Remote stakeholder engagement is nothing new in project management, but the rise of the work-from-anywhere culture means there has been a growing number of distributed customers, teams, and colleagues. It is becoming more and more common for project stakeholders to engage and interact online and never even meet face-to-face. With so many companies now operating on a global basis this means that teams can be based anywhere in the world.
Does stakeholder engagement matter on remote projects?
The question is does stakeholder engagement even matter when it comes to this type of remote working situation? The simple answer is that yes it does. No matter where your stakeholders are based, engagement is important for many reasons, including:
- Obtaining project buy-in
- Ensuring stakeholders collaborate together
- Getting valuable input through knowledge, feedback and skills
- Encouraging interest in the project, helping people to understand and accept change
- Reducing the risk of failure as a result of a lack of involvement, delays, limited support, or poor understanding
- Anticipating possible risks and conflicts
- Getting people’s attention — particularly those who are busy and have competing priorities or are involved in other projects
- Getting stakeholders to commit to the project and then follow through on the commitments they have made
How do you successfully engage remote stakeholders?
The principles of stakeholder engagement are the same regardless of where and how they work. However, there are some specific considerations and tactics you need to use when it comes to engaging with remote stakeholders. No matter where the people you are trying to engage with are located in the world, here are some tips to help you.
1. Set objectives
Consider what your end goal is and keep that in mind whilst setting some goals and objectives for your stakeholder engagement. You need to think about what you want to achieve and how you will know if you have been successful. You may also want to set some goals too. These could include ensuring all remote stakeholders understand the underlying business case for the project, or that the stakeholders take part in the majority of the regularly scheduled project update meetings.
Your goals should be linked to the overall purpose of the project and the strategic objectives of the organisation.
2. Analyse your remote stakeholders
Not all of your remote stakeholders will have the same issues, interests and needs as those stakeholders you work with face-to-face. They may have quite different experiences. Complete a thorough stakeholder analysis so you have a better understanding of your stakeholders. Make notes so that you can find ways to meet their expectations and plan for potential conflicts.
3. Map your stakeholders
This will help you to visualise stakeholder attributes, you might consider mapping on influence, impact or interests. You could also map geographically so you can better understand locations, cultures and time difference. This will help you to split your stakeholders into groups that are logical so you can engage better.
4. Build a culture of trust
Successful remote engagement means building a culture of trust in terms of empowerment and engagement.
Trust develops from:
- Transparency, particularly when it supports better accountability
- Defining the purpose of the project that offers assurance and clarity
- Committing to the project plan and end goals
- Acting with integrity and doing what you said you would
- Meeting stakeholder expectations and needs
5. Communicate
Good communication is the cornerstone of project management, and this is particularly true when working with remote stakeholders. You won’t receive non-verbal cues from remote stakeholders reading your messages. Therefore, you need to make sure what you say is to the point, clear when it comes to instructions and that there is no ambiguity that could be misunderstood.
6. Share updates
Regular updates are always important in a project but particularly when you have remote stakeholders, so make sure that you schedule regular video meetings. This could just be once a month but by scheduling it on the same day and same time every month it becomes part of the project routine. It really will help the project to run more smoothly.
7. Encourage participation
It is easy for remote stakeholders to become disengaged from a project because they are not physically present so you need to be proactive when it comes to encouraging participation.
Acknowledge all contributions made and provide reports on tasks that are dependent on input from stakeholders. This will help everyone to engage more throughout the life of the project.
8. Think about difference and barriers
When working with remote stakeholders you may find that there are some barriers to overcome. These might be cultural barriers, issues with language, or even time zones. Language barriers can be minimised by using platforms that have in-app translation tools.
Remember there may also be issues that could prevent people from engaging such as disabilities and accessibility problems with tools and software.
9. Use the right tools
There are plenty of tools out there to help with remote stakeholder engagement so consider exactly what it is you need from your tools. This will help you to find the best ones for your needs. Remember, it is never a good idea to collect information in too many places so don’t try to use too many tools at once.
