Project changes are inevitable, but they can also cause frustration, confusion, and resistance among your stakeholders. How can you manage stakeholder expectations when your project changes and keep them engaged and supportive? Here are some tips to help you navigate this challenge.
One of the most important steps to manage stakeholder expectations is to communicate any project changes as soon as possible and as clearly as possible. Explain the reasons, benefits, and implications of the changes, and how they align with the project goals and vision. Use multiple channels and formats to reach your stakeholders, such as emails, meetings, newsletters, dashboards, or reports. Anticipate and address any questions or concerns they might have, and invite feedback and suggestions.
Be honest with the stakeholders, ensure you offer clarity early on with changes that are happening. Ensure when confirming the changes that you explain the reasoning, if people can understand the why they are more likely to be receptive. Ensure the impacts of changes are clearly defined and understood, and work with the key stakeholders to understand the best methods for communicating and the best terminology to use.
All good practices, it's about trust, discussing change and its impact is more effective when both parties trust each other. So working transparently and with timeliness will build that trust, allowing the outcomes of the change to be agreed.
Authencity in communications and engagement is key. Regular check ins with key stakeholders and risky stakeholders will help.
Project changes can also affect your stakeholder analysis, which is a tool to identify and prioritize your stakeholders based on their interest, influence, and impact on the project. You might need to revise your stakeholder analysis to reflect any changes in their roles, responsibilities, expectations, or preferences. This will help you tailor your communication and engagement strategies to suit their needs and interests, and avoid any gaps or overlaps.
Stakeholder lists should be maintained regularly: - who are our supporters? - who ?really“ decides - who can be ?opponents“ if forgotten to be involved? - how can they help us? - what are their intentions? - which outcomes do they expect? -> changes in the list should be well monitored. -> everybody has their whys. Don’t ignore them.
Another key step to manage stakeholder expectations is to manage the scope and risks of your project changes. Scope is the agreed set of deliverables, features, and requirements of your project, and any changes to it should be documented and approved by your stakeholders. Risks are the potential threats or uncertainties that could affect your project outcomes, and any changes to them should be assessed and mitigated. You should use a scope management plan and a risk management plan to track and control these aspects of your project, and report on their status and progress regularly.
Sometimes, project changes can lead to conflicting or unrealistic expectations among your stakeholders. For example, some stakeholders might want more features or faster delivery, while others might want lower costs or higher quality. In these situations, you need to negotiate and compromise with your stakeholders to find a balance that satisfies their needs and respects the project constraints. You should use your project charter, business case, and stakeholder analysis as reference points, and emphasize the common goals and benefits of the project.
You should always back up your arguments and points with data. It is very easy to negotiate and compromise with your stakeholders, when you have complete and accurate data to present along with your point. It is very difficult to argue with logic, and therefore subjective and biased stances will be minimized by the presence of data. More often than not, I have received stakeholder support for majority of my requirements due to this fundamental fact. When new data is introduced, new decisions need to be made and that will also help determine conflicts of previous stakeholder stance.
Finally, one of the best ways to manage stakeholder expectations is to celebrate and acknowledge their contributions and achievements throughout the project. This will help you build trust, rapport, and goodwill with your stakeholders, and motivate them to continue supporting your project. You can use various methods to recognize and reward your stakeholders, such as thank-you notes, certificates, gifts, events, or testimonials. You can also share success stories, best practices, and lessons learned from your project changes, and highlight the positive impacts and outcomes they have created.