Project Communication Strategies - Part 01

A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, programme, or portfolio. Projects have a wide sphere of influence. There are a lot of people to communicate to at different organisation levels in different organisations and these people are the stakeholders involved in any project, and they must be managed and engaged.

There are different types of stakeholders involved in any project. There are immediate project stakeholders, who can be the project team members, the heads of department or people in the different departments (e.g., IT, Sales, Engineering), the portfolio or programme managers. Outside of that, other stakeholders that we need to communicate with are sponsors, governing bodies and steering committees, maybe even project management office (PMO) staff, partner organisations, different suppliers and contractors, regulatory bodies, government agencies. Furthermore, the end-users and customers are also our stakeholders.

According to APM definition of stakeholder management: “The systematic identification analysis and planning and implementation of actions designed to engage with stakeholders”.

In any project in a there are a lot of people to communicate with and at different organisation levels, that is why stakeholder management is very important in any project. People skills and communication are going to be key aspects of stakeholder management. The stakeholders have different needs, different views, and different expectations. They could be supportive of the project, or they could be against it. Again, it is important to remember they need to be ‘looked after’.

The main issues in communication is people having different viewpoints on a situation. Sometimes we don’t see other people’s viewpoints and perspectives on issues, and we are going to carry on affirming it.

What we need to do in our communication is to be straight and open, to be honest, and to be non-aggressive or don’t appear to be aggressive. Stakeholders will have a viewpoint on projects and their viewpoint, probably is, they want to be involved. The viewpoint issue is connected with our attitudes to other people such as, people make mistakes because they are careless or our attitude could be, the only reason I made that mistake was that I had so much on my mind at that moment.

There are four types of communication styles:

1. Assertive: This style will lead to effective communication. Be positive by choosing the right words, “we will” rather than “we could”.

2. Concealed Aggressive: When both people in a situation are low scoring, feeling depressed and sad, it can lead to sarcasm, gossip, trolling, and inappropriate humour.

3. Open Aggressive: A situation where we are feeling happy and excited, but the other person is feeling the complete opposite. In this scenario, our communication could be seen as controlling, domineering, arrogant, patronising or even aggressive.

4. Passive/Submissive: A situation when we are feeling down, and the other person is confident and enthusiastic. In this scenario, we might come across as being insecure, controlled, or indecisive.

Communication is a big reason why projects fail. As such, it could be considered that communication is the project manager’s single most important task. We need to plan communication into the project, and we must plan communications with the project stakeholders. We cannot engage with our stakeholders without it. Communication should never be left to chance. It needs to be relevant, influential, and persuasive. We have got to use the right words.

The Blake & Mouton Managerial Grid Model can help you self-assess your leadership style. You will be seen as authoritarian if you are just about getting the job done. On the other hand, Country Club management is more concerned about the people in the project than getting the job done. There is another type of management that have no concerns for tasks and no concerns for team. And then there is one with concern for both, that is team management and it is preferred.

Emotional intelligence is sometimes referred to as EQ and opposed to IQ. EQ allows you to develop positive relationships. EQ is about self-awareness and your ability to understand and manage your emotions. It is also about your ability to recognise that people have got their own emotions and how to be empathetic with them. EQ is a powerful tool in understanding how you interact with another person. It can help you understand and manage your own emotions in positive ways: relieve stress, empathise with others, communicate better.

There could be following barriers to effective communication:

Organisation structure: Perhaps the messages aren’t being passed down to those people who need to hear them.

Communication media: The media that is being used for the communication might be the wrong one for the recipient.

Recipient: Perhaps the recipient does not want the communication as they are resistant to this change in project.

Lack of Detail: Maybe communication wasn’t detailed enough. This can lead to people filling those gaps with incorrect assumptions.

Virtual Environments: The opportunity to meet people socially and informally are not as great as they were.

The first major time you communicate on a project is a project kick-off meeting. It is essential for project managers to be able to run an efficient meeting for two hours. The communication in a project should be a mix between formal and informal communication with your project stakeholders. Some of your stakeholders might not be involved in the formal communication channels. You might need to speak to them informally.

“What questions should we need to ask to understand and achieve success, as seen from the perspective of the stakeholders?”

Now in order to understand the stakeholder’s perspective we can use, close ended questions. These are especially useful because it lets project stakeholders tell you where they are on a particular issue or situation. Open questions are ideal to find out somebody’s position on a topic. Leading questions are ways of reconfirming knowledge and stakeholders’ positions. Finally, rhetorical questions we don’t necessarily expect an answer. They can be used to suggest your disapproval.

Engaging people means listening to them and showing them that you are listening. Show interest, be attentive, make eye contact, be focused, nod your head, and give them some encouragement to continue talking. Not listening makes people feel bad and is no way to build a relationship. We must show active listening, this interest in what our stakeholders are saying, making eye contact with them and nodding to them.

Assertiveness is being self-assured and having confidence to express our opinions. Assertiveness can create respect when we are communicating with others. By being assertive we come across as being authentic and that we can be trusted, that our thoughts are well considered. Assertiveness is about getting our viewpoint heard. We could say it is about increasing the chance of getting our viewpoint considered or implemented. Even if our views are ignored, at least we have clearly communicated them.

There are three ways of being assertive:

1. Broken Record

2. Positive Attitude

3. A three-step approach

We are being assertive by getting our message across by being a broken record. Write down what you want. This will help prevent you from being passive or aggressive, this is second way of being assertive. The third way of assertiveness is by three step approach: i- Listen and repeat ii- State your viewpoint iii- propose a way forward.

In the example shown in the video, we can see that the stakeholder is unhappy about road closures. We need to practice active listening and repeat it back to the stakeholder. We can suggest some action to the stakeholders, now that action is putting it back to the stakeholder to do something. Then suggest a way forward on the feedback that you have received from the stakeholder in second step.

Sometimes we just have to say “NO” to people, and some people can find this exceedingly difficult. They’re afraid of upsetting people, or they might be afraid of an aggressive response. In other cases, some people should say “NO”, but they are overly optimistic about delivering something. They think they can do it, when it would be far better just to say “NO”, in all these situations. If “NO” is the right answer, then say it.

• Say no to extra features

• Say no to meeting the deadline

• Say no to increasing the budget

We need to be assertive while delivering the bad news. We need to follow these tips to deliver the bad news. Prepare first, then be clear with the information. Also you need to prepared to answer peoples questions. We need to be serious. We need to be clear and private. We need to use active listening skills to be compassionate to the people.

Conflict is a natural result of making changes. After all, we are changing the status quo, and some people will not be happy about that. Carefully managed, conflict can lead to some beneficial outcomes. If we are unassertive, and the other party is uncooperative, then this is sidestepping the issue and it is a Loss/loss situation. If we are unassertive and the other party is cooperative, then we will just yield to the other viewpoints, then it is a Lose/ win situation. When we are being assertive, and the other party is being uncooperative, this is a Win/Lose situation. The Assertive and Cooperative quadrant is where we want to be for a win/win situation.

In this topic, we will be focusing on problems that can negatively impact effective stakeholder engagement. So, what prevents good Stakeholder Engagement? Make it clear that team members are responsible for communicating, engaging, and building relationships with particular stakeholders. However, we need to consider that people change jobs. Maybe one person’s job is split, and we now need to speak to two stakeholders. One of the main issues with projects is a lack of information. Projects do not get approved until there is enough information for the business case, or from a feasibility study.

In this topic, we will be looking at some guidelines for engaging and communicating with your stakeholders. Recognise who the stakeholders are. It is important to identify your stakeholders early – we spent some time on this topic earlier in the course. Use a model to classify the stakeholders into groups. Use the stakeholders to shape your strategy. We need to get close to our stakeholders, and build trust.