Why should you communicate information that is accurate and relevant to your stakeholders?

It is of crucial importance to any project manager to work closely with stakeholders – relevant people affiliated with your project whose opinions and actions will directly impact the project outcome. I label it “crucial” because of the whopping 30% of projects that experience failure due to poor communication.

Establishing ground rules for effective stakeholders communication will save time, remove obstacles and ultimately, finish the project on time and within budget. There are several communication methods you should implement when communicating with stakeholders in your company. All methods of communication described below have their upsides and downsides, so make sure you pick the right one depending on the message you are trying to send to your stakeholders.

Schedule a meeting

Stakeholder meetings are the most common communication method in place for corporations, especially since they can save time in conveying the message to a large number of people. Best ways to communicate the message would be PowerPoint, Prezi or any of the mind mapping software solutions available online. Being in the same room with stakeholders should avoid misinterpretation issues.

However, beware that with growing distributed teams, scheduled meetings are becoming a thing of the past. With growing online platforms that ensure real-time transparency, clients are no longer passive consumers of information. Delivering periodic reports without continuous communication will not cut it anymore.

Send out a newsletter

Using the company’s intranet or collaboration platform already in place, you can act proactively and define a newsletter to be sent out to stakeholders at given time periods. It can be great for including even stakeholders who are not directly involved with your project. Beware that e-mail is a one-way communication channel, so you should avoid it for issues that require immediate feedback.

Separate online “screen to screen” meetings

As time-consuming as they can be separate face to face meetings are the best way to get the message across stakeholders. Not everyone responds to your presentation style equally, so by meeting stakeholders separately, you can address their concerns in more detail and with greater control. Of course, again, as a result of the graphically dispersed teams and the growing trend of including independent contractors in projects “screen to screen” is becoming the new “face to face”, since so many of the meetings are held via online communication and collaboration platforms. Having a presentation is optional; you are better off focusing on the dialogue.

Project summary report

Project summary reports are usually sent out in predefined periods (weekly, monthly). The protocol is already agreed upon here, so if your project is running on time and within budget, you should not have any concerns. Backed up with data and statistics you should highlight the top performing parts of your project and reassure the stakeholders you have the situation in control.

Schedule a conference call

Conference calls are most commonly used in situations where the issue is too urgent for a meeting. So whenever you feel there is an obstacle that needs to be resolved immediately you can schedule a conference call, which can be arranged in the matter of minutes/hours. Have in mind that conference calls are better for one way communication so it would be a good idea to have an agenda prepared before the conference call starts.

Lunch meetings

Lunch meetings would fall into the informal communication category of stakeholders meetings. They would be a great idea for getting honest feedback or getting stakeholders to sign off on a particular idea you have in mind. Have in mind that informal meetings can be just as effective as the official ones.

Author:

Stefan Jordev is e-business management MSc and marketing specialist for Seavus’ Project Viewer. Passionate about project management & mind mapping, he is constantly looking for ways to innovate and combine these two. He is a regular contributor to 4 project management blogs and has written over a dozen e-books on the subject.

When you’re working on complex projects with varied stakeholders, it’s important to provide clear and consistent communication. Staying true to a core message creates trust and helps stakeholders understand change.

A few weeks ago I was on the phone with my internet provider a lot. I was working from home, our service was incredibly slow, and I wanted answers, fast. Fortunately, over the course of a few hours, after speaking with multiple people, the issue had been resolved. But, I seemed to get a slightly different solution every time I called (this is not an uncommon occurrence).

Have you ever spoken with multiple people at an organisation and been provided with a different answer every time? It was exhausting trying to decipher what information was accurate. It was also hard to know who to trust, or who would actually help. Receiving mixed messages was simply frustrating and confusing.

You see, stakeholders can be quick to identify an inconsistent message and it’s easy for them to share their dissatisfaction online. Broken stakeholder trust is also difficult to rebuild. It can lead to resistance, negative publicity, loss of your social license to operate, project delays, and unexpected implementation costs.

Consistency creates certainty and sharing aligned communications to your stakeholders will improve your organisation’s reputation. It also helps you to create positive experiences, build better stakeholder relationships, and deliver better outcomes.

So, what really is a consistent message? And how can it help you build better relationships with your stakeholders?

What is a consistent message?

To deliver a consistent message, you need to make sure that your entire team is aligned on a central idea. It’s about choosing a core message and continuing to deliver it across all of your communications channels.

In stakeholder management, you also have to be consistent with the message that other team members have delivered. If a stakeholder shares a complaint or asks a question, your response needs to match information they have previously received. When the situation or context changes, you should be able to adapt your message while continuing to deliver the same idea.

That means that your entire team needs to have access to core project details. You may also need to identify your influential stakeholders and communicate with them frequently.

Why do you need to be consistent when talking to stakeholders?

Consistent messaging goes beyond repetition and alignment, it ensures common understanding and clarity is of utmost focus to your organisation. From here, you’re easily able to set accurate and achievable expectations with your stakeholders because they know you have their best interests at heart.

Consistency creates a common understanding

Just because you’ve said something once doesn’t mean that people will automatically understand or remember your message. Often repeating the same idea creates lightbulb moments and builds understanding with your target stakeholders.

After hearing your message a few times, your stakeholders can develop a crystal clear understanding. Sometimes they need time to understand your goals, especially if you are making big changes to their lives.

A common understanding also makes it easier to overcome project hurdles. Mutual trust makes stakeholders far more likely to listen to your advice when the unexpected arises.

Clarity ensures that your message gets through

The world is noisy and it places huge demands on our attention. That means that important messages can easily get lost, confused, or go unnoticed. If you can deliver a consistent message repeatedly, you are more likely to reach and have an impact on your stakeholders.

Misaligned messaging is hard for stakeholders to process. They may simply ignore your communications if they have to spend too much time and mental energy thinking about them. If you want your stakeholders to listen, your message should be important and up to date.

Accuracy drives productivity and sets the right expectations

Stakeholders always have a vested interest in your initiative and communicating with them consistently will keep your project on track. That involves getting the basics right.

Setting accurate meeting times and agendas is essential. Different groups of stakeholders will also have different interests, so you need to share information that is relevant to their needs. Sending consistent and timely project updates is also an effective way to take your stakeholders on the journey with you. It empowers stakeholders to provide their input at key phases in the project.

It’s also important to set the right expectations regarding the process, goals, and outcomes. If stakeholders have misaligned expectations due to inconsistent messaging, they can easily become confused, disappointed, and resistant.

How to align your communications

It’s important that your organisation has a clear understanding of its purpose, goals, and processes for achieving them. If those foundations are in place, it’s easier to create a consistent stakeholder communications strategy for your team.

However, If you don’t have a place to store and access stakeholder interactions, your messaging could become disjointed. A stakeholder complaint could be issued at any point in time and your entire team needs to be empowered with context.

A stakeholder relationship management platform is a central place to record stakeholder interactions, keep track of important issues, and understand sentiment. It should also help you to share relevant updates with different stakeholder segments.

Shaping the narrative with consistent messaging is completely in reach when you have the right structure and systems in place.

Set your team up for future success

A consistent communications plan will build a positive reputation and set your team up for future success. When stakeholders know that your message matches your actions, they will want to work with your team on future projects.

Why is it important to communicate accurately and effectively?

Why is it important to keep stakeholders informed?

Why is it necessary to communicate effectively and efficiently to organizational stakeholders?

How do you ensure you are providing accurate and relevant information to your stakeholders?