Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 1 Project Stakeholder Engagement

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 2 Goal of Project Stakeholder Engagement Supportive Neutral Adversarial Project Stakeholders Project achieves its goal within time and budget according to its require- ments and to satisfaction of all key stakeholders. Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 3 Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies PROJECT CONTEXT Rigorous analysis and documentation of the stakeholder commu- nity’s concerns, their expected attitude and behaviour towards towards project and review of their options, SWOT-Analysis of the project from the stake- holder perspective INFORMATION CONSULTATION INCENTIVES PARTNERSHIP

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 4 A Note About Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 5 Engaging Project Stakeholders Supportive Stakeholders Increase the level of supportiveness of the project’s key active stakeholders Retain interest and support of all project stakeholders Use supportive stakeholders to influence adversarial & neutral stakeholders in favour of the project Convert (important) passive supportive stakeholders to actively supportive ones Convince stakeholders to provide input for the project

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 6 Engaging Project Stakeholders Neutral Stakeholders Encourage neutral stakeholders to be- come supportive stakholders Ensure that neutral stakeholders do not become adversarial stakeholders

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 7 Engaging Project Stakeholders Adversarial Stakeholders Influence adversarial stakeholders by seeking alliances with supportive stake- holders Reduce (and when possible eliminate) re- sistance by (actively) adversarial project stakeholders Prevent adversarial stakeholders from joining forces to oppose the project Convice adversarial stakeholders that they may stand to benefit from the project Offer incentives to adversarial stakeholders to gain support for the project Prevent passive adversarial stakeholders from turning into active ones

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 8 Engaging Project Stakeholders: Major Limitations Limitations COST TIME HUMAN & TECHNICAL RESOURCES INFORMATION POLICIES LACK OF CREATIVITY

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 9 Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies: ( Resources Used in Creating Reactive & Proactive Strategies) Reactive Strategies Low High Proactive Strategies LowHigh This approach may be indicative of either a lack of project stakeholder management on the project or that the stakeholders identified are easily manageable. For simple projects with a small stakeholder community whose behaviour is highly predict- able this may be adequate. An effective and efficient approach to engaging the project stakeholders. Project resources (cost, time, effort etc.) are conserved and uncertainty and frustration are avoided. How- ever, a lot of creativity, flexbility, quality information and constant monitoring is required. An ineffective and inefficient approach to managing the project stakeholders. Project resources are spent in correct- ing issues and problems with stake- holders after they have arisen and which may have been avoidable had some adequate effort been given to anticipating and carefully planning for them. Here the project team spends not only resources to devise a proactive stakeholder engagement approach but also finds iself in the position of having to expend resources on de- vising strategies for tackling emer- ging issues and problems with the project stakeholders.

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 10 Information is uni-directional from the project team to the stakeholders. It is a highly customizable and usually quite potent instrument for engaging project stakehol- ders and is comparatively cost-effective. Information can be provided to stakehol- ders in various forms (e.g. Newsletters, Leaflets, Bro- chures, Press Releases, Web- sites) and by utilizing diverse transmission mediums (e.g. Personal Contact, Print Media, Radio, TV, Internet) Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies: Information

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 11 Consultation serves to acquaint the project team and external stakeholders with each others standpoint. In development projects, consultation or dialogue workshops involving stake- holders are common and may occur frequently over the course of the project and subsequent to its completion. Consultation permits collect- ion of important infornation from stakeholders and gives them a sense of ‚ownership‘ of the project. Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies: Consultation

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 12 Incentives for making extern- al stakeholders supportive of a project can take on many forms, for e.g., giving jobs and assurances to prioritize procurement of project in- puts from within the stake- holder community. Project teams have developed inno- vative solutions such as pro- viding stipends, organizing sporting events and galas, offering guided tours of pro- ject sites, donating compu- ters to schools, making play- grounds etc. Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies: Incentives

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 13 A powerful tool which the project team has for sending the message to stakeholders that their voice matters on the project is to make them ‚partners‘. Partnership means permitting the stakeholders (within carefully specified limits) to propose alterations to the project scope in order that their concerns can be addressed and they will re- frain from adopting measures which may have a negative cost, schedule or other im- pact on the project. Project Stakeholder Engagement Strategies: Partnership

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 14 Engaging Project Stakeholders in Practice

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 15

Assistant Professor Dr. Aurangzeb Zulfiqar Khan Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan 16