholder will have on the project and level of communication is required with each stakeholder.

The Project Director may not have visibility on all stakeholders at the time of starting out in the project, however, must identify those that are impacted by or have influence on the projects outcomes that are known to the project at this early stage. 

#2 Select audiences with the help of their overarching support team, the PCG and Project Sponsor 

The Project Management Plan developed for your project may have a roles and responsibilities matrix, and at the very least will have a Stakeholder Communication Delivery Matrix. This matrix will reflect the individual/group needs to successfully reinforce the change and how communication requirements will be captured.

 

Core Roles	Communication Responsibilities
Executive Sponsor	Engage with governance team(s) to convey expectations and garner responses.
Steering Committee	Activity promote the benefits of the project with peers and across all areas of personal influence.
Strategic Leaders	Actively promote the benefits of the project with peers and in management forums. Actively seek out key influencers and work with them to promote commitment and raise the project profile.
Project Team General Managers/Line Managers	Support core team representative and promote the benefits of the projects across areas of responsibility.
Change & Communications Working Group	Identify the key messages, audience and distribution channels for engaging stakeholders of all levels.

 

#3 Develop the Communication Objectives of what is being delivered, why and when.

Image 1 shows how the communications objectives can be shown in a one pager.  See page 1 of the Communications Plan below that tells of the principles required to accomplish the communications.  It outlines how the project will disseminate information to the business and provides examples of sender/receiver models, i.e., the way the communications will be disseminated, via individual or group meetings, video or audio, web meetings and other remote communication methods, and whether things are communicated in person or electronically.

#4 Select Strategic Approaches

Image 2 below tells how the project team will convey expectations and garner responses from the communication governance teams

# 5 & 6 Decide on positioning of messages and identify key benefits and support points

– The following images 3-5 are a blend of positioning the messages and identifying the consistency in the communication of key messages.

High level highly graphical communications plan on a page will help eliminate instances of misinformation and miscommunication and will set the leadership teams of the client organization at rest knowing that everything has been considered even if they aren’t at that point in the project where they are thinking about these things yet.

The information obtained through the analysis of the relative influence and interest of the stakeholders (Stakeholder Analysis – Quadrant Chart) is used to plan appropriate communications with each stakeholder.

The images from the Comms Plan demonstrate that the plan provides Awareness, Education and Capability.

 

What else is conveyed here?  The messages on the following pages provide a high-level explanation of how the scope, benefits, and framework approach will roll throughout this project, and demonstrate the capability of the project team and an understanding of what the recipients will be receiving and when. 

 

There will be a Change Strategy to be built - this Strategy will deliver the key deliverables throughout the whole project lifecycle and will touch on the communication streams for any of the initiatives, but the Communications Plan sits alongside the Change Strategy to cut to the principles of the communication, the stakeholders, the channels, the frequency and the variety of messaging to align with the project milestones.  

Making sure everyone is comfortable that the Communication Plan involves all involved in the project, communicates what the project does and for whom, the benefit the project offers and the problems it solves.

The Project Director needs to ensure that the Change Manager gets quickly across the tone used in the business.  In the early days of the Change program, the Project Director will need to be across the touchpoints and will take time to read the comms and diagnostic questionnaires and soften the language/tone appropriately to ensure that the PCG and leadership team aren’t put off by anything inadvertently or insensitively said during any comms exchanged with the business.  

This is a delicate time with high emotions about moving and change, so the Project Director will need to oversee the many stakeholder engagements and communications such as getting FAQS updated or crafted appropriately on topics of mass interest or concern such as Childcare and Car parking and presenting and updating at team stand-ups or interviews.

Together the Project Director and Change Manager will fervently sit in on any specialist/custom built facilities Lessons Learnt meetings and may even run a Lessons Learnt for previous relocations with the PWG. Both Lessons Learnt sessions will yield invaluable findings and will help them get to know their project team and business units faster than by osmosis.

They will set the wheels turning on working with the Strategic and Tactical Lead nominations and will start drafting the budget for items in the strategy with discussions with the other stream leads on whether there are any particular training or workshops that may need to occur.