Virtual Project Communications 2008-05-13T09:55:22Z http://blog.virtualprojectcommunications.com/atom.aspx Quick Blog Analyze Project Stakeholder Gap for Change tag:blog.virtualprojectcommunications.com,2007-06-22:0b547208-4376-4dfb-a9e0-d84cd13eeb19 Jim Carras 2007-06-25T14:44:27Z 2007-06-22T07:57:00Z We have all been on projects where understanding different stakeholder groups becomes a 'touchy-feely' feeling.  You have a gut feel for their tolerance for change, commitment, ability to influence and what they view as important.  Most of the time we are wrong but if we had some real data for these areas, then we could establish effective communications and begin to understand what challenges faced us during our project time line.

The analysis of stakeholder and organizational requirements can be used to identify the degree of project related change required (both incremental or fundamental) and to diagnose required changes.  This gap analysis will provide a process for examining the differences between where the stakeholders are and where they need to be after the project is completed.  The difference between actual and desired future states indicates potential areas for planned interventions.  Once these differences have been identified, it will be important to assess priorities to guide the project communications activities.



You can see by the graphic that the stakeholder group in the analysis on the left is both committed and have a high tolerance for change.  On the right, a lot of the stakeholders in the analysis felt the project was very important but none had the ability (organization or decision making structure) to influence the change.  The only persion who had the ability to influence was identified the project as the lowest level of importance.  This analysis provides great insight to the project management team to use communications as a method of positive change.

Some of the key data points you could consider are:
*    Chart the boundaries between key organizations and the their managerial control for a successful project.
*    Chart the decision-making patterns between and within revelant organizational units.
*    Test for key organizational assumptions, principles and constraints.
*    Identify role definitions derived from stakeholder competencies.
*    Compare different locations among the impacted stakeholder groups.

Please share your thoughts about projects you have participated where you have developed similar analysis or after-the-fact should have.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.

]]> Perform a Stakeholder Analysis for Change Identify Stakeholder Readiness for Change tag:blog.virtualprojectcommunications.com,2007-06-21:c40282c0-888b-46fd-b928-ba0ec6ac0abd Jim Carras 2007-06-21T20:20:39Z 2007-06-21T06:38:00Z Even on smaller projects there are key individuals or groups of individuals who need special attention when planning communications for the project.  In larger projects there could be multiple stakeholders, each with their own unique reason they oppose the project or some aspect that affects them.  If you could identify these individuals or groups while in your project planning phase, then you could design interventions to minimize or eliminate their objections and concerns.  They in fact could become one of your greatest supporters.  Many times stakeholders can withstand the pressures of the changes without any help but many reach a point in the project when they have exceeded their capacity for change.

One approach is to perform a Stakeholder Readiness Analysis to help determine what deliberate activities you would like to include in your project plan to overcome these objections or never have the objection in the first place.  The latter requires we can carry a stakeholder through a series of stages beginning with Awareness and ending with Acceptance.  We can view this transformation in the following curve showing the level of acceptance over the time of the project (and even beyond).

Levels of Stakeholder Readiness for Change
Awareness
At the beginning of any new project, the flow of communications begins and stakeholders develop an awareness.  This awareness usually does not always based on fact but rather hearsay before formal communications are released.

Personal Concern
As stakeholders begin discussion and information begins to flow, many of the stakeholders begin to determine how the project will impact them.  I have talked to stakeholders who feel their jobs are in jeopardy when in fact the project will increase the staffing for their group.  This is why early communications are designed to address these topics and you want to prevent personal concern to arise by sending well-written and timely communications.

Initial Exposure
Once the initial communications reach the different stakeholder groups, many of the questions can be answered. Initial exposure is founded on formal communications.

Anticipation
Once the stakeholders understand the true impact of the project, they begin to establish a positive (or negative) feeling and anticipate the proposed outcomes.  Project communications should be clear on any positive changes to minimize any resistance to change.  I have seen effective project communications create excitement and a "pull" to having the project be successful.

Acceptance
Once a successful series of project communications are implemented, the different stakeholder groups have internalized the changes and become advocates of the change.



]]> Stakeholders in a project evolve their understanding and association from a general awareness to true acceptance and full supporters. Project communications should make this transition as smooth and effective as possible. Project Communications Strategy tag:blog.virtualprojectcommunications.com,2007-06-13:d106be87-9006-477f-99ab-50b9a3352a39 Jim Carras 2007-06-25T14:48:03Z 2007-06-13T09:38:00Z Project Communication activities should be established at a high level.  This can be done as a pre-planning strategy to ensure the big picture is addressed.  In a larger project, the initial engagement with your customer is through project communication activities.  These activities are designed to organize and prepare your customer starting at the very early stages of engagement.  As the project goes through it's natural project steps, will also unfold a series of "just-in-time" communications activities.

Example of a phased project communications strategy



At the highest level, our primary communications strategy is to help facilitate the 'people' element associated with the project.  Some of the goals you could establish in the project strategy could include:


  • Build understanding and acceptance for the project, including its scope, impact, benefits, end user participation, delivery and closure.
  • Build commitment to one set of leadership principles and objectives.
  • Keep stakeholders updated, involved, motivated and engaged throughout the project providing just-in-time information specific to their needs.
  • Establish an open and constructive dialog about the project among key stakeholders.
  • Facilitate migration from the old way of doing business to the new thought the adoption of new tools, processes and partnerships.
  • Maintain employee productivity during the project timeline.
  • Reduce employee anxiety and fear of the "unknown."
  • The strategy should be designed to create a positive "pull" from all stakeholders to welcome the project impact on programs, processes, tools, and its respective benefits.
  • Ensure close integration of all key stakeholder groups and to know "what's in it for them."
  • Sequence through a phased approach resulting in a "just-in-time" release and the correct "dose" of information.
  • Balance the technology and process changes with the appropriate attention to all the impacted cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Ensure a governance for all project communications is established before the project begins.

The strategy should also address the pre-conditions required.  These include:

  • The project has an appropriate and committed champion.
  • Use multiple channels to reinforce messages.
  • Use formal channels to pro actively communicate project milestones, concerns, status and upcoming events.
  • Disseminate information sequentially from the highest level of the organization to the lowest.
  • Use face-to-face channels from the supervisor to direct report whenever possible.
  • Repeat important messages at least three times to make sure it sinks in.
  • Coordinated messages to ensure integration across all project frameworks.
  • The project owners clearly understand the principles, process and approach for project communications.
  • There are sufficient resources assigned to support the communications strategy.

Most projects impact human behavior, relationships, and a process.  The key is to understand the level of impact and design the communications approach and plan to meet the real needs of the stakeholders.

 










]]> Example of a phased project communications strategy Use an Integrated Approach to project communications tag:blog.virtualprojectcommunications.com,2007-06-02:210f591e-a175-4be9-b858-d06398076336 Jim Carras 2007-06-25T14:49:22Z 2007-06-02T08:46:00Z Developing a communications strategy should focus on the entire time line for a project and also the complete impact on the entire stakeholder community.  The purpose should be to ensure stakeholders are prepared, aligned, and equipped for the project changes.  The strategy should be developed after the project goals and desired outcomes have been identified and the technical and/or procedural solutions have been finalized.  The broader categories for understanding stakeholders are the 1) human and social systems, 2) organizational structure and relationships, and 3) the systems, process and ownership.

Human Behavior
Understanding stakeholder behavior
Create a Cultural Change plan
Behavior Modification
Changing stakeholder values and benefits
Build new working relationships
Cultivate a commitment to success


Structure and Relationships
Manage New Relationships
Validate new Workforce Rules
Ensure Knowledge Transfer
Manage Organizational Structure Changes
Manage fear and resistance to change
Communicate performance expectations
Plan for perception of threat to power and territory

Systems, Processes and Ownership
Process Management
New processes, policies and procedures
Transition business process redesign
Validate Organizational ownership
Foster pride in organizations performance

Some projects which impact business process change will need to have an added focus on all three of these.  Smaller projects which just a small change of functionality in an existing enterprise software package will not impact behavior or structure but would change the procedures for the impacted process. 

]]> A communications strategy should consider human behavior, organizational structure and process/procedures. Communications Document Standards and Procedures tag:blog.virtualprojectcommunications.com,2007-05-14:932c9fef-f28e-4329-ac92-11c786a67efb Jim Carras 2007-06-18T22:34:54Z 2007-05-14T09:55:00Z What is the scope of a project communications role in projects today?  Many projects put the boundaries at just developing and sending simple communications via newsletter or emails, while others projects take a more complete view and include communications for all of the project stakeholders.  I have seen project team members who do not want to relinquish any control over their engagement with the project's customers and stakeholders.  Their desire for total control, however, creates a communications strategy and deployment that is not integrated and could lead to project failure.

Where do you draw the line?  For the best chance of success, we should strive toward an integrated approach including 1) developing guidelines for all message categories, 2) establish documentation style guide standards , and 3) create a document management, storage and distribution procedure including version control, approval process, and ownership.

Many projects use similar types of documents to document and communicate planning or control information.  One important aspect for all physical or virtual documents is to develop a document management plan and methodology.  This can be accomplished by using a document database containing all documentation.  The document database can include the following key fields:

Document Name
Document Owner
Document Location
Update Schedule
Distribution
Archive Location
Destruction Plan

I like to keep in mind that documents are a part of what we communicate with project team members, project management, project champions, project customers and all others who influence or are affected by the project.  That's a broad scope which demands a broad document management plan.

What are your thoughts?

]]> Project documentation needs to be included and managed as part of the project communications plan to ensure an integrated approach. Project Management Communications tag:blog.virtualprojectcommunications.com,2007-05-13:7664004c-1c49-405e-8fde-cafa98169a26 Jim Carras 2007-06-23T15:13:19Z 2007-05-13T20:02:00Z Project management communications in it's modern form, began to take root only a few decades ago.  About 1930, businesses and other organizations began to understand the need to engage the project stakeholders to make their projects successful.  Also, technology offered a growing list of potential vehicles to reach the growing list of stakeholders.  Today, technology via the Internet brings virtual and global communications capabilities (almost to a fault) for projects of all sizes to effectively manage the flow of information via email, webcasts, websites, and collaborative project management tools.

The growth of these new communication delivery capabilities alone are not the panacea for project communications.  There nees to be a logical methodology by the project team to establish a STRATEGY, build a PLAN, DEVELOP then DELIVER the communications.  Finally there needs to be an effective FEEDBACK capability which ties the needs of the stakeholders to the results of the communication.

Since communications occurs throughout a project's timeline, we must also keep in mind the stakeholder needs during the project's INITIATION, PLANNING, EXECUTION, ACCEPTANCE and CLOSEDOWN.

The material I am developing is built around this approach.  The Communications Methodology and the Project Timeline.


 
               Chapter Text Methodology Organized by Communications Phase
               Communications Templates Organized by Project Phase


These communications skills are an overall part of an integrated approach to project communications.  The integrated approach needs to consider three important catagories.  First, Human Behavior and culture change including changes the project brings and to cultivate a commitment to success.  Second, is the Structure and Relationships of new roles, organizational structure changes and to manage the fear and resistance the project can bring.  Third, are the changes to Process, Structure and Ownership to foster pride in how the project effects the organizations performance.

I would like to use this Blog in a way bringing increased awareness and conversation around project communications and to create a two-way dialog to explore this topic.  For more information regarding this project communications methodology, please contact jim@carras.com]]> Project Communications methodology built around a Project Timeline addresses and meets the stakeholder needs throughout the project's timeline.