Stakeholder Management Tasks

Identify key interests and those affected.

Create initial stakeholder map – interest/influence. Identify who is in favour, who against and identify likely winners and losers.

For ideas that are externally generated (eg government initiatives, ideas from partner organisations or suppliers), the stakeholder map needs to include these organisations as stakeholders.

Assess whether there is a broad base of support, or whether this this a “pet idea”? Benefits, risk and stakeholder work will help clarify the level of support.

Identify key interests and those affected.

Create initial stakeholder map – mainly focus on the high impact stakeholders who might be winners and losers.

Assess whether there is a broad base of support, or whether this this a “pet idea”? Benefits, risk and stakeholder work will help clarify the level of support.

Identify the key people who can help or hinder the idea.

Share your idea, test the level of support and identify the issues. The more developed the idea, the more chance of success.

If the change is likely to impact on external stakeholders it is sensible to consult with the communications team for advice.

Undertake stakeholder impact assessment

Consider which stakeholders will help or hinder the idea and document how the engagement will happen.

Part of this action is gauging the level of support for the idea, what arguments may be faced and how the potential benefits can be effectively communicated.

Without appropriate stakeholder support any initiative is going to fail, however good it is.

Stakeholder analysis and engagement will be needed to work out who should be invited to the board.

Care should be taken to ensure that people invited to join the board have decision making authority, or at least have it delegated to them, otherwise there is a danger it will be ineffective.

Vision statement for the initiative should now be promoted and included in the communications plan.

Scan the environment for stakeholder groups that will be affected by the initiative.

Undertake a stakeholder impact assessment in the brief.

Stakeholders are likely to be the difference between success and failure, so it is important to get things right from the start.

It is important to take a wide view of potential stakeholders, internal and external to the organisation.

If there are high levels of resistance from influential stakeholders then the level of risk for the programme will be much higher – effective communications is one of the few tools to deal with this.

Be careful to distinguish stakeholders and people who have direct control on the programme board, the programme board should not be viewed as a stakeholder forum.

The Vision Statement should be attractive to the major stakeholder groups that will be affected, but it may not please everyone. It will be the foundation for communications so the effect it will have needs to be considered in terms of communications.

Consider establishing a brand name for the programme as part of the Vision Statement refinement will help with establishing the programme and the context.

There should be a stakeholder map and profiles for the major stakeholders.

The communications plan should be in place. There should be evidence to show that feedback is being documented and actions being taken.

Communicate decisions and rationale to stakeholders.

Stakeholders may become confused or disillusioned if decisions made to balance the financial performance of the portfolio are not explained well.

The benefits to be achieved by the portfolio should be communicated regularly to stakeholders.

The stakeholder engagement strategy and communications plan.

Be careful not to not overstate successes, build and maintain stakeholder confidence both in delivery and in accuracy of communications.

Communicate progress to key groups on status and levels of compliance being achieved.

External stakeholders may set specific reporting and communication requirements.

If the compliance project is part of a national implementation (eg new legislation), dovetail local communications with any national communications activities.

Regular communications to stakeholders about progress and forthcoming changes.

Analysis of winners and losers should be included in the risk profile.

Check the levels of support from key stakeholder groups.

Ensure there is still critical mass of support for continuing the change.

Communications should take place at corporate, portfolio, programme and project level. A portfolio level communications strategy and plan will help ensure consistency of information, inclusion of all key stakeholders, avoidance of over or under communication.

Two-way communication is essential to gather stakeholder feedback on support.

Implement the communications plan to announce closure.

Formal review of programme stakeholder and communications effectiveness.

Develop lessons learned for inclusion in Programme Closure Report.

Stakeholders need to be informed that the process is starting.

Communications is going to be critical in managing whether the programme will be seen as a success or a failure.

There will have been successes and failures - each will need to be acknowledged.

At this point there should be a formal review of the programmes Stakeholder Management Strategy.

The review should test levels of support or resistance to the programme and whether they are increasing, if resistance is rising, then alternative directions may be considered.

Business representation in how and when the programmes are delivered will better enable engagement and increase changes of success. The effectiveness of the Stakeholder Management Strategy and Communications Plan should be reviewed, with any changes being made based on lessons learned.

Initiate closure communications.

Close the programme communications plans.

Ensure residual communications activities are handed over to corporate communications.

Ensure governance is placed around ongoing communications from projects that will continue post closure.

The Communications Plan needs to include extensive stakeholder consultation to raise their awareness and engage them in the review process. Victory can be snatched from the jaws of defeat (or vice versa) through effective management of expectations and delivery of communications during the closure. The Stakeholder Profiles, individual profiles and Communicating plan should now be reviewed for effectiveness and closed.

Conduct final programme success evaluation with stakeholders

Close down communications channels that still exist

Archive stakeholder information back to Portfolio Office

All stakeholder information should now have been archived and information shared with other programmes which may help with their engagement plans.

Check that the impact on stakeholders is being managed.

Validate the currency of political support for the current benefit policies.

Ensure that success is being effectively communicated.

There will be some stakeholders that are feeling hard done by, or that are receiving a lot of the benefits of change. The situation should be under regular review. If a group are being bombarded with change their ability to cope will reduce, and it is likely that the benefits will reduce with them. Benefit plans may need to be adjusted to allow parts of the organisation or groups of stakeholders to re-stabilise.

Be careful not to not overstate successes, build and maintain stakeholder confidence both in delivery and in accuracy of communications.

It is important to ensure that there is a regular supply of good news information, as there is often plenty of bad news associated with change. 

Vision statement should now be promoted and included in communications plan.

The Vision Statement should be attractive to the major stakeholder groups that will be affected, but it may not please everyone. Establishing a brand name for the programme as part of the Vision Statement refinement will help with establishing the programme and the context. 

Engage key stakeholders for their support of options.

Engage the high impact stakeholders in the design.

Ensure that the current state information is current and can be validated.

Ensure that feedback from stakeholders is tracked and acted upon.

Undertaken stakeholder impact assessment on the options being developed.

Develop the communications plan for communicating blueprint related information and gathering feedback.

Some confidentiality may need to be in place around this work.

High impact stakeholders must be involved and consulted about the changes that will be needed at the end state.

Different blueprint options will have different impacts on different stakeholder groups, the level and type of impact on influential stakeholders.

Stakeholders may also have a local initiative which could contribute to the blueprint and avoid duplications.

Check for stakeholders who will be disadvantaged by changes

Careful consultation will be required as some stakeholders could be alienated by the loss of projects important to them. Some stakeholders may well lose out, so some compromise will probably be required to keep them onside.

Consult stakeholders over impact of changes.

Build their priorities into tranches.

Undertake impact assessment of each option on each of the major stakeholder groups.

Develop the communications activities needed to gather information to make the decision.

Ensure that feedback is being managed and processed.

Project stakeholder impact assessment.

Careful consultation will be required as some stakeholders could be alienated by the loss of projects important to them.

Some stakeholders may well lose out, so some compromise will probably be required to keep them onside.

Where possible, Tranches should reflect stakeholder priorities and the step changes should be used to mobilise supportive stakeholders or achieve early, long term wins.

Communications with project stakeholders will need to be managed carefully if they are negatively impacted by this strategy.

Key stakeholders should be consulted about the issues for each delivery option.

Undertake impact assessment of each option on each of the major stakeholder groups.

Develop the communications activities needed to gather information to make the decision.

Ensure that feedback is being managed and processed.

Project stakeholder impact assessment.

Stakeholders who will be heavily affected need to be part of the decision making process wherever possible.

Different options will have different impacts and consequences so careful management is required.

There may be a requirement to start early engagement with external stakeholders or the market as potential suppliers to test the viability of the delivery strategy.

Communications with project stakeholders will need to be managed carefully if they are negatively impacted by this strategy.

Confirm adequate high impact stakeholder support exists.

Revise the stakeholder profiles as a result of the impact assessment.

Develop the communications plan for the next stage.

Develop communications materials to announce the decision to proceed.

Review the effectiveness of communications up to this point and lessons learned.

Review project communications plans to ensure alignment with the programme.

There should be a communications plan to communicate the decision and launch the programme into the next stage.

There should be a review of the main stakeholders and a rescan to see if any new groups will be affected in the next stage.

Beware of project communications plans not aligning with the programme, the programme communications team should have the final say on what communications happens from projects.

The gate review process should actively include high impact stakeholders to include their views and include them in the decision to proceed.

Ensure key stakeholders are consulted during the design and prioritisation of projects within the programme.

Identify the impact of individual projects on stakeholders.

Identify any new stakeholders to be engaged by the programme.

Stakeholders in newly define projects should be identified and included in communications.

Projects that will be prematurely closing should have specific communications plans.

Stakeholder priorities and concerns should be delivered by the projects and their outputs.

This should also be factored into the scheduling as there may be other major change events within that part of the organisation.

New projects that are included in the project dossier will need to have an impact assessment on existing stakeholders and there may be new groups that will need to be profiled.

Projects that are prematurely closing could be unpopular, so care should be taken to make sure that this scenario is managed carefully through the project or programme communications plans.

Complete the Stakeholder Management Strategy.

Ensure that project teams are clear on their boundaries for communicating.

Ensure appropriate approval routes for project communications are clearly defined.

The development of the Stakeholder Management Strategy should include input from any organisational communications or public relation groups and their support sought to help with delivery of the actual communications. Their expertise and staff are potentially a valuable resource that the programme can call on.

A set of standards should be put in place to ensure that there is appropriate change control on communications from projects and, also, operational areas.

The strategy development should be relatively straightforward as the framework covers much of the content, the main issue is to identify where the standard needs to be adapted for the needs of this programme.

Update stakeholder profiles and complete programme communications plans.

Allocate communications activities for the engagement of specific stakeholders.

Develop the programme communications plan to cover future tranches.

To get to this point there has probably been a communications plan active.

At this point it is formalising the plan as part of the programme plan.

It should now be looking into the future with a high level plan to address future tranches.

Project communications plans should now be integrated into the programme communications plan formally.

The project should be complaint to the Stakeholder and Communications standards in the framework and how the stakeholder cycle will be used by the project.

There should be a definition of how these standards will be achieved and an explanation for any deviation from the standards where this is necessary.

The communications plan should be built from the stakeholder map and for larger or more volatile projects there may be a need to have stakeholder profiles for key groups.

The communication plan should define how stakeholders will be engaged and how their input will be handled.

Develop a budget to cover communications activities in the programme.

Communications relating to business case information dissemination should be developed and delivered.

There may be a need for external agency support to develop communications materials and/or establishing a communications specialist within the team – this is the point where the costs should be accumulated and included in the business case.

The other side of this is communications of information relating to the programme business case, there may be specific approval routes where comments are needed from key corporate groups or external stakeholders, which should be included in the communications plan, with expectations being managed and feedback processed.

Confirm adequate high impact stakeholder support exists.

Revise the stakeholder profiles as a result of the impact assessment.

Develop the communications plan for the next stage.

Develop communications materials to announce the decision to proceed.

Review the effectiveness of communications up to this point and lessons learned.

Review project communications plans to ensure alignment with the programme.

Prepare the communications events to support the launch of the programme.

There should be a communications plan to communicate the decision and launch the programme into the next stage.

There should be a review of the main stakeholders and a rescan to see if any new groups will be affected in the next stage.

Beware of project communications plans not aligning with the programme, the programme communications team should have the final say on what communications happens from projects.

The gate review process should actively include high impact stakeholders to include their views and include them in the decision to proceed.

The Communications Plan should include launch activities and a process for managing feedback to ensure optimal communications channels are developed.

Programme launch communications should be undertaken.

Ensure that initial project communications are aligned with programme communications plans.

Establish regular communications bulletins.

Monitor and analyse stakeholder feedback.

Ensure compliance of projects to communications processes.

At this point the stakeholder management strategy is being established for the tranche, a key part of this activity is aligning the project and programme communications.

Good communication opportunities should present themselves with the launching of the projects.

Stakeholder involvement through boards and steering groups can help to enable engagement and involvement in the programme.

The monitoring and review processes should be put into place to ensure effective communications by the programme, project and business change groups.

Ensure project and programme communications plans are synchronised.

Review the effectiveness of stakeholder tracking and impact of the communications plan.

Maintain regular bulletins.

Deliver launch or major announcement events.

Track stakeholder profiles and perceptions.

Monitor and action stakeholder feedback.

Activate communications to acknowledge the achievements to date.

Stakeholders should be notified of project progress as there will be good news stories that will help maintain programme commitment. Care should be taken that programme communications integrate with the local project communications activities to ensure there is no overlap or conflict in the messages being sent.

Key stakeholders can get burn out if they are over communicated with.

The Stakeholder Profiles should be maintained and reviewed. The individual stakeholder group profiles will be changing and information about them should be updated on a regular basis, a monthly review would be appropriate.

The information to maintain these profiles needs to be tested for accuracy.

The Communications Plan should be active, with clear and consistent messages being delivered effectively.

 Feedback should be monitored for levels of resistance changing or reflecting ineffective communications.

The feedback from stakeholders to communications should be monitored to check perceptions - a successful project delivery does not necessarily equate to happy stakeholders.

 The achievement of the outcomes is a reason for positive communications and heralding of achievements, but be sensitive to stakeholder perceptions.

Gain stakeholder input on direction and alternative approaches.

Review the effectiveness of stakeholder tracking and communications plan impact.

Confirm adequate high impact stakeholder support continues.

Ensure project and programme communications plans are synchronised.

Review the effectiveness of stakeholder tracking and impact of the communications plan.

Maintain regular bulletins.

Deliver launch or major announcement events.

Track stakeholder profiles and perceptions.

Monitor and action stakeholder feedback.

Activate communications to acknowledge the achievements to date.

This could be a point of significant achievement, so there may be a lot of communications around business change activities that will need to be managed through the communications plans.

The Stakeholder Profiles should be maintained and reviewed. The individual stakeholder group profiles will be changing and information about them should be updated on a regular basis, a monthly review would be appropriate.

The information to maintain these profiles needs to be tested for accuracy.

The Communications Plan should be active, with clear and consistent messages being delivered effectively.

The review should test levels of support or resistance to the programme and whether they are increasing, if resistance is rising, then alternative directions may be considered.

Business representation in how and when the programmes are delivered will better enable engagement and increase changes of success. The effectiveness of the Stakeholder Management Strategy and Communications Plan should be reviewed, with any changes being made based on lessons learned.

The Communications Plan should include launch activities and how feedback will be managed to ensure optimal communications channels are developed.

Communications activities should be on going to explain the value of the decommissioning and achievements.  

There will be stakeholders that lament the loss of the old ways of working - identifying and communicating effectively with these groups will be important as they are potentially a source of negative attitudes going forward.

Confirm adequate high impact stakeholder support exists.

Revise the stakeholder profiles as a result of the impact assessment.

Develop the communications plan for the next stage.

Develop communications materials to announce the decision to proceed.

Review the effectiveness of communications up to this point and lessons learned.

Review project communications plans to ensure alignment with the programme.

Prepare the communications events to support the launch of the programme.

There should be a communications plan to communicate the decision and launch the programme into the next stage.

There should be a review of the main stakeholders and a rescan to see if any new groups will be affected in the next stage.

Beware of project communications plans not aligning with the programme, the programme communications team should have the final say on what communications happens from projects.

The gate review process should actively include high impact stakeholders to include their views and include them in the decision to proceed.

The Communications Plan should include launch activities and a process for managing feedback to ensure optimal communications channels are developed.

Test stakeholder support.

It is important that stakeholders are heavily involved in the requirements gathering process. As part of the consultation it is important to understand the level of support the project will have. If there are opponents of the idea, understanding why they are opposed will be helpful in making the preferred selection – avoiding resistance will reduce costs and increase the likelihood of success.

Include stakeholder views and feedback in the selection process.

Some stakeholders will ‘win’ others will ‘lose’. Similarly, some may be blockers and others supporters. Reducing the numbers of losers will increase your chances of success. The requirement should be distributed and confirmed by the stakeholders. As part of this process, it is important to establish the priority of each of the requirements to the various groups.

Initiate communications to notify stakeholders of the decision.

Gaining evidence of stakeholder support for particular options will provide a useful audit trail of agreement that maybe helpful later in the project. If appropriate, think about including this decision in a communications exercise to a wider audience.

Ensure recommended actions relating to stakeholders are dealt with. 

The successful achievement of a gate review should trigger a communications event updating stakeholders. Further work on the communications plan may be required.

Consult stakeholders regarding the operating model and gather feedback.

Representatives of the areas that will be affected by the project should be involved in this activity. The stakeholder analysis should show who the main stakeholders are and what their interest is.

Key stakeholders should be consulted over the design and their support gained.

Key stakeholders should be consulted, have input into the detailed design and provide sign off of their agreement. The amount of their time should have been included in the resource plan. This is a critical activity and the right amount of time must be dedicated to it.The other consideration is the stakeholder’s understanding and knowledge - it is a risk that they do not have the technical knowledge to be able to contribute.  

Consult stakeholders who will have an interest in the outcomes.

Stakeholder communications should be extended to include some sections of market. The art of good procurement is to encourage competition, particularly if the requirement is unique. Communication planning may therefore be required to raise the awareness of the opportunity with certain audiences. The actual review of the procurement and selection of the preferred approach must be undertaken in collaboration with the internal stakeholders who will be customers for the deliverables.

Assure that there is adequate stakeholder support.

Stakeholders will be expected to contribute to the review and commit to the changes. Before the assessment, they should have been fully briefed and there should be no unexpected challenges.

Involve the stakeholders in reviewing the contract detail to ensure understanding and buy in.

The finalisation of the placing of contracts will need to be advised to stakeholders - they also provide an opportunity to create positive publicity for the project as this could be a significant milestone.

The new supplier team should be included in the stakeholder analysis and they should be built into the communications plan.

A communications event to announce the final Business Operating Model should be undertaken. 

Stakeholders should be included in the collection of views and different perspectives on the effect of the new contract.

This could also be the starting point for the communications regarding what changes are anticipated and what effects they will be having on different groups inside and outside of the organisation.  If resistance is anticipated this is the time to start addressing it.

Deliver regular communications to maintain stakeholder engagement as part of communications plan.

The new supplier should be actively involved in the communications planning as their own organisation is now a stakeholder group.

The successful build and testing of components could be the trigger for a communications event.

Communicate the results of testing to the user community.

The right stakeholders need to be involved in ‘user acceptance’ and should have been identified in the Project Plans (their effort should have been committed at the preceding decision gate).

Release appropriate communications to notify stakeholders of progress.

Risk management focus will now move to business and operational risk as the project moves into the final phase.

Communicate results of new baseline information and plans to maintain performance.

There will be the basic performance metrics that are normally measured or have been defined for this project.

It is also worth gathering information from a variety of stakeholders on their levels of commitment.

If problems arise during transition their support could evaporate or turn into opposition, the results of this investigation should be logged on the Risk Register.

Maintain communications to enable momentum.

Communicating effectively and regularly will help to maintain morale is the transition if proving problematical, taking longer than expected or having unexpected side effects.

If there are problems, it is critical that the communications recognise and deal with them proportionately as there is no point in pretending everything is great, if it isn’t.

Activate communications to reflect the achievements to date.

The feedback from stakeholders to communications should be monitored to check perceptions - a successful project delivery does not necessarily equate to happy stakeholders.

The achievement of the outcomes is a reason for positive communications and heralding of achievements, but be sensitive to stakeholder perceptions.

Undertake closure communications to all stakeholders.

Lessons associated with stakeholder and communications management should be recorded and distributed.

Undertake communications event process to ensure the sign off status is understood.

 This is a significant milestone in the lifecycle of any project and, as such, should be seen as an opportunity for positive communications to suppliers.