Gaining Key Stakeholder Commitment

[David Mullins]

During a quick review of Marc's 7 steps to Process Mapping, it stood out to me that these steps were fairly generic universal steps to implementing things, however one area not included was that of gaining Key Stakeholder Commitment.
This is an area that usually generates an array of varying thoughts.

I've been asking some of our engineers (and for Alan Cottrell's info I'm a scientist by trade, not an engineer) to think about what activities should occur prior to implementation of any project, and the consistent missing item is gaining Key Stakeholder Commitment.

Does anybody have a paper on strategies for gaining Key Stakeholder Commitment that I can use.
I'm greatful for any assistance you give.

Cheers from Down-Under.

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[Andy Bassett]

Hello David

Very interesting question, and very important as it probably adds up to 80% of your implementation problems´, and what do you think happens if a project goes wrong, who gets fired, the Management or the Consultant?

I cant offer you a paper, but i may be able to offer you a few thoughts. i would be very interested to hear anyone elses thoughts

I think Marc once said that he walked away from a project because he felt the necessary commitment was not their. I think you HAVE to be prepared to do this, unles you are starving.

At the beginning of a project i would 'contract' with the management as to what is their involvement ie 'You will attend a progress meeting for 1 hour per week for the next 12 months etc'

I am doubtful if it is a good idea to spend a lot of time schooling the management in the Standard content ( i know i am on my own here). The risk is that it could turn them all cold. I may run a 1 hours summary by them in simple language specifying the advantages that they will get,
after all, if ISO is so good why do normal rational thinking highly-paid managers ignore it. It can only be because they dont see the benefit.

Positive feedback - Managers normally only ever get bad news or people coming to them with problems, feed them good news with a weekly report that shows the things that have been implemented, '..this week we set up a Supplier measurement System that will in the future improve....'etc etc. This has the added advanatage of motivating depts to make some effort if they know the positive news is reaching management.

Crisis Meetings - I beleive that once you have started, management are very reluctant to hear you say 'Im off'. So be prepared to say it. In one project i had to call three 'Crisis Meetings' before we reached the end.

Thats all for the moment, i will try to think about some more.

Regards

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Andy B