What do you do if your relationships with stakeholders as a systems engineering leader are strained?

Another important aspect is the 'people' one. Take the time to get to know your team, each person's strengths, weaknesses and value to the team. Most importantly get to know thier view of professional values from which you can then begin to professionally interact with them. You will never be sorry for investing in the professional, and/or personal interested of others.

Organizing a stakeholders workshop or townhall meeting where stakeholders can provide valuable feedback and insights on their expectations and level of satisfaction will enable you to assess the situation and level of collaboration and areas improvement ??

When relationships with stakeholders are tense, it's crucial to address the issues head-on. Start by openly communicating and understanding their concerns. Clarify expectations and find common ground. Keep them updated on progress and address any concerns promptly. Invest in building positive relationships and consider mediation if tensions persist. Learn from past experiences and continuously demonstrate your value as a leader.

Make sure you know what's going on. You can't assess the situation unless you have all points of view and as many info as possible. Ensure you ask and listen to all stakeholders, and make sure they feel heard. Gather all you can, then process the information into a coherent understanding that makes sense to you. Be empathetic, you don't necessary need to agree but you need to understand their point of view and what generated the strain.

When relationships with stakeholders hit a rough patch, it's important to address the issue head-on. Start by listening to their concerns and perspectives. Seek common ground and focus on finding solutions together. Clear communication, transparency, and a willingness to make things right can go a long way in rebuilding trust. Remember, every challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow. By working through tough times with stakeholders, you'll not only strengthen relationships but also pave the way for smoother collaboration in the future.

In my experience when relationships are strained with the stakeholders, meeting with them and hearing what their thoughts, feelings and expectations are and coming to a mutual understanding can ease the situation and put things back on track.

Create different avenues for feedback and communication and encourage stakeholders to share their views based on the project scope and objectives. Be willing to accept criticisms and performance appraisal to ensure continuous improvement in communication and relationship with the different stakeholders.

Before, during and after assessment: communicate. Talk to people. This is the time when more, not less communication, is required. Don't be afraid to do it. Just be careful, sensible and honest.

Remember that your job here is not to get to "yes", it's to get to "that's it!"; the point at which there's a shared understanding of the message or issue. When a stakeholder recognizes that you understand them, it goes a long way towards building credibility and trust.

This part is very important, first we must listen to all the interested parties and only then be able to speak with the intention of providing a solution and not kick the board as we sometimes say, because that causes separation and the beginning of the dialogue again.

The business case, overall goals and specific objectives should be identified and evaluated and agreed upon by the team and stakeholders during the project initiation stage. It is important to review the project performance to ensure that the expectations and objectives align.

It's critical to have the objectives clearly understood across the teams. I have found tools like DOORS and ComplyPro, very useful in having the requirements clearly identified, listed out and tracked.

Manage it professionally, not everyone needs to agree with you and visa versa. If both SE leader and stakeholders have common goal that is to make SE process work, personal opinion should not come in the way of working together.

Often, the root cause of strained relationships stems from a lack of alignment in objectives between the systems engineering team and stakeholders. To remedy this, it's essential to collaborate effectively to clarify and align goals. It's crucial to ensure that all parties possess a shared comprehension of the project's objectives, timelines, and limitations. This alignment not only establishes realistic expectations but also cultivates a collective sense of accountability for the project's outcome, thereby nurturing a more cooperative relationship.

It is always common that customer has assumed expectations about the deliveries. After identifying set milestones and deliverables, it would be better to have common review meeting to align with the customer about the plan. This would help us save some iterations of unnecessary development loops and also establishes an open channel and platform for cooperative development

Build trust through clear and consistent communication and transparency in project management and reporting. Project success and constraints must shared and discussed by the and stakeholders to avoid any suspicion and issues of trust. Ask for input and feedback where necessary. Ensure active participation of relevant stakeholders and that they are involved and updated of all critical decisions that could affect the project scope, schedule and budget.

Establishing clarity in your deliverables and sticking to the communicated plan helps to inculcate an underlying sense of reliance from the customer . Once a trust is built, it is mich easier to continue with further collaboration in the development steps.

Trust is build by keeping your promises. How can you be trusted to deliver project on time and budget when you can't make single meeting on time? Make promises you can meet and if you can't, make sure you tell why and offer alternative.

Enhance a collaborative project environment by adopting a servant-leadear approach and team spirit for a collective goal. Determine stakeholders level of influence and interests in the project so as to satisfy their expectations. Organize workshops and review sections and intentionally request for inputs from the relevant stakeholders. Celebrate project success and achievements with the stakeholders to enhance collaboration and trust.

Collaboration is absolutely key to help business relationships to flourish. The regular meetings and workshops mentioned are so important, but don’t forget the impact of collaborative meeting notes/agendas. Capturing the cohesive efforts by all parties in the minutes can be instrumental in helping that “feel good” vibe continue long after stakeholders have returned from their joint meetings. Sometimes, removing the separating factors between the stakeholders (like if they’re from different companies) and addressing them as individuals within the meeting minutes can help to foster that collaborative feel as well because it shows individuals coming together to work through issues versus it being a Company A against Company B kind of thing.

Everything is a system. If you build a system around your feedback routine and include it into your weekly schedule you are halfway done. Now follow your system and improve on it, when it doesn't produce the value you expect.

Concluding in one word: Communication. It's critical throughout the lifecycle of any project, but especially during hard times or misunderstanding. Do more of it. Do it gracefully and professionally.

In conclusion, in the realm of systems engineering, goal alignment is paramount. Challenges often arise, especially during functional analysis, risking misalignment between stakeholders' aims and project outcomes. However, with clear communication and deep operational understanding, leaders can navigate these obstacles, ensuring smoother execution and goal attainment. Confronting these challenges directly is key to success in the dynamic field of systems engineering.

Sometimes the loss of faith or trust from the system engineering leadership's key stakeholders is not something that can be recovered. While this is not fair, it is certainly a reality in many of the organizations that meaningfully employ systems engineering principles through their functions and programs. In my experience, it is the programs, and the customer's program office, that are most likely to initiate the impetus for change. When things reach this level, they are hard for the systems engineering leader to prevail with the credibility and stature required by both organizations. This is not necessarily career-ending, but usually not a badge of honor either. Use the advice in the above sections to prevent things getting here.

There are cases where stakeholders are adamant without considering the bigger picture. For a Systems Engineer, it is imperative that the end goal for a particular Engineering requirement is kept in mind. And at times, it is important for the Systems Engineer to stand firm on his ground (with the team) in order for the benefit of the Product/Project.

It is essential that you find out (if possible) who is your opposition in the strained relations environment. Then, you must go to them and work out the details.