[MUSIC] Welcome back.

It's time to talk about

project stakeholders. Project work is accomplished by people. Your job is to bri
ng the right people
together, get them involved and engaged, and working to cross the project
finish line together. Just who, or what,
is a project stakeholder? To paraphrase, a project stakeholder
is a person or an organization, who might be positively or
negatively impacted by your project. Now that's a big, broad definition, and it
means that your stakeholders
could be a very large group. In fact,
if you're running a large project, it's possible that almost everyone
around you is in some way, impacted. How do you know who your stakeholders are?
Your stakeholders are your team members,
your customers, your sponsor, your vendors,
everyone involved or impacted. If you are not certain,
ask these questions. Number one, who asked for this project? Number two, who wil
l use the product or
service we are creating, or enhancing? Number three, who will have to
change the way they do their jobs, because of this project? Number four,
who makes decisions about this project? Five, who has the ability to give or
take away resources from the project? Six, who influences those who make
decisions about this project? Perhaps a better question is, how do you know whic
h stakeholders
need more of your attention? Of course, each person is important, but you cannot
give everyone the same
amount of your time and attention. You need to consider which stakeholders
are really going to drive project success, and work towards managing and
engaging those stakeholders. You might consider using a power and
interest grid to help you. This tool helps you to consider
stakeholders, how much power they have over your project, and how much
interest they have in your project. You use this grid to position your
stakeholders in the four quadrants. Low interest, low power. Low interest, high
power. High interest, low power. And high interest, high power. This helps you m
ake decisions
as to how to interact with them. If someone has low interest and
high power, you want to keep them
satisfied with the project. If someone has low interest and low power, you wanna
keep in touch with them,
and monitor their involvement to ensure that they do not begin to
take a negative view of the project. If someone has high interest, low power, yo
u want to make sure that you keep
them informed of project status. And if someone has high interest and
high power, they are really where you are gonna
focus more of your time and attention. You can also create a power and influence
grid, which is similar to the power and interest grid we just discussed. In this
instance, you substitute the level
of influence on the project outcome and other stakeholders,
in place of level of interest. You're gonna want to work diligently,
to be sure you do not over look anyone. Even if your high power, high interest
group captures most of your attention, ignoring others can cause them to
become difficult stakeholders. What do you do with all
of this information? You want to capture it in what
we call a stakeholder register. A stakeholder register contains the key
information about your stakeholders. The purpose is not just to capture
information in the register and then never look at it again. It's a place where
the information resides. The purpose for the information is so that you can stra
tegically
manage your stakeholders. A critical part of managing
your stakeholders involves understanding what type of information
they need, and when they need it. You also want to consider

how they need it. Not everyone wants an email or a text. Some people prefer a ph
one call. Others would like face
to face discussions. When possible, you want to try
to work with those preferences. How do you know what
your stakeholders want? You ask them. At the start of your project, consider
interviewing your key stakeholders. Find out what is important to them. Some car
e more about budget than schedule. Some care more about schedule. Some care more
about quality. When you know their interests, you can understand the best
ways to communicate with them. If you combine this with
the other work that you did, for example, if you did create the power and
interest grid, and you know that someone is
highly interested, and has a high degree of power, it's in the
best interest of the project to make sure that you provide them the information
they
seek when, or even before they seek it. And of course, you will have
regularly scheduled communications that are gonna go to the group, like
status updates, presentations and reviews. They're all part of your
stakeholder communications. Once you collect this information,
you're not finished. It's not static; it is dynamic. As your project progresses,
you're gonna learn more. And as your relationships with your
stakeholders grow, you'll understand more about them and their motivations, and
you will want to adjust your approach. Your job is to manage stakeholders
throughout the life of the project, and to keep them engaged from start to finis
h. Your stakeholders are very likely to
be involved in other projects and other work efforts, and it's gonna be
easy for them to become distracted. You help to remind them of
the importance of your project. You continue to show them the vision,
and what will be different, and what will be achieved once
your project has completed. There are some specific engagement
classifications for you to consider. The person who is unaware. This, they reall
y don't
know about the project, and what the project is providing. And your goal is for
this person to learn and understand why this project is important. You at least
want them to be supportive,
and depending on them, you might even want them to
take on a leadership role. The resistant person. This person knows about your pr
oject,
but doesn't love it, they're not in favor of it. They don't like what your proje
ct
represents, or the change it brings about. You would want to try to bring this
person to a more neutral position. In a perfect world,
they would become a supporter. Some people will be neutral. They are aware, but
they're neither supportive, nor resistant. You do not want them to become resist
ant,
and depending on their power and interest, or their power and influence,
you might want them to become supportive. Supportive stakeholders
are aware of the project, and in favor of what the project brings. You want to k
eep these people supportive,
and you want them to become, maybe leaders. Some of them at least. And then you
have those whose
engagement level is considered leading. They know about the project,
they're really in favor of it. And they are proactively supporting it and
working to make the project a success. And of course,
you want them to keep leading. So give them the opportunity to be
in involved in project successes, let them know how important
they are to the project, and let them be in front of people. The stakeholder eng
agement
assessment matrix is a good tool for categorizing your stakeholders. You use it,
you know, to list your
stakeholders, note their current levels of engagement, and

your desired level of their engagement. This helps you to come up with
a strategy for managing them. As you fill out the matrix, keep in mind
the relationships the stakeholders have with you and with one another. If you ma
y have a stakeholder who is
resistant, and they have a relationship with someone who is leading,
a good strong working relationship, you want to partner them
on some project activities. And that way, hopefully, the leading stakeholder wil
l
influence your resistant stakeholder. Be proactive. Do not avoid your resistant
stakeholders,
and do not take your supportive and leading stakeholders for granted. Provide op
en and honest information
about the true nature of the project. Keep stakeholders informed
of critical issues. Ask for their help in issue resolution. And when you and the
team are not able
to resolve an issue, bring it to them. Take the information you have
about your stakeholders and use it to create a communication plan. Follow your p
lan and
make changes to it as needed. Be well organized and consistent in your approach
to
working with your stakeholders. When you see misunderstandings or
disagreements, facilitate a resolution. Be trustworthy and
build strong professional relationships. Remember, projects are completed
by working with others. And on that note,
we're going to wrap things up for now. [NOISE]