Identifying, assessing, and supporting stakeholders at all levels of involvement in change is key to ensuring success.
This begins a new video series on Stakeholder Groups. It is a deeper dive into this topic, introduced in The Secrets to Better Project Start-ups, another video series released separately.
A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision or change resulting from some activity.
There are many stakeholders to be considered and I like to separate these into to distinct communities, change impacted and change delivery.
The videos will go into some detail about each community and their sub-groups. Note that they are presented in reverse chronological order, last-in-first-out to minimize scrolling.
Video 4 – Change Delivery Stakeholders
This is the fourth video on Stakeholder Groups and presents an overview of stakeholder groups involved in helping to deliver the change to the organization. Some, many, or most may also be affected by the change once it is in place.
The core group consists of individuals that have hands and minds involved in the delivery process. They also have accountability to the organization and sponsor. Depending upon the project scale, they may be 100% dedicated to the project. Others may support the process, intermittently. Several layers of management teams may contribute budget and other assets to the project.
Each sub-group may need a separate communications plan. Once messaging is planned, the best techniques, channels and message senders for communications can be determined for messages before, at the time of, and after the change is in place.
Video 3 – Change Impacted, Internal Stakeholders
This is the third video on Stakeholder Groups continuing where video 2 left off talking about Change Impacted stakeholders. After thorough assessment of external people impacted, like customers and suppliers, we look inward at various employee groups. There are some directly impacted and others indirectly impacted. Each sub-group may need a separate communications plan.
First, a detailed assessment of impacts can help determine what is appropriate. Once messaging is planned, the best techniques, channels and message senders for communications can be determined for messages before, at the time of, and after the change is in place.
Video 2 – Change Impacted Groups, Customers
This is the second video and focuses on Change Impacted stakeholders. These are individuals and groups who are affected by the change once it is put into place. They may get new tools, new processes, new locations, and/or new relationships that impact their daily work of personal life.
The first group fitting this category contains customers and/or vendors/suppliers. Impacts may be direct or indirect and sometimes the indirect impacts can be missed. This is the highest priority group for receipt of exceptional communications.
How well do you identify and support your stakeholder groups during your changes?
Video 1 – Introduction
In video 1, I introduce the communities through a general overview.
