Stakeholder Engagement for Projects

One of the key ingredients to successful completion of projects is the planning for engaging stakeholders. If you plan it right, there are many benefits for you, as project manager, and for the project. If you don’t plan it right, you can put the entire project at risk with devastating consequences.

Course duration

• One day, from 8.30am to 3.30pm

Course Content

Principles of Engagement

• The need for stakeholder engagement
• Benefits of planning stakeholder engagement
• Consequences of poor stakeholder engagement planning

4-Step Engagement Process

• Structuring your engagement process
• Transparency and consistent practice

Identify Stakeholders

• Individuals and/or groups of stakeholders
• Which stakeholders are affected by your project
• Who needs to be consulted

Map Stakeholders and Issues

• Analysis using the salience model
• Outlining stakeholder expectations
• Consideration of boundaries in the engagement process

Formulate Engagement Process

• Identifying different engagement levels
• Benefits and limitations of the different levels
• Creating the stakeholder engagement plan

Implement, Document and Evaluate the Outcomes

• The importance of documentation and evaluation
• Tracking the engagement process
• Evaluation of the stakeholder engagement process

Putting it into practice

• KISS Action Plan

• Define Community/Stakeholder needs and differences
• Identify ways to engage different stakeholder types
• Determine appropriate processes and tools to incorporate engagement by examining objectives, stakeholders and resources
• Formulate a stakeholder engagement plan with timelines and implementation methods and techniques
• Improve decision-making and accountability through planning
• Discover ways stakeholders can influence the decision-making process
• Prioritise stakeholders according to needs and expectations
• Recognise the need for documentation and evaluation of outcomes