Michaels & Associates

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Can a movie producer win an Academy Award without her cast and crew? Absolutely not! On the same note, you can't expect to create and deliver prize-worthy training without a team of fully engaged stakeholders. To develop a game plan for building a winning project team, let's answer some key questions about stakeholder engagement.

What are the benefits of stakeholder involvement?

Stakeholders who are actively involved in your project can provide you with ideas, information and opinions that are vital to your training project. Without them, you'd probably spend many hours hunting and pecking for content and still not gather everything you need. You may end up with gaps in your content and incorrect information based on assumptions you made because of the lack of stakeholder cooperation. By working successfully with stakeholders, you earn their respect and therefore earn more opportunities to collaborate with them in the future. It's always nice to have content experts on your side! Of course, stakeholder engagement also means that they understand the importance and benefits of what you do, so they can support you and you can support them. That's what a team is all about, right?

Who are my stakeholders, and what interest do they have in my project?

Stakeholders are people with an interest in your project and/or people who will be ultimately affected by your training program. Like you, they must invest their time, energy and ideas to make the training as effective as it can be. It's important to identify your stakeholders before you begin your project, to ensure smooth sailing and avoid expensive delays and excessive revisions as the project progresses. To help you identify them, answer this basic question: Who has an interest in the outcome of my training? Your answer may include top executives, shareholders, middle management, consumers, suppliers, employees, your own team, your boss, subject matter experts, marketing and IT. Also think about what interest they have in your project. It could be financial, organizational, management, educational or something similar. If you identify a team or organization as a stakeholder, be sure to determine an individual within the team to be your primary contact.

To help you identify your stakeholders and their interests, try using these forms offered by TechRepublic.

What roles will the stakeholders play in my project?

Like the actors in the movie producer's cast, your stakeholders will have specific roles during your training project. In order to get the most cooperation from them, the roles should directly reflect the stakeholder's interests. For example, the marketing team wants to ensure that your project reflects the company's branding, so their role in your project should be to provide resources such as branding standards, graphics and video support. If you make the marketing team responsible for verifying your training content for technical accuracy, you can expect that they won't be fully engaged.

The following table lists several people who might be training stakeholders (depending on the size and nature of your project) and their potential role. Make a table of your own for reference throughout your project.

Stakeholder	Role
Business sponsor	Confirm business need by defining business objectives to be met by training, approve/disapprove proposal and budget and propose to company execs, review deliverables as appropriate, communicate project to the organization, supervise change management efforts related to the training
SMEs	Help analyze learner needs and learning objectives, provide expertise and raw content to help ID design and develop training, review materials and provide feedback to verify content accuracy, participate in interviews and meetings
Company execs (shareholders)	Authorize funding, set organizational goals and measure the training against them
Project manager	Communicate regularly with ID to ensure project progress, coordinate project schedule and milestones, monitor and report project dates and deliverables, communicate project successes and challenges, handle changes of scope
Middle managers and supervisors	Help determine content, provide insight on how they judge an employee's success, help with evaluation and ROI reporting
Training dept managers	Provide personnel and resources for the project, manage the project, review training materials, help align training to corporate needs, supervise implementation, analyze effectiveness and report results
Marketing and graphics team	Provide branding standards, graphics libraries, video production capability and document templates, assist in promoting training and encouraging participation
Finance/billing	Approve training budget and allocate funds, financial reporting, look for budget compliance or overage, evaluate ROI results
IT department	Provide appropriate mechanisms for content delivery and reporting
Instructional designers (ID)	Perform analysis to define desired training results, design and develop training materials, interview SMEs and business sponsor, communicate project progress to project manager, manage the review process, help implement the training solution
Instructors	Offer insights to learner behaviors and delivery modes, help evaluate effectiveness of program
Training department team	Help design and develop training; provide insight on best practices, standards and delivery methods; review training materials; help implement training
Trainees	Help determine learner needs, skill gaps, suitability of training materials, effectiveness of training
High performers	Verify learner needs, content validity and delivery methods; assist in TTT and implementation; provide insight during evaluation

What else should I consider about my stakeholders as I build my team?

After you identify stakeholders and their potential roles, answer the following questions to determine how you will interact with them. You can answer some of these questions on your own, but be sure to ask each stakeholder these questions, too:

• What information do you want from each stakeholder? What do they want from you? It may be easy to determine what you want from them, but don't forget the other side of the fence. If the business sponsor wants regular reporting on project status, be sure you provide this. If the SMEs want sufficient advance notice on work coming their way, make sure you do it. By meeting their needs, you'll be more likely to get what you need when you need it.


• How much support do you need from each stakeholder? What will help them support your project? When you develop your list of stakeholders and their roles, you'll see that some stakeholders play large support roles and some do not. To get the support you need, you'll also need to support the stakeholders. Put yourself in their shoes and try to anticipate what they will need before the project begins. Why? You want to be ready to meet their needs and build their confidence in you as early as possible. Then, as you meet with each stakeholder, ask this question to validate your thoughts and begin to build your rapport with them.


• What inspires each stakeholder? By focusing on their motivations and using them to refine the stakeholders' roles on the project, you will be able to increase their engagement and win them over early in the project.


• How much influence does each stakeholder have in ensuring the success of your project? Some of your stakeholders will hold the power to approve/disapprove of your project and to advance/delay it. You need to keep these team members satisfied with effective communications and involvement throughout the project.


• How much interest does each stakeholder have in your project? Interest typically indicates the willingness to participate, so these team members will be more likely to dedicate the time to ensure your project's success. They will be your best resources for information and help. Be sure to get them involved early to maximize their engagement.


• What do the stakeholders think of you/your team/your training? Sometimes your stakeholders are people you've worked with in the past, and you have a healthy, established relationship with them. However, sometimes you'll need to learn more about stakeholders to determine how they feel about training and your team. It's good to find this out before the project begins so you're prepared to educate them on your importance to the project's success and motivate them to contribute.


• How will you manage their resistance? Stakeholders have their own thoughts and ideas, but they might go against the consensus of the team. Before you start facing this type of challenge, have a plan for handling it. You might have a formal process such as submitting concerns in writing to the project manager. Or you might maintain an "open door policy" where stakeholders can voice their concerns to you directly.

In the second half of this article, we will discuss getting everyone on board, defining the elements of a good kickoff meeting and tackling any stakeholder challenges that appear during the project.

Continue reading:
Making it Happen: Stakeholder Engagement (Part 2) →