Reengaging Disappearing Stakeholders

Nothing kills a project faster than a customer who was excited at the kickoff but then goes silent. You’ll know you’re in trouble when the people who originally championed your project skip meetings, respond to emails with one-word answers, or are “too busy” to provide input on critical decisions.

Here are activities to help re-engage stakeholders who have disappeared.

• Check if business needs have shifted. Business priorities change constantly.  What seemed urgent six months ago might be irrelevant today. Maybe a competitor launched something that changed the game, or budget cuts made your project feel like a luxury. Don’t take it personally! Dig into what’s happening in your stakeholders’ world right now. A quick conversation about current business pressures often reveals why your project dropped down their priority list. It may also reveal ways you can make the project relevant in the current environment.

• Look at your schedule and determine if it’s realistic for your stakeholders. Customers can lose interest when projects drag on too long. When projects span months before benefits are realized, disengagement often occurs. Consider breaking your project into smaller stages that provide incremental value. Showing progress through quick wins in this manner can reignite your stakeholders’ enthusiasm.

• Evaluate whether stakeholders are prepared to use what you’re building. While stakeholders can approach the start of a project with great enthusiasm, they often fail to consider what it takes to implement the solutions the project will generate. Evidence of this circumstance is when senior stakeholders don’t assign people to learn new systems, budget for process changes, or communicate changes to their teams. They might be subconsciously backing away because they’re not ready for the disruption the project will cause. To address this, champion the organizational change activities necessary to get the stakeholders on board.

• Assess their resource commitment level. Engaged customers provide their best people to work with you. Disengaged customers either give you nobody or assign people who clearly don’t have the background to help guide the project. If stakeholders assigned to the project team keep deferring to their manager to answer fundamental questions, you’re not working with the right people. This suggests that customer leadership may not be as committed as it initially appeared. Investigate alternative options to achieve the desired outcome, or propose that the project be put on hold until the necessary resources are available to deliver quality results.

• Watch for signs they’re setting you up as the scapegoat. It is sad but necessary to explore this possibility. When customers start documenting every slight delay or they become less collaborative in problem-solving, they might be building a case for why the project failed. This defensive behaviour could mean they’ve already decided the project won’t succeed, but haven’t shared that information with you yet.

The key is understanding that stakeholder enthusiasm levels can change and taking action to address them early.  Most stakeholder disengagement can be resolved through direct and purposeful conversations, followed by adjustments to priorities, timelines, or scope. However, you can’t fix what you don’t distinctly identify. Don’t proceed as if everything’s fine when your customer has checked out. Take action, and be the hero who recovered your project from the jaws of defeat!