3 Key Questions to Ask

During a Change Management initiative, an important aspect of Programme Management is Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping. This is all about: “Who is this change going to affect and how are they going to react, and what do we have to do to support them?”.

How well you listen to and respond to ALL of your stakeholders’ issues is a significant measure of the effectiveness of your management of these relationships. As a project/programme manager of change, it is important to be seen doing stakeholder relationship management.

Leadership skills make a big difference to successfully managing stakeholder relationships. This is where the management of expectations matters. Here are 3 key questions to address in managing expectations in a change management initiative, and specifically in relation to your employees.

1. Do your people really know what is expected of them?

Do your people know how to translate the high level vision and strategy into actionable steps? People are very different in the ways they process information, interpret life, and in the ways they are motivated. Many (probably most) of them are not able to make the leap from hearing and understanding your vision and strategy to translating that into purposeful productive action. This does not mean that they don’t understand it, or agree with it, but it does simply mean that the leap is too great for most people to make – without your practical assistance.

2. Do they know what they can expect from you?

It is extremely important to that they know that you will work with them in “grinding out” in practical, manageable detail what the high level strategy, vision, values things actually mean for them as the “troops” in action.

3. Do they know what is expected of each other?

They also need to know what these actionable steps mean for them in terms of what they can and should expect from each other.

In the end it boils down to effective communications management, as well as following stakeholder management best practices.

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Source: Strategies for managing change by Stephen Warrilow

If you want to work with Stephen Warrilow, take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully.