How a project manager can increase stakeholder commitments and improve the success of a project

Stakeholders are those individuals who have a stake in a business, due to their interest or concern. With this in mind, the involvement of these individuals is critical to the success of a project. In the following post, I am to provide a brief yet critical discussion of the clear strategies that collectively result in the success of any given project.

To begin with, it’s important to recognize that there are five key stages that facilitate the process of identifying the level of commitment that stakeholders invest in any given project.  Those stages are:

a) ignorance,
b) awareness,
c) understanding,
d) support,
e) involvement, and
f) commitment

As such, it is imperative that a practical approach is taken by the project manager. This would involve listing all the stakeholders involved, and then diagnosing what levels of commitment are required from them. Furthermore, it allows you to take more appropriate, proactive actions to increase communication and level of involvement involved (Binder, 2016).

Figure 1. Commitment framework in project management

Source. (Binder, 2016)

In the first stages, it is important that you bring more awareness to your stakeholders. In this case, this would mean building and promoting project information that communicates the intent of the company, the history of other successful projects, and highlighting project plans and their benefits (Richardson, 2015). The second stage has to do with creating a connection or a better understanding; this strategy is about paying attention to the stakeholder’s values and needs, along with the overall requirements of the project. Some practical actions include organizing local meetings, visiting your stakeholders, and broadcasting updates of the project (Binder, 2016). 

Following this, the third stage involves moving the stakeholder’s responsibility to include supporting the project. The purpose of this stage is to encourage curiosity and start using different mindsets including talent, and debating decisions to strengthen the project’s intent (Richardson, 2015). Some steps that you can consider is to encourage brainstorming of solutions for any prevalent problems, as well, facilitate opportunities for feedback and evidently steering the stakeholders to support the project.

The next stage involves bringing the stakeholders to commit to the project, as well as encourage leadership, or in other words, empowering others to reach a level of commitment; as such, project managers can guarantee that key stakeholders are on board especially if the project requires a certain level of technicality or expertise, in order to operate at its peak moments. It is hence integral that the stakeholder is involved during the planning, scheduling, risk mitigation and problem-solving (Binder, 2016).

A required level of commitment is reached when the stakeholder becomes consistent with the decision they make. In saying that, the project manager should oversee the process of connecting to stakeholders, mobilizing their attention, and then sustaining their influence throughout reinforcement. This level of commitment can be encouraged by participating in formal and informal discussions consistently and acknowledging that they have control over the project (Richardson, 2015). 

In conclusion, the level of commitment given by the stakeholders in a project is integral in establishing a strong relationship. It is hence important that project managers carefully identify the influence of different contributors for the creation of successful project. Finally, they should also utilize the correct strategies to gain their compliance and maintain a prosperous relationship with the rest of the stakeholders.  

References

Binder, J. (2016). Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. London and New York : Routledge .

Richardson, B. (2015). Earning the right to influence. PMI Global Congress . London : EMEA.