A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders


Book Description

All project stakeholders have different needs, objectives, responsibilities and priorities. For many project managers it is disturbing to realise that, for any number of personal or professional reasons, some of their stakeholders may not be as co-operative and helpful as they expect. It could be a negative and powerful sponsor (the 'Anti-sponsor'), a demotivated team, low-maturity or unrealistic external clients, maliciously compliant gatekeepers and finance teams, or uninterested internal customers. The reality of project management is that stakeholders can be difficult! Jake Holloway, Professor David Bryde and Roger Joby bring their years of project management experience and combine it with research and insight from social psychology to delve into how and why project stakeholders can be difficult. The book describes some of the common stakeholder types - such as Sponsors, the Team, Gatekeepers, Clients and Contractors - and associated unhelpful or difficult behaviour profiles that you will often come across on projects. It then provides practical ideas, techniques and methods that will help the project manager to effectively manage the impact of these stakeholders on the project. As projects get larger and more complicated, the role and influence of stakeholders grows too. A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders will provide your project teams with the basis for a more sophisticated and resilient approach to stakeholder management.




A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders


Book Description

All project stakeholders have different needs, objectives, responsibilities and priorities. For many project managers it is disturbing to realise that, for any number of personal or professional reasons, some of their stakeholders may not be as co-operative and helpful as they expect. It could be a negative and powerful sponsor (the 'Anti-sponsor'), a demotivated team, low-maturity or unrealistic external clients, maliciously compliant gatekeepers and finance teams, or uninterested internal customers. The reality of project management is that stakeholders can be difficult! Jake Holloway, Professor David Bryde and Roger Joby bring their years of project management experience and combine it with research and insight from social psychology to delve into how and why project stakeholders can be difficult. The book describes some of the common stakeholder types - such as Sponsors, the Team, Gatekeepers, Clients and Contractors - and associated unhelpful or difficult behaviour profiles that you will often come across on projects. It then provides practical ideas, techniques and methods that will help the project manager to effectively manage the impact of these stakeholders on the project. As projects get larger and more complicated, the role and influence of stakeholders grows too. A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders will provide your project teams with the basis for a more sophisticated and resilient approach to stakeholder management.







Further Advances in Project Management


Book Description

Projects are ubiquitous to modern society, yet, concerns around successful delivery, value realisation, resilience and making change stick force a significant re-evaluation of the scope and extent of the ‘normal’ project discourse. The common thread for all of this is around capabilities, skills, attitudes, values and perspectives that are needed for successful delivery and the sustained realisation of interest, relationships, benefit, value and impact. The chapters collated in this volume bring together leading authorities on topics that are relevant to the management, leadership, governance and delivery of projects. Topics include people, communication, ethics, change management, value realisation, benefits, complexity, decision-making, project assurance, communication, knowledge management, big data, project requirements, business architecture, stakeholder engagement, strategy, users, systems thinking and resilience. The main aims of the collection are to reflect on the state of practice within the discipline; to propose new extensions and additions to good practice; to offer new insights and perspectives; to distil new knowledge; and to provide a way of sampling a range of the most promising ideas, perspectives and styles of writing from some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the discipline.




Performance Coaching for Complex Projects


Book Description

Performance Coaching for Complex Projects recognises a world of complex undertakings for which the common transactional mindsets and methodologies will not produce the required results. The author advocates, instead, the novel concept that the project manager or team leader should coach the team as part of their role. Managing complexity requires greater use of influence and less reliance on coercion. Learning how to recognise the clues that reveal personal preferences, character traits and motivations will allow you to communicate in a way that recognises how different team members see the world. Team coaching helps the project team work together to think through their issues and then collectively implement the solution. Tony Llewellyn has structured his book in two parts. Part I looks at the challenges of complexity and makes the case for a shift from a transactional directive mindset to a transformational coaching philosophy. Part II introduces a model of project team coaching including the processes and methodologies that have been shown to be effective in improving team performance. Complex projects are invariably messy, not least because of the human factors associated with them. Performance Coaching for Complex Projects is essential reading for anyone responsible for managing in uncertain, challenging and changing environments.




A Practical Guide to Managing Information Security


Book Description

This groundbreaking book helps you master the management of information security, concentrating on the recognition and resolution of the practical issues of developing and implementing IT security for the enterprise. Drawing upon the authors' wealth of valuable experience in high-risk commercial environments, the work focuses on the need to align the information security process as a whole with the requirements of the modern enterprise, which involves empowering business managers to manage information security-related risk. Throughout, the book places emphasis on the use of simple, pragmatic risk management as a tool for decision-making. The first book to cover the strategic issues of IT security, it helps you to: understand the difference between more theoretical treatments of information security and operational reality; learn how information security risk can be measured and subsequently managed; define and execute an information security strategy design and implement a security architecture; and ensure that limited resources are used optimally. Illustrated by practical examples, this topical volume reveals the current problem areas in IT security deployment and management. Moreover, it offers guidelines for writing scalable and flexible procedures for developing an IT security strategy and monitoring its implementation. You discover an approach for reducing complexity and risk, and find tips for building a successful team and managing communications issues within the organization. This essential resource provides practical insight into contradictions in the current approach to securing enterprise-wide IT infrastructures, recognizes the need to continually challenge dated concepts, demonstrates the necessity of using appropriate risk management techniques, and evaluates whether or not a given risk is acceptable in pursuit of future business opportunities.




Stakeholder Management


Book Description

Are you struggling to engage your key stakeholders?Do you lose sleep the night before important meetings because you are worried about how things will turn out? Have you failed to complete an important project on time because you didn't know how to get people to stick to their commitments? If you would like to become better at influencing and persuasion, but don't know where to begin, then start here! "Stakeholder Management: 50 Quick and Easy Ways That you can Become Brilliant at Project Stakeholder Management" explains the essential steps to successful stakeholder management, using a step-by-step approach. You will learn: How to easily identify all of your key stakeholder groups How to quickly build enthusiasm and motivation How to get people to commit to your delivery dates How to create an army of advocates who support your project from start to finish When to turn on the charm and when to turn up the heat When to say no to difficult stakeholders. This is a no-nonsense, tips based book intended to be used to boost results. It can be read from cover to cover but is better off being used as a reference guide. The book supports the entire stakeholder management process and includes tips aimed at both beginners and more seasoned practitioners. Who is this book for? Those who stand to benefit most from this book include: Project management professionals, including Project Managers, Programme Managers, Project Directors, Portfolio Managers, Project Management Office (PMO) Managers Consultants, including Management Consultants, Business Consultants, Business Analysts, Requirements Managers, Independent Consultants and Business Owners Those with responsibility for managing resources, including Practice Managers, Line Managers and Resource Managers Business Managers and leaders, including Executive Management, Line Managers / Operations Managers with project responsibilities, Those with responsibility for project funding and benefits management, including Project Sponsors, Finance Directors, Project Directors, Account Managers, Account Directors New and aspiring managers looking to develop and progress their careers and needing to learn how to cultivate and develop business relationships. Table of Contents: How to get the most from this book Stakeholder Management 101 Stakeholder Management mistakes you need to avoid Stakeholder Identification tips Stakeholder Analysis tips Stakeholder Communication tips Stakeholder Management tips Stakeholder Relationship tips Frequently Asked Questions about Stakeholder Management Process Visuals About the author Quote from the author Bryan Barrow: "I wrote this book to address a gap that exists in the skill set of many people who work in the project management profession. For too long we have watched projects fail, despite the millions spent on project management tools, training and certification, and the billions wasted on failed and failing projects. "The underlying causes of so many failures is related to the way that people and groups communicate and collaborate. This is where we stand to make the greatest improvement, because stakeholder management is a topic that is only now getting the attention that it so desperately deserves."




Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide


Book Description

In a world of increasing complexity, instant information availability and constant flux, systems approaches provide the opportunity of a tangible anchor of purpose and iterate learning. The five approaches outlined in the book offer a range of interchangeable tools with rigorous frameworks of application tried and tested in the ‘real world’. The frameworks of each approach form a powerful toolkit to explore the dynamics of how societies emerge, how organisations create viability, how to facilitate chains of argument through causal mapping, how to embrace a multiplicity of perspectives identifying purposeful activity and how to look for the bigger picture across multiple disciplines. Systems Approaches offers an excellent first introduction for those seeking to understand what ‘systems thinking’ is all about as well as why the tools discussed herein should be applied to management and professional practice. This book provides a practical guide, and the chapters stand alone in explaining and developing each approach.




Stakeholder Relationship Management


Book Description

In any activity an organisation undertakes, whether strategic, operational or tactical, the activity can only be successful with the input, commitment and support of its people - stakeholders. Gaining and maintaining the support and commitment of stakeholders requires a continuous process of engaging the right stakeholders at the right time and understanding and managing their expectations. Unfortunately, most organisations have difficulty implementing such culture change, and need assistance and guidance to implement a consistent process for identification and management of stakeholders and their changing expectations. As a continuous improvement process, stakeholder management requires understanding and support from everyone in the organisation from the CEO to the short-term contractor. This requires the concepts and practices of effective stakeholder management to become embedded in the culture of the organisation: 'how we do things around here', this book provides the 'road map' to help organisations achieve these objectives. The text has two specific purposes. Firstly, it is an 'how-to' book providing the fundamental processes and practices for improving stakeholder management in endeavours such as projects, and program management offices (PMO), it also gives guidance on organisational survival during mergers and acquisitions, preparing for the tender bidding, and marketing campaigns. Secondly, Lynda Bourne's book is for organisations that have recognised the importance of stakeholder engagement to their success, it is a guidebook for assessing their current maturity regarding implementation of stakeholder relationship management with a series of guidelines and milestones for achieving the preferred level of maturity.




Managing Project Stakeholders


Book Description

The keys to project management success delivered by one of the world's most respected experts in the field Why do some project managers achieve their project goals while others fail? Drawing on his years of experience as a recognized global expert on project management and organizational change, author Tres Roeder answers that question, and lays out a proven path to project success. Focusing on the major differences between project management and other types of management—not least of them being the temporary nature of projects versus the repetitive nature of most managerial tasks—Roeder describes best practices in all key areas of managing project stakeholders. A recognized global expert on project management provides the foundational elements required for project management success Contributes toward the fulfillment of the continuing education required every three years to maintain PMP® accreditation Uses real-world scenarios and relevant case studies to present project management concepts to beginning and intermediate PMP®s Contains chapters on Leadership, Buy In, and Negotiation for more advanced project managers (PMP and Project Management Professional are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)