How to Engage Your Program’s Stakeholders More Effectively

Managing a program is a lot like a game of chess. You may have dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of people who are all working together to complete a Program by a specific deadline (preferably with everyone still on good speaking terms, but that’s a post for another time). Whether or not you reach success will be affected in large part by how well your stakeholders are engaged, kept informed at all levels, and encouraged to give feedback at the right time. That’s a bit of a tricky dance, one you can master with time and experience.

The importance of fine-tuning your procedures for engaging program stakeholders

In the 18 years I have been working in the IT industry, I have learned, sometimes the hard way, how to engage the right stakeholder at the right time. Withholding information from key people or even giving too much of it at the wrong moment is often behind the success or failure of a program. With 70% of programs failing because we may not have engaged the correct stakeholders at the correct time, it’s worth reevaluating our processes to see where we can improve.

A few examples of engagement gone awry

When I led a major team of over 200 individuals, all of whom had responsibilities that affected other departments. Almost every program we worked on under my core group had a cross-functional requirement. Talk about a chess match!

The biggest mistake I saw, one that I had to step in and correct, was that Program managers and engineers were making decisions without engaging the right stakeholders. Sometimes it was a matter of expectations not being correctly set. Software teams were under pressure to deliver one Program after another, and as a program manager, I had to step in to coach my teammates in how to keep stakeholders informed. 

In particular, I remember that two key product managers, who were very talented, had very different strategies on how to approach a program. They had two Programs that were interlinked, and the same team was responsible for delivering them. One product manager was very ambitious and wanted to take risks while the other was more cautious. Their goals directly conflicted with one another.

I appreciated both of their perspectives and wanted to find a happy medium, so I led my delivery teams to create a plan that incorporated some of the risks but also a few alternative plans. I met with both the stakeholders and leadership, and we worked together to tweak the approach and avoid any unnecessary risks. This helped everyone to understand the plan better and to support it. I was able to create a more productive environment for my teams, who could focus on achieving success.

Lessons in stakeholder engagement

The takeaway is that stakeholder management is very important, but we can’t take sides, especially when resolving issues. Instead, we must remain unbiased and aim for an approach that works best for the success of the program.

A common question is when to engage a stakeholder and when to leave them out of the loop. That’s a tough one and requires a lot of thought and strategy. Engaging someone from day one could be the right move, but sometimes it's better to just reach out directly to them in the moment, such as when you need approval for a design. Keeping people informed means you can always have their support or get appropriate feedback, which helps you to build a valuable product, avoid having to reshape the product, and save money and resources.

Ultimately, knowing who to engage and when comes down to your ability to foresee what each teammate needs in order to do their job well and how that fits into the overall puzzle that is program management.

Some final thoughts on engaging stakeholders

It would be nice, but we all know that nobody is so smart that they can predict everything. While we can forget any dreams of having a crystal ball, we can still develop our ability to engage well enough that when any situation comes, we are at least prepared and have the opportunity to ask for help. With experience and proper guidance, any of us can learn the art of engaging stakeholders at the right time. Check mate!