The stakeholder communications plan and its role in stakeholder management

APM’s 10 key principles of stakeholder management cover a number of areas. The ‘Communicate’ and ‘Plan it’ principles support the foundations of stakeholder communications i.e. understanding the stakeholders and the most appropriate way to communicate with them, and planning the communications to engage with them effectively.

Stakeholders are an essential part of any project and have the ability to make or break a project so require well-planned and managed communications. It’s essential to understand the importance of creating a stakeholder communications plan and applying it to stakeholder management.

Creating the communications plan

The first step is to create a communications plan and that requires knowing your stakeholders and their preferred ways of communicating.

Understanding your stakeholders

Identifying and analysing stakeholders provides a strong base from which to develop a communications plan. The project manager should identify stakeholders and then analyse their influence and interest. Mapping the stakeholders on a stakeholder management grid provides an understanding of their position in the project. Knowing the level of interest that a stakeholder has in your project and their influence over it helps with planning communications. It provides useful insight into how closely each stakeholder might need to be managed and the level of communication required.

Find out their preferences

Next, its important to find out stakeholder preferences for communication. Having completed a thorough stakeholder analysis, the project manager will have a better idea of the communication investment required and how to communicate the message. If a stakeholder prefers to receive emails rather than phone calls, or attend face-to-face meetings rather than video conferences, take this into account. Accommodating stakeholder preferences where possible helps to increase their engagement and demonstrates appreciation of their input.

Create a plan

Once key information about the stakeholders has been gathered, a communications plan can be created. This will set out the audience, what information needs to be communicated, when and how. In doing this, the project manager demonstrates a clear understanding of how to manage project communications with stakeholders.

Stakeholder management and the communications plan

Once a communications plan has been created, it can be used to support stakeholder management. The aim is to increase stakeholder engagement with the project and ensure that messages about the project are understood.

Engage early

Getting to know the stakeholders from the beginning of the project demonstrates an understanding of their role and influence over the project. Engaging and communicating with stakeholders from the outset encourages stakeholder support. Particularly for influential stakeholders, communicating with them early will establish a good relationship. Communicating clearly from the outset of the project ensures that messages are being understood and gives time for the relationship to grow.

Communicate clearly and regularly

It’s important to communicate with project stakeholders clearly and regularly. This does not mean that the project needs to be in constant communication with them. Rather, it means that a clear communication timetable should be set out. It also means that they should be kept abreast of key information and developments and informed about relevant issues. Having this set out in the communications plan will help with stakeholder management. It ensures that the project manager knows the messages to be communicated and the timeframe, allowing them to manage stakeholder expectations appropriately.

Take on feedback

It’s important to listen to the stakeholders and take on their feedback. If a stakeholder expresses a concern, it’s important that it’s evaluated. This is a situation when good negotiation skills will be necessary to reach an agreement, and amend the stakeholder management and communications plans as the project develops. Understanding the importance of having a plan in place but being able to adjust it when needed demonstrates effective stakeholder management. A project manager may need to change the communication strategy or method from the original plan to ensure that they are managing project stakeholders as effectively as possible.

Summary

Stakeholder communication and management is essential to managing a project effectively. The stakeholders are the people that will be most impacted by the project. As the project manager, it’s important to engage with them early on in the project and start building a positive relationship. Having a clear understanding of the project stakeholders and their communication preferences is a significant advantage when creating a communications plan. It subsequently feeds in to project communications with stakeholders and can ensure that messaging is tailored appropriately. The aim of good stakeholder communication and management is to encourage greater enthusiasm and understanding about the project and what it’s seeking to achieve, ultimately for stakeholder benefit.