How to Develop a Comprehensive Stakeholder Communication Plan?
The foundation of effective stakeholder management is proper communication. A good stakeholder communication plan keeps all parties informed, engaged, and aligned toward the objectives of the project.
Failure to have a solid plan assures miscommunication will lead to misunderstandings, delays, or even project failure.
In this article, we look at how to develop a stakeholder communication plan that will keep everyone on the same page and drive your project toward success.
How to Develop a Comprehensive Stakeholder Communication Plan
Identify and Understand Your Stakeholders
Identifying your stakeholders and understanding their needs is the first step in developing a stakeholder communication plan. In this regard, the stakeholders may be internal team members and executives, or even external partners, customers, and regulatory agencies. Each of these groups may have different expectations and concerns and may be interested in, or involved with, the project to a different extent.
In fact, stakeholder analysis will help you identify the stakeholders in terms of their influence, interest, and priority level. Once you come to know about the stakeholders, you can design the communication strategies in order to cater to the needs of all those associated with the project.
Clearly Establish Communication Objectives
Clear objectives give the direction for any communication plan, enabling a person to streamline information between the flow of a project team and the stakeholders. Objectives should be in concert with overall goals of the project and needs of each one of the stakeholder groups. Some may need to know what is happening almost every day while for others major milestones may be sufficient.
By setting objectives, you will identify what to communicate, when to communicate it, and by what method. By correlating communication objectives with the expectations of the stakeholders, you ensure transparency and gaining of trust in the project.
Select Communication Channels Appropriate for Stakeholders
After identifying the stakeholders and their interest and power bases, the second task is to identify and select appropriate communication channels to reach them. Which channel would be applied depends on the nature of the information and the preferences of the stakeholders. Regular Cadence of daily updates via e-mail or through project management platforms might be preferred by regular team members; executives might require detailed reporting in the context of meetings.
Other external stakeholders may include clients and regulators who need formal documents or presentations. This helps ensure information is managed across diverse audiences using different levels of communication. As a matter of fact, stakeholder management software can facilitate the process by making communication centralized and keeping a record of the interaction with the stakeholder in many instances.
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