Engaging Stakeholders Effectively

As a project manager, one of the most important aspects of your job is to engage with stakeholders; in order to do that, you must conduct a stakeholder analysis. Stakeholders are anyone who has interest in a project or venture that your business is undertaking. In this article, we will go over three critical components of stakeholder analysis and engagement.

Map Stakeholders
The goal of stakeholder analysis is to prioritize and identify certain stakeholders before the project begins. Stakeholder mapping involves listing all stakeholders involved in the project, identifying the roles and expectations of those shareholders, and prioritizing them by their importance to the project. Once you have them identified, figure out where they are today and where you want them to be by the end of your project.

Create a Stakeholder Engagement Plan
Once you know who they are, an engagement plan are the tactics to get them to where you want them to be. It’s one of the most important tools in your project plan. It  pulls together information about your stakeholders and records all of your intended means of communications concerning strategy, actions and outcomes. This plan serves an important role in establishing engagement and aligning messages to your stakeholders. Stakeholder engagement plans help make sure to use the right means of communication for the right audience given the type of message you need to share. 

Execute the Engagement Plan
Communication is a key component in building trust between you and stakeholders. The stakeholder engagement plan is not just a check-the-box exercise – it must be utilized regularly as part of your project. Make sure to schedule communication frequently throughout the duration of your project by giving stakeholders project updates or showing how stakeholder feedback is being considered or implemented.

There are several different techniques that can be used to map and analyze stakeholders. Some of them may work better depending on the duration of the project and the number of stakeholders involved. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding your project, Adonis is equipped to provide you with project management services that will help you and your team create value.