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Published by Programme B
If you are in the process of launching a new project and rely heavily on stakeholders to do so, it is crucial that you develop a stakeholder management strategy first. This is so that you can identify your key stakeholders as well as create a management plan to meet their requirements.
In order to manage these expectations and requirements, you need to create a stakeholder management plan. This allows you to explain the stakeholder management strategies that will be used during said project and makes a great reference to look back to when you aren’t sure of what steps to take next. It is not always easy to create a management plan and it can be overwhelming at times. If you are in need of help creating your stakeholder management plan, here are five easy steps to get you started.
- Identify and Summarize Your Stakeholders
The first thing to do would be to identify all of your stakeholders as well as their level of influence and area of interest in your task or project. Create a list of all of your stakeholders and split them up by their level of importance. This will help you make decisions later on, especially when it comes to how you spend your money, and so on. It will also help you prioritize certain tasks.
- Identify Your Needs From Each Stakeholder
Another step in creating your stakeholder management plan involves figuring out what you need from each stakeholder. Some may have a bigger influence over your project, depending on what they are contributing, so obviously these are the people you are going to want to keep happy.
Keep in mind that as your project goes on, however, their influence may get smaller or larger. If you need each stakeholder to take specific actions to get your project going, you’ll also want to include that into your plan.
- Highlight the Benefits
When you are creating your stakeholder management plan, you will want to include a section that talks about the benefits that each of your investors will have by investing in your project. In this section, you can also include interviews with each of your investors where you ask them things such as what their expectations are for your particular project, what they hope this project changes once it is launched, how quickly they see the project rolling out, and more.
This is a great way to set your priorities and make sure that you are giving your investors what they want.
- Keep Stakeholders Involved
Your stakeholders are going to want to be involved in the project, but some more than others. This is yet another reason why you need to interview them, so as to find out how often you should be sending them updates or keeping them in the loop. You may also want to figure out what information you deem worthy to share with them and what information they may not need to waste their time on.
- Manage Expectations and Implement Your Plan
Last but not least, you are going to want to start implementing your plan as soon as it is done and ready to go. Stay on track with your timeline and goals as well as making sure you are keeping your stakeholders as informed as they want to be. The most important thing is to make sure that you are being realistic not just with your stakeholders, but with yourself as well.
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