PRINCE2 Communication – or Engagement?
Communication and engagement are not same thing. But you need to do both. First, you need to identify your Stakeholders.
Who are my stakeholders?
In PRINCE2, a stakeholder is any individual, group or organisation with an interest or influence in your project. You need to know who your stakeholders are. And you need to know if they are friend or foe!
Dealing with stakeholders who support your project is a lot easier than dealing with those who do not. But it’s vitally important to engage even with opponents. Your foes can, indeed they are probably trying to, derail your project. Don’t ignore them!
PRINCE2 communication – or engagement?
Communication and engagement are not same thing. But you need to do both. First, you need to identify your Stakeholders.
Who are my stakeholders?
In PRINCE2, a stakeholder is any individual, group or organisation with an interest or influence in your project. You need to know who your stakeholders are. And you need to know if they are friend or foe!
Dealing with stakeholders who support your project is a lot easier than dealing with those who do not. But it’s vitally important to engage even with opponents. Your foes can, indeed they are probably trying to, derail your project. Don’t ignore them!
PRINCE2 Communication vs Engagement
The difference between engagement and communication is that communication is one way. You’re telling the stakeholder something but not looking for opinions or ideas back.
Engagement is two-way. You’re looking for the stakeholder to provide feedback and give their opinions. This is why in a project you will treat stakeholders differently.
Stakeholders with a high influence in a project should be engaged. This might mean face to face meetings where you can increase their interest and commitment to the project, so you can use their influence. Stakeholders win a low influence in the project are more likely to receive communications such as email.
PRINCE2 communication is managed by preparing the Communication Management Strategy during the initiation stage. This sets out who your stakeholders are, how they will be engaged/communicated with and when that is to happen.
6 Steps to Stakeholder Engagement
The PRINCE2 manual also steps you through a 6 step procedure for stakeholder engagement (taken from PRINCE2’s big brother MSP – Managing Successful Programmes). This takes you through:
- Identifying your stakeholders
- Analyzing the stakeholders
- Creating stakeholder profiles
- Defining the stakeholder engagement strategy
- Planning the engagements,
- Engaging with stakeholders and measuring the effectiveness of the project’s strategy
People make projects
Make sure you use the PRINCE2’s communication tools to identify all your stakeholders. Then decide how to engage or communicate with them to make sure your project is a success. Remember – it’s not all process – people make projects!
Paul Atkin