We were talking about power play and politics. They cannot be wished away. Consider these projects:
> Running a hotel
> Starting a school
> An ERP implementation
> Producing a movie and
> Taking your team on a tour
They all have stakeholders – 1.customers, 2.sponsors / investors, 3.performing organization / senior management, 4.team and 5.the society in all the above projects. But see how project objectives are set in these projects…
In the case of running a hotel, there is very close interaction with customer and his / her basic needs. So he / she may be able to call the shots directly.
But in starting a school, a society formed by parents and teachers with the help of the principal decides what is good for the students.
In ERP implementation, CTO (Senior Management) may decide on what to implement based on budgets.
Ideally every movie will be like Kung Fu Panda (watched it 3 times) but if the producer’s (investor’s) idea of what will be a box office hit is a trashy masala, the director will have to go with it.
If you as a project manager want to go on a week’s tour to Shimla but your team wants to go with family to Chidambaram for two days, you may have to give in.
Point is, some stakeholders are more equal than others depending on the context of your project. Your challenge will be to constantly communicate through the cobweb of politics and let common sense prevail.
I will leave you with one tip to become popular with all stakeholders. Listen to their view point. Listening is not always agreeing or acting on it. That is the part two.
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17:28, 08.03.2010
Where’s the RSS-Feed link?
18:16, 08.03.2010
Hi Kostenlos, The RSS feed can be found as links on the two words “articles” and “comment” near the RSS button on the header. You can also consider subscribing by mail.
Thanks