Stakeholder Circle® Methodology
5. Monitor and Manage

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The fifth stage in the Stakeholder Circle® methodology is the ongoing monitoring of the stakeholder community to optimize the stakeholder engagement activities to benefit both the stakeholders, and the activity.

Topics included Stakeholder Circle® methodology - monitor and manage:

- Stakeholder Circle® Methodology Overview
- Stakeholder Monitoring & Managing
- Articles & Papers - Stakeholder Monitoring & Managing

Other related sections of the PMKI:

- Advanced Stakeholder Engagement
- The Stakeholder Relationship Management Maturity Model (SRMM®).

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Using the Stakeholder Circle® Methodology

The Stakeholder Circle® has been designed to focus management attention on the stakeholders that are important at this point in time, to the success of the business activity, or project, they are managing. It incorporates a proven methodology supported by a robust, easy to use tool that guides you through five easy steps to:

• Identify your stakeholders and understand their needs
• Prioritize the stakeholders based on their power, proximity and ‘urgency’
• Visualize the key stakeholders using the Stakeholder Circle®
• Engage with the stakeholders, by building and implementing an effective communication plan based on the stakeholders supportiveness and receptiveness
• Monitor the stakeholder community and adjust your approach to optimize support.

The Stakeholder Work Sheet (SWS) is a sophisticated Excel spreadsheet built to implement the Stakeholder Circle® methodology - see more on the SWS.

The fifth stage is monitoring the stakeholder community to assess the effectiveness of the engagement effort on the business unit's, or project’s, stakeholders.  This requires the assessments previously made in stages one through four to be revisited at regular (or planned) intervals. The team also need to be proactive in managing issues and opportunities as they arise to maintain an effective working relationship with their stakeholder community.

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Stakeholder Monitoring & Managing

A project’s stakeholder community is dynamic

• Stakeholder’s perceptions, expectations and requirements change over time
• People and organizations come and go, or their power and influence changes
• The stakeholders the project needs to work with change based on the current phase; the group of stakeholders that are critical during the initiation / planning phases of a project may be quite different to those that are critical during implementation / roll out.

However, whilst some stakeholders change, others may remain constant. The challenge facing every activity team is to determine the right stakeholders to engage at the right time during the activity’s lifecycle. This requires a regular review of the project’s stakeholder community, at key change points in the project and/or at regular intervals; ideally at a maximum interval of three months.

The Stakeholder Circle has been designed to facilitate the routine assessment of a project’s stakeholder community and to allow changes to be tracked over time. To be most effective, the membership of the team undertaking each assessment should not vary (thus minimizing the influence of any one person’s view).

Through the regular review and re-assessment of a project’s stakeholder community, a history of stakeholder involvement and supportiveness, and decisions made about their engagement, is maintained. As a consequence, the effectiveness of the on-going engagement strategy and communication plan can be assessed and improvements planned. Without this regular review, the effectiveness of the communication plan will inevitably diminish over time.

Through the review and re-assessment of a project’s stakeholder community, a history of each stakeholder's involvement and importance, and decisions made about their engagement is maintained, providing a means to monitor the effectiveness of engagement strategy and communications over time. This is achieved by mapping changes in the levels of support and receptiveness of each stakeholder, and calculating the Engagement Index to show the overall level of supportivness of the full community after each review.

The effectiveness of the engagement (communication) process can be measured over time by comparing the current Engagement Index with earlier versions:

• If the trends are positive, the engagement strategy can be shown to be effective
• If the trends are negative, the engagement strategy should be reviewed.

 

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Published Articles & Papers Stakeholder Monitoring & Managing

Stakeholder Relationship Management A Maturity Model for Organisational Implementation. Dr. Lynda Bourne: This book provides the 'road map' needed to help organizations achieve effective stakeholder engagement in two ways. Firstly, it is a ‘how-to’ book, secondly, it is a guidebook for assessing the current maturity of an organization. See more

WP: The Stakeholder Cycle. The effective management of a project’s stakeholders involves a continuous process of analysis and review for effective stakeholder engagement.

Art: Stakeholder Management from the perspective of Sun Tzu. The supremacy of strategy over tactics, and tactics over reaction, in crafting effective stakeholder relationships.

PP: The Knowledge Management / Relationship Cycle. The Knowledge Management Relationship Cycle describes reciprocity between the data, information and knowledge that is exchanged for the business benefit of the organization between the project and its stakeholders. It charts the strong connections between the organization's KM and the actions of the project Stakeholders in contributing to project success. Click through for more on knowledge management. 

PP: Beyond Conventional Stakeholder Management. The lack of effective engagement with stakeholders is a well acknowledged cause of program failure and stakeholder management is increasingly, as such, recognized as an important discipline. There are many tools and techniques already available (including the Stakeholder Circle) but to be effective, they need to be supported by the right attitudes. This paper describes PRIME Intelligence© and discusses how programs can develop PRIME Intelligence to enthuse a successful attitude across a program team. PRIME Intelligence© has been developed by Moorhouse Consulting Ltd. (UK) to help organizations improve their project and program outcomes and focuses on the 'right brain' attributes needed for successful stakeholder engagement.