Stakeholders and engagement

0:00Sara: Welcome to Project Management Exam Prep.

0:02This episode is about stakeholders and engagement.

0:05Every project management exam tests it, and some weight it heavily.

0:10Leo: You will learn how the three bodies frame it, how to analyse stakeholders by power

0:14and interest, how to plan engagement, and how to manage expectations.

0:19We finish with a drill, so keep a pen ready.

0:22Sara: Let us start with the three lenses. What does IPMA® say?

0:26Leo: IPMA®, the International Project Management Association, sets out its standard in

0:31the Individual Competence Baseline, the ICB4.

0:35Its element on stakeholders asks you to analyse them, set a strategy,

0:39and engage them throughout, with the sponsor as an ambassador.

0:44Two more elements feed it: relations and engagement, the personal side,

0:48and power and interest, the informal side.

0:52Sara: And PMI®?

0:53Leo: PMI®, the Project Management Institute, publishes the PMBOK® Guide,

0:58its guide to the project management body of knowledge.

1:02The eighth edition has a stakeholders performance domain: identify stakeholders;

1:07plan, manage and monitor their engagement.

1:10The outline of PMI®'s Project Management Professional exam, the PMP®,

1:15gives the topic three tasks: engage stakeholders, align their expectations,

1:20and manage those expectations.

1:23Sara: And APM?

1:25Leo: APM, the Association for Project Management, publishes the APM Body of Knowledge.

1:31Its section on stakeholder engagement names five steps, from identify to review.

1:37The syllabus of APM's Project Management Qualification, the PMQ,

1:41has an objective on stakeholder engagement and communication.

1:46Sara: Where do the words differ?

1:47Leo: In three places. First, APM has moved away from the term stakeholder management,

1:53and speaks of engagement. The ICB4 and PMI® still speak of managing expectations.

2:01Sara: Second?

2:02Leo: Power. In PMI®'s grids, power means formal authority, and influence is a separate

2:08axis. For the ICB4, power is any ability to influence others,

2:13formal or not. APM plots influence, and looks behind it at the sources of power.

2:20Sara: And third?

2:21Leo: The plan. The ICB4 often puts the engagement strategy in a communication plan.

2:27PMI® and APM keep a stakeholder engagement plan beside a communications plan.

2:33Sara: What is the core, whichever exam you take?

2:36Leo: Three ideas. One: a stakeholder is anyone who takes part in the project,

2:41is affected by it, can affect it, or cares how it turns out.

2:45In the end, they judge whether you succeeded.

2:48So look wide, inside and outside, and include those who oppose you.

2:53Sara: Two?

2:54Leo: Engagement is a cycle. Identify stakeholders.

2:58Analyse their interest, influence and attitude, and ask why.

3:03Plan how to engage each group. Act on the plan.

3:06Then review it, because people and settings change.

3:10Sara: Does that change in agile work?

3:13Leo: The rhythm does. In a linear project, engagement peaks at the start,

3:18at each gate and at handover. In iterative work, stakeholders see working results

3:23at every review, and the product owner, who speaks for users,

3:27orders their priorities in the backlog.

3:30So expectations are reset every few weeks.

3:34Sara: And three?

3:36Leo: Expectations. People should come to expect what the project will really deliver,

3:40and when. So communication runs both ways.

3:44Say early what is out of scope, and repeat it.

3:47Check that each message arrived. And bring bad news early, while you can act.

3:53Sara: How do I decide where to start?

3:55Leo: With a power and interest grid. The model sheet is free in the description.

4:00Many books trace it to Mendelow, in nineteen eighty-one.

4:03Colin Eden and Fran Ackermann described the grid in nineteen ninety-eight.

4:09Sara: How does it work?

4:10Leo: It has two axes. Power is how far someone can affect the project.

4:16Interest is how much its outcome matters to them.

4:20The four box labels are our own. High power, high interest: partner closely.

4:26High power, low interest: consult at key points, without flooding them with detail.

4:31Low power, high interest: inform and listen; they often know the details.

4:37Low on both: watch for change.

4:40Sara: And the ICB4's element on power and interest?

4:44Leo: It looks behind the grid. As the ICB4 puts it, "Power is the ability to influence

4:50the behaviour of others." That is wider than authority, the formal right to decide.

4:56Expertise, respect and relations count too, and each person's power has a reach.

5:02People also have interests of their own, such as a career step.

5:07So the box shows where to start, not how to treat a person.

5:11Positions move, and weak groups can join forces.

5:14Map again at each phase.

5:16Sara: And the second model?

5:18Leo: Engagement levels. The PMBOK® Guide names five: unaware, resistant,

5:24neutral, supportive and leading. For each key group, mark two levels:

5:29the current one, and the one the project needs, by a date.

5:33The gap shows where to spend your effort.

5:35Sara: Should everyone be leading?

5:37Leo: No. The sponsor should lead. Most users need only support.

5:41And resistance often comes with awareness.

5:43That is a step, not a failure, so ask what people fear.

5:47To move someone up, involve them: ask their advice, or give them a task or a part

5:52in a decision. APM's analysis uses a simpler split for attitude:

5:57support, opposition or undecided.

6:00Sara: How does this change between Mid-level and Senior?

6:03Leo: First, the two levels. They are this series' own labels.

6:08Mid-level means leading moderately complex projects, the level of IPMA® Level C and

6:14PMI®'s PMP® exam. Senior means leading complex projects and people,

6:20the level of IPMA® Level B and of APM's chartered status, Chartered Project Professional.

6:28At Mid-level, you run engagement well. Take Parking Permits Online,

6:33a city project that moves resident parking permits online in eight months.

6:38The project manager, Anna, maps the groups with her team and keeps a one-page engagement

6:42plan. Parking fines are out of scope, so every letter to residents says fines do

6:48not change.

6:49Sara: And at Senior level?

6:51Leo: You design engagement as a system. Take One City Account, a thirty-month city project

6:57that brings fourteen online services under one login, led by Anna some years later.

7:03Anna sets the needed level of each group for each phase, with an owner for each

7:07group. The steering board reviews the gaps at every gate.

7:12For a network this large, the team also weighs three things for each stakeholder:

7:16power, whether the claim is legitimate, and how urgent it is.

7:21That is the salience model of Mitchell, Agle and Wood.

7:25Sara: Now the drill. A city is moving resident parking permits online in eight months.

7:30Go-live comes just before January, when most residents renew.

7:35In month six, two senior people expect different things.

7:39The sponsor, the head of parking services, expects paper permits to end at go-live.

7:43The head of the customer service centre expects her counters to keep issuing paper

7:48permits through January. What do you do?

7:51Leo: Pause and write your answer. You have forty-five seconds.

8:39Sara: First, the analysis.

8:42Leo: Both have high power and high interest: partner closely.

8:47Their power has different sources. The sponsor owns the business case,

8:51whose savings need paper to end. The service centre head controls the counters and

8:56their staff. She fears queues in January.

9:00She looks neutral now, and you need her supportive before go-live.

9:04Sara: And then?

9:05Leo: Meet each alone and listen. Then bring them together with the facts:

9:09test results and a fallback plan. Help them agree one position.

9:14For example, paper ends at go-live, the counters help residents renew online,

9:19and paper returns only if online payments fail.

9:23The sponsor decides, and you record it.

9:25Update the engagement plan: one agreed message to staff and residents,

9:29and a check two weeks later.

9:31Sara: What lifts that to Senior?

9:33Leo: A Senior answer fixes the system, not only the clash.

9:38A stakeholder with high power and high interest had no seat where decisions are

9:42made. Give the service centre a voice on the steering group.

9:46Agree who decides changes to service channels, and on what evidence.

9:50Set the trigger for paper in advance, so nobody argues in January.

9:55Sara: How do the exams ask this?

9:58Leo: IPMA®'s written exam asks for open answers; at Level B it may be oral.

10:03IPMA®'s certification also includes an interview, where assessors ask about your

10:07own projects, so note one stakeholder whose position you changed.

10:12The PMP® exam uses scenarios. PMI®'s outline adds questions built on a case study

10:17or a chart, so practise reading an engagement matrix.

10:21APM's PMQ asks for short written answers, for example: why managing expectations

10:26matters to success.

10:28Sara: Let us recap.

10:30Leo: One. Look wide: stakeholders include anyone who is affected by the project,

10:34or can affect it.

10:36Sara: Two. Engagement is a cycle: identify, analyse, plan, act and review.

10:43In iterative work, it comes round at every review.

10:47Leo: Three. The power and interest grid shows where to start.

10:50Power is wider than authority, and positions move.

10:55Sara: Four. Mark each group's engagement now and needed.

10:59The gap directs your effort.

11:01Leo: And five. Manage expectations: say what will not come, bring bad news early,

11:07and let the owner decide when senior people disagree.

11:10Sara: The two model sheets and the study handout are linked in the description.

11:14Next time: conflict and crisis.