Project management is a people business.
Projects get done through people. We need people on our teams to do what they
say they are going to do, and we need to help them do that.
That’s why stakeholder engagement is such
an important skill.
So what does it look like when stakeholders
aren’t engaged?
If you aren’t seeing the success you were
hoping for in building relationships with your project stakeholders, then this
will sound familiar:
- You can’t get time with your
stakeholders - You’re stressed out by having
to deal with conflicting priorities - Your projects take longer
because no one will commit to anything - You get blindsided by people
saying they should have been involved in the project and you don’t even know
who they are - And in the end stakeholders are
not happy with the results.
Believe me, I’ve been there! Did I tell you my story about forgetting to include the post room staff as stakeholders in a project where we massively increased the amount of mail coming into the post room? Suffice to say I wasn’t popular that day.
But I learned a lot from the experience!
And I never left out stakeholders again.
When you’ve got decent tools, techniques
and tactics for building successful stakeholder relationships, trust me, life
becomes a lot easier!
You gain authority and credibility. Your
colleagues and stakeholders listen to you. People start to tell you things that
affect your project without assuming you’ll find it out from somewhere else or
don’t need to know. You have a clear engagement plan. And everything on the
project starts coming together.
Let
me help you create great working relationships with your stakeholders.
I’m running a stakeholder management workshop in November 2019.
It’s highly practical and hands on. We’ll
have a short teaching call once a week where we’ll look at something actionable
you can do to improve stakeholder engagement. Then we’ll have a Q&A call
once a week, where you can submit your questions or join me live.
So there will be plenty of opportunity for
personal support, if you need it.
Here’s
the timetable
, but all calls will be recorded so if you can’t show up live
you will still have access to everything.
We’ll be covering:
Week 1:
Stakeholder identification. You’ll create a
stakeholder register and assessment. You’ll get to know who your stakeholders
are and how they feel about your project.
Week 2:
We’ll create a communications plan for your
stakeholders.
Week 3:
You’ll move from communications to
engagement. We’ll talk about how to build in feedback loops and how to ‘gamify’
stakeholder engagement. You’ll end up with a list of ideas to try to encourage
participation in your team, and an action plan to do (at least) one.
This is the week I’m most looking
forward to! I have loads of ideas for creating little micro-engagements in your
team and I’ve never taught this before! Can’t wait!
Week 4:
Engagement is only part of the solution.
This week we’ll look at stakeholder satisfaction. You’ll get a template for
assessing satisfaction each month so you can keep doing things that work, and
stop doing things that aren’t getting you results with stakeholders.
It’s $100. I think that’s awesome value for the teaching, the templates, the support, and if it’s something you’d like to do with me, then you can sign up here.
Stakeholder management can be a bit messy
and difficult. There is no magic wand I can wave to make all your people
problems go away. If your project sponsor is horrible to work with, they
probably still will be horrible, even if you’ve got amazing stakeholder
engagement skills. The thing that will be different is that you’ll know how to
manage their difficult behaviour better.
The stakeholder workshop I’m teaching will give you a framework for doing exactly that. We’ll be plotting out who you need to involve, how to communicate with and engage them, and how to create feedback loops so you know what’s really important to them – and then you can do it.
Does it take more of your time to engage
stakeholders properly? Yes.
Is it worth it in terms of project outcomes
and your personal stress levels? Yes!
This isn’t a theoretical course. It’s going
to be a really practical workshop (delivered online). As I’ve never taught this
workshop before I’ll be honest – I don’t have any glowing feedback from past
participants. But I do know my stuff, I promise! Here’s some feedback from
Leah, who did my old stakeholder management training course:
“Oh my goodness, I’m so excited! All of the materials have been so incredibly helpful. Thanks again for everything – I’m still sifting through all the extra resources and finding new, useful ideas!”
Leah, past participant
That made me smile!
FAQ
What’s the time commitment?
30 minutes, 2 times a week. One teaching call, one
follow-up Q&A/support call. They will be during UK office hours.
You don’t have to attend live. You can watch the
replays when it suits you. If you have questions and can’t join live, just
email me.
Is it right for me?
We’re
going back to fundamentals, but getting to the more advanced stuff quite
quickly. If you are literally just beginning in project management, then it
might not be for you, simply because you’ll get more out of it if you are
already working in a project environment with a real project to use the skills
on.
It’s
not an advanced negotiation or conflict management training either: if you are
successfully navigating office politics at senior levels and getting your
projects in on time then I don’t think there’s much I can teach you!
I
think the workshop is perfect for you if you want to make sure you’ve got the
fundamentals right and you want practical tools, techniques and tips to gain
credibility, handle stakeholders with different priorities and get your
stakeholders engaged.
Can you really gamify stakeholder
management?
Yes!
OK,
we’re not going to be creating any apps or making leaderboards of our favourite
stakeholders, but gamification is more than that. It’s about helping people
take small action steps because it’s fun to get involved. We’ll be looking at
different ways to create small engagements – because when you get people to
take small action, it’s easier to get them to take larger actions later.
I
can’t wait to see what difference this makes to your project teams!
Can I claim PDUs?
Yes.
You will get an attendance certificate. This course is about 4 hours of training/mentoring
(30 minutes, 2 times a week) so you can claim 4 PDUs against the Talent
Triangle (claim the hours that you spend on the course materials – if you do
the exercises and watch all the bonus training you can probably claim more). I
am not a PMI R.E.P. but that does not stop you claiming PDUs.
Can I claim the cost through my company?
Yes,
if they are prepared to fund it! I can issue an invoice/receipt for your
Finance team and take payment in a variety of ways.
I’m so excited to be offering this training and I hope you’ll join me in the workshop.
Hope to see you on our Zoom calls!
The post The Stakeholder Management Workshop is now open! appeared first on Girl’s Guide to Project Management .