What is stakeholder-led project management?

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Louise M. Worsley, author of Stakeholder-led Project Management : Changing How We Manage Projects, states that “I am convinced stakeholders must always influence the way we manage projects.” “I hope you will be convinced.”
I’m the perfect audience for this book. I don’t need convincing. I also wrote a book on stakeholder engagement.
She continues:
Stakeholder management does not require you to follow a set of steps. It is a holistic approach that, when understood and analyzed, can make a significant difference in the conduct of a project. Simply put, if you believe you are not doing stakeholder management and it isn’t making a difference in the way you run your projects, then you aren’t!
This book outlines a way to manage stakeholders that project managers will be able to recognize.
Identify and document
Analyze
Develop strategies
Plan approach
Engage
Review, watch, listen, and react.
These steps are explained in greater detail, and the book offers practical solutions to make them work for you.
There are three types of projects
Worsley explains the 3 types of projects.
Stakeholder-neutral. These projects are stakeholder-neutral. Stakeholders are identified and communicated with in a ‘normal’ manner, but their power is very low. This is a common category for IT projects. Project resources can generally handle it, and stakeholders don’t have to be involved in the work.
Stakeholder-sensitive. This type of project has a significant impact on people and their work. Stakeholders are more invested. It is important to spend time with people involved in order to help them determine the best way to deliver the results. This type of project requires a lot of change management and people can cause problems that can lead to the project being ‘failed’.
Stakeholder-led. Stakeholder-led is the last type of project on the other end. These projects could be business transformation projects that require large numbers of influential stakeholders.
Who are Project Stakeholders?
Worsley states that stakeholders are the people you would consider engaging with your plans. This excludes you and your project team, Worsley says. These are not people you manage via stakeholder management. Instead, you manage them through group management.
I disagree. Flexing your engagement style can help you include your team. You don’t have to manage your team, but it is possible.
Worsley also exempts members of the steering group from ‘engagement’, stating that they are satisfied with the governance process. I agree more with that.
I won’t often ‘engage’ senior members of my steering group because they have already received the information through our governance processes. In terms of terminology, I would still call it stakeholder engagement.
She discusses how to split stakeholders in a way I have never seen before: role-based, agenda-based.
Role-based stakeholders can influence or have power in the project due to their expertise. They are responsible for the actual work of the project.
Agenda-based stakeholders are those who have a particular view or position on the project. Although they may not be formally involved in the project, they can influence it through their participation.
These stakeholders map to the three types of projects. Worsley explains it in detail, but the bottom line here is that the more complex the project, the greater the number of agenda-based stakeholders.
How to Engage
The book is heavy in case studies. I enjoyed the beginning of the book, but by the end, I felt that there were too many.