Key Principles

Step 3: Create a Project Stakeholder Plan

Having a project stakeholder plan ensures that you approach the influence part of your project with as much organization and attention as you give to the DMAIC steps. Time invested early in stakeholder planning can save you countless hours of dealing with resistance, redoing work, missing targets, etc.

What to Do:

1. Use the worksheet in Tool 10-5 (page 91) to create a plan for the key stakeholders you analyzed in Step 2. An explanation of the worksheet items follows. You may want to refer to other chapters in this pocket guide for help on some of the items.

Worksheet: Project Stakeholder Planning

Tool 10-5.

2. Implement the plan, monitor progress, and update the information regularly.

Explanation of Worksheet Items

Influence objective: Describe in detail exactly what you want the person to do, and a description of what will happen if you are successful in influencing him/her.

How to increase benefits to stakeholder: Identify anything you—or someone else with whom you have influence—can do to ensure that this person benefits from the project outcome or activities. Think of how you might change the person’s perception if you perceive a benefit but he/she does not. If the person already perceives a benefit, consider how you can reinforce that perception.

How to reduce cost or inconvenience to stakeholder: Identify anything you—or someone else with whom you have influence—can do to reduce the negative effects of the project on this person. Think of how you can reframe the person’s perception if he/she perceives a cost/inconvenience but you do not believe it will happen.

How to deal with conflict with stakeholder: Write down your thoughts about a good approach to resolving the conflict, given what you know about your own and this person’s conflict styles (see Chapter 7 for more on conflict). If the conflict is disruptive team behavior, think of steps you might take to deal with it (see Chapter 8 for more), and consider whether you could reduce the conflict by addressing team roles or goals (see Chapters 4 and 9).

Plan for direct influence: Identify your primary and back-up influence strategies (see Chapter 11 for more information). Think of how you should communicate with this person in the course of your influence attempts (see Chapter 12).

Plan for indirect influence: If you are not the best person to do this, think about who you could ask to contact or attempt to influence this person in your place. Perhaps one of the supporters you identified earlier? Consider whether you have access to any materials, information, meetings, industry peers, etc. that might make the person more sympathetic to your project. If your stakeholder is a department or group, try to identify a friend or contact in that group who might serve as an informal link.

Implementation considerations: Identify the steps you’ll take, when you’ll take them, and whether anything else has to happen first. Determine what method of communications (face-to-face, phone, e-mail) you could and should use (see Chapters 12 through 15 for more on communicating).