I often say, "Tell me about the stakeholders identified and your engagement strategy for your project, I will tell you how successful your project will be!" My thoughts were modelled after the saying, "Tell me your friends and I will tell you who you are!" Since stakeholders are people that can positively or negatively influence or be impacted by the project's outcome, it is important to understand the insurmountable role of stakeholders in delivering the 5P's (project, process, product, program, and portfolio) of value delivery!
Furthermore, since stakholders are not members that we can directly manage, we need to see how we can engage them effectively. This is crucial not only for the 5P's success but also for strategic growth of the organization and fostering strong partnerships for verticial and horizontal growth. In this regard, I feel that there are five magic ingredients of stakeholder engagemen. These are interest, involvement, interdependencies, influence, and impact. These elements help leaders navigate complex relationships and align objectives facilitating execution as well as governance. Understanding these dimensions ensures that stakeholders remain engaged, informed, and motivated throughout the journey.
1. Interest (Care or Concern)
Stakeholders must have a clear interest in the project or initiative. Identifying what motivates them—be it financial returns, innovation, or social responsibility—helps shape engagement strategies. Here, I come up with both care and concern. Care gives a positive spin of stakeholders while concern may give the adverse considerations they may have. In both cases, if they are silent observers, creative ideas to problem solving and decision making are are left out. So, the extent of the involvement is the next thing to understand.
2. Involvement
Once interest is established, involvement becomes key. Encouraging active participation through workshops, feedback loops, and collaborative decision-making strengthens their commitment and enhances project outcomes. While adaptive approaches talk about "buiness people and developers must engage on a daily basis" to emphasise their involvement, plan-driven approaches also promote similar thoughts of specific stage/phase gate reviews. In both these project delivery approaches, it is important to understand how much stakeholders are involved proactively! The sooner you understand this engagement, the earlier you address risks through preventive action.
3. Interdependencies
Stakeholders do not exist in isolation. Business units have their own objectives as part of their goals to serve the organizational objectives. So, in all the elements of 5P's, the stakeholders interact with each other in various ways, impacting (which by the way is the fifth "I") project dynamics. Recognizing interdependencies allows for strategic alignment, reducing friction and maximizing collaboration. Preparing the people in advance of how our work impacts others builds the surround sound required for success.
4. Influence
The combination of interest, involvement, and interdependcies are not adequate if one does not support the overarching objetctives by championing change. Influence therefore connects with the behavioral change people can exercise not only by hiearchical authority but also by expertise they bring to the team. Influence determines how much power stakeholders wield over decisions. Understanding their authority, expertise, and networks helps in prioritizing engagement efforts effectively.
5. Impact
At the heart of stakeholder engagement is impact—how actions and decisions affect both the project and the stakeholders themselves. Effective engagement strategies create value for all parties, fostering trust and long-term relationships. By aligning interests, managing influence, and leveraging interdependencies, leaders can drive meaningful change, ensuring projects achieve sustainable success.
So, operating between the two bookends (interest and impact) lies the involvement, interdependencies, and influence. While techniques such as the stakeholder register, stakeholder engaement assessment matrix, power-interest grid, salience model, and stakeholder map exist, the stakeholder engagement is more of an art than science! It comes only with practice!
Don't you think so? Thoughts?
