PMEducation

Stakeholder:  An individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.

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Stakeholder Engagement: The strategies and actions required to promote productive involvement  of stakeholders in project decisions and execution.

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Stakeholders are vital to the success of every project. Monitoring and controlling Stakeholder Engagement is more than just responding to concerns. It requires,  throughout the project life cycle,

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• anticipating engagement requirements 

• monitoring stakeholder relationships

• ensuring that the engagement plan is followed

• adopting different strategies, when needed

 

By Monitoring and Controlling Stakeholder Engagement, we can maintain and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our engagement activities.

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How to MONITOR (INSPECT) STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT:

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    1. Stakeholder Engagement inspection is always assessed against the

        Stakeholder Management Plan. Keep this handy and available.

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    2. You will want to check that the project's Stakeholder Engagement activities are

           effective toward:

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• managing Stakeholder expectations

• improving the understanding of Stakeholders' needs and expectations

• fostering Stakeholder support

• addressing emerging issues early, before they get too big

• enhancing Stakeholder satisfaction to the degree possible

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Useful tools to monitor Stakeholder Engagement include:

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    + Survey: to obtain feedback on Stakeholder level of satisfaction with the project.

                    One good question to ask is "In what way is this project meeting (or not

                    meeting) your expectations.

    + Counting the number of persons who attend open houses, reply to surveys, etc.

    + Complaint log: to analyse customer complaints

    + Meetings with Stakeholders (including: open houses, meetings by invite)

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How to CONTROL (CORRECT) STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT:

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Changes are required when monitoring reveals that Stakeholder Engagement is not sufficiently effective (see Item 2, above). Tools to control Stakeholder Engagement include:

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    + Data Analysis​ tools such as:

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           > Stakeholder data  Analysis and Representation: to determine whose

                                             interests should be taken into account more-so.

                                             Examples are: 

                                                o Power-Interest grid

                                                o Stakeholder prioritization

           > Root Cause Analysis: to discover the fundamental reasons for a problem

           > Alternate Solution Analyses: evaluation of alternate solutions to find the

                one most suitable

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    + Decision Making tools such as:

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           > Multi-Criteria Data Analysis: leads to selecting an alternate by using

              weighted criteria

           > Voting: relevant Stakeholders vote openly or by secret ballot

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     +  Communications Skills such as feedback and presentation skills

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     +  Interpersonal and Team skills. 

            > This link gives you a page of Skills, Competencies, and Characteristics 

            > For more help with Interpersonal Skills, click here.

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 Be careful not to make many changes at one time, or you will not know which change(s) were effective.

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After making changes to your Stakeholder Engagement approach, increase your frequency of Monitoring to quickly determine the effect of the changes you made. 

 

If the change you made causes an improvement, alter your Stakeholder Engagement Plan accordingly.

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