In project management, we often focus on tangible resources and deliverables. However, behind every resource—whether it’s a warehouse, a data storage system, or a monthly delivery—there’s a network of human stakeholders. Understanding and engaging these stakeholders is crucial for project success, even when they’re not listed in your resource spreadsheet.
The Human Element Behind Every Resource
If you load resources into MS Project, you probably include some of the hard material resources or facilities essential to your project success. We don’t tend to think of “Warehouse Storage” as a human resource. Like it or not, in a sense, it is. Someone somewhere is the controlling entity over the warehouse. If we’re tracking resources like data storage, there’s a somebody there as well.
Whether it’s lumber or laptops, there are people who are the stakeholders that render the resources available. Be they internal or external, they need to be treated as stakeholders.
Case Study: The Many Stakeholders Behind a Simple Delivery
On a current project, one of the resources I get is sent monthly via UPS. It’s on my project plan for an “order check” on the first of the month and receipt no later than the eighth. It’s been late a few times, but for the most part, I have it by the eighth, as long as I double-check on the first. It’s not a person. It’s a thing. UPS drops it at our office doorstep. Done.
But look at all of the stakeholders in that simple, repetitive process. There’s the person who fills my order prior to the first of the month. If that individual is behind the curve, I learn about it on the first, when I’m told that it has to be cleared through a higher echelon in the provider organization. There are two new stakeholders—the person I’m dealing with on the phone and the invisible upper echelon approving authority.
Shortly thereafter, I receive an e-mail advising me my deliverables are cleared and will arrive no later than the eighth. Someone wrote that e-mail. They’re a stakeholder. And again, the invisible approval authority may be a completely different individual entirely. On the sixth or seventh, I normally get a notice that my order has been shipped, with scheduled arrival on the eighth. The person enabling that notification is a stakeholder. And the brown-clad UPS driver/delivery person is yet another stakeholder.
I know my UPS guy. His name is Justin. Nice guy. I know some of the people at the source, but don’t often have the same contact individuals. I know if I get Martha when there’s a problem, it will be resolved quickly. I also know if I get Jay, I should be girded for battle.
To summarize, here are the stakeholders involved in this seemingly simple process:
- The person who fills my order prior to the first of the month
- The individual I deal with on the phone if there’s a delay
- The upper echelon approving authority
- The person who sends the email confirming the order is cleared
- The individual who sends the shipping notification
- The UPS driver who delivers the package (Justin in this case)
What shows up in my resource list? The deliverable. What’s enabling it? Stakeholders. In this instance, a single deliverable involves from half-a-dozen to a dozen stakeholders.
Stakeholder Engagement: Building Relationships for Success
I do my darnedest to embed myself with my stakeholders. I try to ensure I greet Justin, my UPS guy, when he pulls up to the office. I complete the surveys at the end of phone calls, striving to find ways to tell the provider what their staff did right. When they answer the phone with “How are you today?” I strive to respond in kind and ensure their day is also going well. I let them know how the last delivery was deployed and how they contributed to our overall success.
The Project Manager’s Role in Stakeholder Management
As a project manager, your primary job in stakeholder engagement is to put yourself in the mind of the person with whom you’re working. While you may have years of experience with the process, remember that some stakeholders may be new to their role or unfamiliar with your project’s specifics.
Stakeholder considerations go beyond the process, the deliverables, and the financials. They extend to understanding what’s going on in the heads of those who enable whatever is in your resource spreadsheet.
Practical Tip: Tracking Resource Enablers
Let me suggest that you use one of the myriad text fields in your project plan, renaming it “Resource Enabler(s)”. This affords you the ability to record the Justins, the Martys, and the faceless approving authorities that truly enable resource success. Simply recording the deliverable and its due date doesn’t tell the story of what managing and engaging will be about.
Conclusion
Expanding our understanding of who the players are—even when they’re not considered project resources—opens the door for a higher probability of success. By looking beyond the mechanics and deliverables to the people who make it happen, we can enhance our stakeholder engagement and ultimately, our project outcomes. Remember, in project management, as in a restaurant, the service can be just as crucial as the main course.
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