A global electronics manufacturer needs to streamline their project governance. Part of this effort requires Developing Stakeholder Management Skills in their project managers.
Client
The client is a global electronics manufacturer with over 1500 employees locally and more than 200,000 globally.
Challenge
The client’s PMO (Project Management Office) is responsible for providing support to the company’s project managers. This includes tools, expertise and learning and development opportunities. The PMO received some complaints from various sources that the status reporting of ongoing projects was not meeting the needs of the various stakeholders. The complaints included:
- The level of detail was inappropriate for the two different audiences (upper management and customers) – too detailed at times and too superficial at others).
- The customers complained that a single face was not presented to them – that the project managers were not taking full responsibility for the projects under their control.
- Issues and risks were not being managed proactively – often they were presented without action plans.
- Requests for help from management (escalations) were too frequent, often came too late, and were poorly prepared.
Solution
Our solution included a training program, combined with a case study and realistic simulations, management support and continuous feedback after training to ensure long-term behavioral change. The whole program was designed using internal processes and organizational assets and tools so that taking the new ways of working back to the job was easy and natural.
Analysis
After looking closely at the situation, it became clear that some of the problems were being caused by the performance evaluation metrics in use. In other words the desired behaviors were actually punished and the undesired behaviors incentivized. So the first action was to remove the conflicting KPIs from the annual performance evaluation process.
Developing Stakeholder Management Skills – Training Modules
Stakeholder Analysis
- Requirements Analysis
- Stakeholder Management
- Communication Management
- Political Analysis
Managing External Communications
- Reporting Progress and Plans
- Reporting Issues and Risks
- Communication Management
- Delivering Customer Satisfaction
Internal Communication
- Financial Summary
- Requesting Decisions
- Escalating Issues
- Managed Escalation Process
Communication Challenges
- Keeping Control
- Difficult Questions
- Providing Clarifications
- Persuasion
Performance Support
Coaching & Feedback
Results
- The new reporting tools were used by all project managers.
- The customer satisfaction surveys improved significantly.
- The internal management team approved the new tools and ways of reporting.
- The participants reported greater confidence when dealing with difficult and challenging reporting situations.
- Un-managed escalations decreased.
Conclusion (and Lessons Learned)
We often find that legacy performance management metrics reward undesirable behaviors. And the best first step in changing behavior is to examine what systems are creating and sustaining the behavior we would like to change.
