Intranet Stakeholder Management

Transcription

1 Intranet Stakeholder Management Intranet Focus Ltd Research Note 07/12 September 2012 Intranet Focus Ltd 12 Allcard Close Horsham RH12 5AJ, UK

2 Summary There is general agreement that intranet stakeholders need to be managed but there seems to be very little guidance on how this should be undertaken. In fact stakeholder management is a core element of any well-managed project and there is a substantial amount of good practice advice available. At Intranet Focus Ltd we have been using this stakeholder management methodology for intranet and search strategy projects for some time. This Research Note summarises our approach and the lessons we have learned. Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. What is a stakeholder? 3 3. Influence and impact 3 4. Stakeholders are people 4 5. Four categories of engagement 4 6. Allocating resources 6 7. Good practice in stakeholder management 7 8. Using the matrix for user interviews 8 9. Summary Resources 8 Research Notes This is the seventh in a series of Research Notes that Intranet Focus Ltd is publishing in For further information see Previous Research Notes covered the future of enterprise search, enterprise mobile strategy development, enterprise search team management, digital workplaces, virtual teams and legal issues for intranet managers. 2

3 1. Introduction Conventional wisdom stresses the importance of managing intranet stakeholders, but no advice is then given on how to manage these stakeholders. Over the last two years we have been developing a methodology for intranet stakeholder management and this Research Note summarises our progress. The objective is to give intranet managers a process for categorising stakeholders and developing a communications plan that ensures the stakeholders feel fully engaged in an intranet project, whether it is a small enhancement or a complete re-launch. 2. What is a stakeholder? There is a tendency to think of intranet stakeholders as being external to an intranet project but the leader of the project is very much a stakeholder. Their career prospects could be enhanced or put at risk as an outcome of the project. By definition a stakeholder has a stake in the outcome of a project as in some way their working environment will change. Stakeholder management is a changemanagement methodology, to the extent that if the project does not result in a change to the working environment of the stakeholder there is little point in expending significant time and other resources communicating with them. Stakeholders are individuals, not groups. Even if a change to the intranet is going to impact the work of all HR Managers then each manager needs to be treated as an individual stakeholder as it is very unlikely that there is sufficient commonality of interest and impact to treat them as a group. 3. Influence and impact Stakeholders have influence over the outcome of the project and will be impacted in different levels. This is the basis for the initial consideration of potential stakeholders. Start the process by quickly plotting potential stakeholders on this diagram. It is important to remember that in the case of Impact this may not be directly a result of the intranet project. It could be that a project manager has been transferred to the intranet project from the HR database project, so the impact on the HR Director may be a second-order impact, which in the case of the diagram above is why the HR Director also has little influence. It may not have been her decision to allow the project manager to move from the HR project to the intranet project. For the Influence axis Influence could also turn out to be disruptive. The CIO may have been anticipating that the intranet re-launch would be the justification for the investment in SharePoint

4 and is not happy that an intranet suite has been selected. Initially the more potential stakeholders that can be identified the better, but then the initial selection needs to be reduced to perhaps individuals. Even in a large company there are probably no more than 20 stakeholders. Any more than this and the processes of managing them become more complex and time consuming than the intranet project itself. 4. Stakeholders are people A personal profile should then be prepared for each stakeholder. Many of them may not be known to every member of the intranet team. This profile might include Career profile at the organisation Previous positions, especially if at an organisation with a good intranet Notable successes in the organisation, perhaps a major project completed inside schedule Other stakeholders they work with, or for, or are business colleagues Membership of internal committees, boards or major project teams Management and communications style The reason for collecting this information is that you will be developing a communications strategy for each individual stakeholder. Making a connection between a project that they have managed and the intranet re-launch project may provide a way to explain why the project is taking place and the challenges that the team face. This information should be at the disposal of all members of the project team. It is easy to assume that all the stakeholders are known to all the members of the team but in reality that is not likely to be the case. Putting persona-like profiles on the walls of the project office may be a step too far. 5. Four categories of engagement The next step is to place the stakeholders into four categories but overlaying a 2-by-2 matrix on the chart. 4

5 High Influence Low Impact The key element of this group of stakeholders is that they need a communications plan which focuses on exception reporting. They are going to be concerned with the project only if it goes badly wrong (or spectacularly well) and has an impact on other projects or business operations they are responsible for. The objective is to keep them satisfied that everything is under control, and that they will be the first to know if there is either good news or bad news. Low Influence Low Impact There should be very few stakeholders in this element of the matrix. If they have only a low level of influence and the project has only a limited impact on their work then the question to ask is why are they regarded as a stakeholder. In the example above the CEO is placed in this quadrant because it is highly unlikely that he will have any immediate influence on the project nor will it have an impact on his work. However other stakeholders may well report to him so keeping him informed, especially of exceptional changes in the project, is probably desirable. Keep these stakeholders aware of what is going on, but as with any of these groups there may be a need for a more detailed report from time to time. High Influence High Impact For a different reason there should not be many stakeholders in this quadrant that are not directly engaged in the management of the project or of the intranet itself through membership of a project board or a project team. This is why the approach should be keeping these people very close indeed to the project, with any communications being handled through the project reporting and not through a stakeholder communications plan. In most intranet projects Communications Managers will be very interested in progress and in how the intranet is going help them achieve their objectives. Low Influence High Impact The final quadrant is for stakeholders who could benefit substantially from the new intranet but are not 5

6 in a position to make things happen. The new intranet could have an enhanced employee database which HR should be seeing as a benefit in reducing on-boarding time for new staff but rarely will they play a direct role in service development. They need to be kept informed on a more regular basis than the Low Influence Low Impact quadrant. 6. Allocating resources The next step is to decide on how to deliver project communications to each group of stakeholders and how much effort to put into them. In the matrix below it may initially seem odd that more effort is being allocated to stakeholders with low levels of influence. The reason for this is that stakeholders can move between quadrants and the two groups most likely to do so are those with initially a low level of influence. 6

7 Stakeholders in the Low Influence High Impact quadrant may move in two different directions. If they become frustrated about the lack of progress they may well brief more senior managers in the High Influence Low Impact quadrant about the situation. Another move would be to become disillusioned about the project and move into the Low Influence Low Impact quadrant and become difficult to engage with. The third possible move is when Low Influence Low Impact stakeholders become aware about some small aspect of the intranet project ( Why is there no mention of my department on the home page? ) and suddenly become quite disruptive. It is highly unlikely that the High Influence Low Impact stakeholders will move quadrant and if they do it will be to the High Influence High Impact quadrant, which is where all stakeholders should end up. If High Influence High Impact stakeholders should be so embedded in the intranet governance that there should be no unexpected shifts. The outcome of this analysis is why more attention needs to be paid to the two Low Influence quadrants than the two High Influence quadrants. 7. Good practice in stakeholder management Every member of the team needs to be on-message with each stakeholder. The stakeholder may be next in line at the coffee machine and will be pleasantly surprised by being recognised but not by then being given a synopsis of the project status that is at odds with a discussion they had with another member of the team just two days earlier. Managing the messages is very important. Bringing groups of stakeholders together for a presentation is an effective way of getting a message across and making them feel that you are listening to them. However tempting it may seem to set up a meeting with High Influence-High Impact stakeholders and those in the Low Influence Low Impact quadrant this is usually not productive as the messages will not be the same and each group will see themselves as being used by the project team. It is inevitable that stakeholders will change their position in the organisation, or even leave the organisation. Do not assume that the manager taking their place will be in the same quadrant and that communications will just be business as usual. The incoming manager may have experienced a worldclass intranet in their previous position and have all sorts of good (and not-so-good) ideas about what the project should be delivering. The biggest challenge is where a new stakeholder emerges. A change in organisational responsibilities could bring someone with perhaps a responsibility for HR into a corporate role. Every organisational appointment needs to be assessed to see if the people concerned need to be allocated to a different quadrant, or added to the list of stakeholders. At a discussion on stakeholder management at a JBoye Intranet Experts Group in September 2012 there was a view that adding a dimension for the level of interest in intranets, or the level of understanding of what an intranet could deliver, would enhance this approach. However there is a danger of overcomplicating stakeholder management when the core discussions should be taking place within the intranet governance framework with managers who have a substantial amount of influence and can also see a very good business case for the intranet in terms of the achievement of their own departmental and personal objectives. 7

8 8. Using the stakeholder matrix for user interviews We have also used this matrix in the process of deciding who to interview at the commencement of an intranet strategy study. Our experience is that using the matrix diagram helps move the discussion away from a focus on using the organisational chart to decide who should be interviewed and can produce a lively and constructive debate with the intranet project team. 9. Summary The effective management of stakeholders is a core element of any successful project. There is a significant amount of good practice available for use in an intranet project situation which is summarised in this Research Note. Details of how to communicate have not been included. These could range from one-on-one meetings to an intranet project blog. The choice of communications channel will depend on the circumstances of a specific project. In most intranet projects there is significant participation by the internal communications team and this team should be able to offer expertise in the selection and delivery of stakeholder communications. 10. Resources There is a wealth of stakeholder management guidance in the project management literature. Listed below are just a few well written articles which provide additional insights and guidance on stakeholder management. nt_tools/stakeholder_analysis.html