Welcome to the third instalment of our series on "Best Practices in Project Management." In our previous articles, we explored the 100% rule and the advantages of using dedicated scheduling tools over spreadsheets. Today, we shift our focus to a critical yet often overlooked aspect of project management: stakeholder engagement.
Effective communication with stakeholders doesn't necessarily require more meetings. In fact, it's possible to enhance engagement and keep stakeholders informed without adding to everyone's already packed schedules.
In this article, I will guide you through five strategic steps to improve stakeholder engagement without the need for additional meetings, ensuring that your project communications are both efficient and impactful.
The Delimma:
In project management, frequent meetings are often seen as a necessary tool for engaging stakeholders. However, excessive meetings can lead to diminished productivity and stakeholder fatigue. This creates a challenge: how can project managers effectively engage stakeholders, ensure their involvement, and maintain project transparency, all while reducing the number of meetings and not overwhelming the stakeholders?
To answer this question, I've put together these five steps that will guide you to achieve maximum benefits while minimising the need for frequent meetings:
Customisable Dashboards: Nowadays, many online project management tools allow users to create custom dashboards that can be shared with stakeholders. These dashboards can display real-time project data, progress updates, and key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to stakeholders, ensuring they have a clear and current view of project status at any time.
Automated Notifications: Automatic updates and notifications to stakeholders based on changes to tasks, project milestones, or deadlines are a great way to communicate important updates. This ensures that stakeholders are always informed of important developments without needing to manually check-in. This should be an important part of your stakeholder and information management plan.
Integration Capabilities: Many project management tools can be integrated with various other tools like email, communication platforms (such as Microsoft Teams and Slack), and even CRM systems. This integration facilitates seamless communication flows and data sharing across platforms used by different stakeholders.
Visual Project Planning: With features like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and timeline views, communicating with stakeholders can be more effective. These visuals help stakeholders understand the project’s progress and structure at a glance, making it easier to discuss and make decisions.
Document Sharing and Collaboration: Many platforms support file sharing and collaborative document editing. Stakeholders can access, review, and contribute to documents directly within the tool, facilitating collaborative reviews and approvals without the need for external file-sharing services.
However, to effectively implement some or all of those strategies, a few considerations have to be taken into account:
Communication Gaps: Fewer meetings might result in misunderstandings or stakeholders feeling out of the loop regarding project updates and decisions.
Reduced Collaboration: Meetings often provide a dynamic environment for brainstorming and collaborative problem-solving. Reducing them could limit these opportunities.
Delayed Decision Making: Quick decision-making can sometimes rely on face-to-face interactions found in meetings. With fewer meetings, it may take longer to obtain approvals or consensus.
Reliance on Technology: Replacing meetings with digital tools and platforms requires all stakeholders to be comfortable and proficient with the technology used.
Engagement and Relationship Building: Regular meetings can strengthen relationships and build trust among project team members and stakeholders.
Stakeholder Needs and Expectations: Stakeholder expectations are 'unspoken requirements'; ensure that you have done your homework regarding knowing your stakeholder cohort and their preferences.
Documentation: Communication and information management plans are extremely important to ensure consensus on the best way to communicate with project stakeholders.
Embracing technology is crucial for modern project management, particularly when striving to reduce the frequency of meetings without compromising stakeholder engagement. Tools such as project management software, communication platforms, and real-time collaboration tools are essential for keeping stakeholders connected and informed. As a project manager operating in the 21st century, we have the responsibility of engaging with a broad range of stakeholders with different expectations and needs. Therefore, one of our most important tasks is ensuring a seamless communication process, using technology to support the reduction of unnecessary meetings and reinforcing the overall effectiveness and adaptability of project management practices.
Comments