With stakeholder engagement, project buy-in is often top of mind, which makes sense because, without it, your project could see delays, a decline in reputation, or even a total shutdown.
When we think about project buy-in, we often focus primarily on external stakeholders. What about internal stakeholders? Even if you're not working on a company-wide change management plan or something that seems to obviously affect internal stakeholders directly, chances are, you still need to ensure you can effectively communicate with external and internal stakeholders about your project. Remember, internal stakeholders can affect your ability to access resources, meet timelines, or obtain permissions to continue.
It takes time for people to accept and buy into your project, so it's incredibly important to identify and communicate with your stakeholders early and often. It's best to start by brainstorming all your potential stakeholder groups (internal and external) with your team. If you need help getting started identifying your stakeholders, check out our list of questions here.
So, what are some ways to help facilitate and win project buy-in from your stakeholders?
Having your key messages defined from the beginning of the project is essential because you want your communications to be well thought out, understandable and consistent. Remember, consistent and honest communication helps build trust.
Once you've identified your stakeholders and developed your key messages, it's time to begin engaging. Your stakeholders want to feel involved and have multiple opportunities to share feedback about your project, which is why two-way communication tactics are so important (Remember: people support what they help create). Be sure to set a communication schedule and stick to it to help build trust.
Looking for help engaging effectively? Check out our blog for 10 tips →
Listening to your stakeholders is just as important as sharing your key messages, as it's vital to your project's success to understand stakeholder opinions, concerns and perspectives. (Remember: "if we want people to trust us, we need to trust that the people we are talking with have something valuable to say." – Kim Hyshka)
Helping stakeholders understand your project is essential to gaining buy-in. To optimize stakeholder understanding, it's important to share your information in a variety of visual, user-friendly ways, such as organized reports, images, and maps, to foster a better understanding of your project.
When it comes to stakeholder engagement, we know that this process is best accomplished by building positive stakeholder relationships in which everyone involved feels they've been heard, respected, and considered throughout (even if the result is not their desired outcome). We understand that to build good stakeholder relationships, we need to build trust with our stakeholders by working with them throughout our projects, even if we share different visions.
Be sure to show your stakeholders that you've considered their opinions on your project, that you're listening, and that you remember previous conversations by always reviewing communication notes before engagement sessions.
With our Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) software Jambo, you're bridging the gap between your projects, your teams and your stakeholders, bringing everything together in one organized platform to streamline your stakeholder management plan.
Below, we'll identify a few of the ways Jambo helps with project buy-in:
Stakeholder issues are a reality in stakeholder engagement and can impact buy-in. Suppose you fail to acknowledge an issue or address a stakeholder commitment; this could negatively impact stakeholder relationships, affecting their willingness to work with you.
Issues can also become project liabilities. The more liabilities you have, the less willing internal stakeholders might be in supporting or approving your project moving forward, which could impact your ability to access necessary resources and meet targets, as well as impact stakeholder trust.
The Jambo issues management module includes a colour-coded materiality matrix and an easy-to-understand issues timeline, so you can quickly review the status and severity of issues. This results in faster, more informed issue management.
For issues that can't be resolved for years to come, you can manage your tasks so they are never forgotten. If new people join the team, they can refer to the issue and all associated communications, allowing everyone to stay on track, regardless of when the issue needs to be addressed.
It's not uncommon for managers, decision-makers or regulators to ask for a report on "everything." Without a centralized SRM software that keeps all your information organized, searchable, and accessible, these comprehensive reports can take hours to compile (and you may never be sure you have everything). This can be a liability if you ever need to show proof of all the engagement or consultation that occurred.
With Jambo, you can easily run detailed reports on all the stakeholder information you've entered in minutes.
If you're heading into a meeting with a key stakeholder, it's important to be fully informed of all your previous communication with them and the current status of your project.
Jambo's project dashboard is a useful tool that lets you quickly review key project information. You can also dive into your history of engagement with that specific stakeholder through the communications module, so you're always prepared before your stakeholder meetings and stay consistent with key messages previously communicated to show you're listening.
Transparency and accountability are essential in stakeholder engagement—stakeholders want to feel like organizations are acting in honest and trustworthy ways, so ensuring that engagement efforts are as transparent as possible is important for stakeholder buy-in and project success.
As we mentioned above, while stakeholder issues can sometimes be challenging to navigate, it's important to be accountable to your stakeholders by working with them to address issues and find a suitable outcome. With Jambo, you can stay on top of and understand all your past, current and emerging issues.
With Jambo, you can understand commitments across all your projects, whether they're general, financial or financial equivalent in nature. You can also search for commitments by status, helping you understand where you've made promises and where you need to focus.
Having all this information organized in an SRM like Jambo makes it easier to understand what your organization is accountable for and ensures you never forget a commitment, helping to make your stakeholders feel acknowledged and respected.
Sometimes you may need to share and verify the information you're collecting to ensure you've listened accurately.
With Jambo, you can generate reports of communication records to show exactly what you're logging, ensuring an accurate representation of what's been communicated to you. This helps build trust as you demonstrate a willingness to work honestly and collaboratively.
With Jambo, we streamline the stakeholder management process, enabling you to easily log your data, search for and report on it as needed, and connect your information, teams, and stakeholders for better outcomes.
Check out our features page to learn more about our SRM software and how it can benefit your team and your organization, or check out our one-minute explainer video by clicking below!