Strategies to succeed – When one of your project stakeholders wants you to fail Authors: Srinivas Attili – Mr Attili is a client partner with IBM Global Business Services responsible for both the delivery of complex technical services to IBM clients and the development of new business opportunities. Srinivas Jujjuru – Mr Jujjuru is a Project Executive with IBM Global Business Services responsible for delivery large systems integration programs within the Federal practice. Every project manager can tell a story about a program equipped with the best talent, solid processes and the sponsoring organization’s commitment, only to never get off the ground and fail to deliver on intended benefits. And on the other hand, despite having the odds stack up against success, some programs do deliver results. Such anecdotes reinforce the fact that success needs something more beyond a talented team and mature processes. Stakeholder commitment and support is the sine qua non of program success. A “stakeholder” is commonly defined as anyone who is positively or negatively impacted by the outcome of a project. So, why would a stakeholder want you to fail? We explore a few scenarios and discuss strategies program managers should consider to help them succeed in such an environment in the discussion to follow. Beyond Stakeholder Management Program managers understand the criticality of stakeholder management for the success of a program. It is a common practice to map stakeholders on a 4x4 Power - Interest Map (Figure 1) and apply an appropriate strategy based on the quadrant the stakeholders fall in. Although this may provide a brief overview of how to make an action plan based on stakeholders power & interest, this approach falls short of managing the actual behaviors and intent of the stakeholders. Figure -1 – Stakeholder Power – Interest Map High Power Persuade Involve Low Power Monitor Inform Low Interest High interest Consider an example of a fortune 100 company. A strategic program, which was key to firm’s future success, was signed off by company’s investment committee and C level executives. The internal IT organization fails to deliver results a year into the program due to a variety of reasons – primarily the lack of industry best practices and in house talent to develop and deploy a large scale strategic program. The business sponsor hires a vendor – a leading technology services company to implement the program with the CIO involvement in structuring the services contract. The services vendor and the business sponsor are heavily reliant on the internal IT organization’s support to make the program successful. Many key managers in the IT organization have an incentive to see the vendor fail – to drive a point that it’s not their incompetency but the program is too complex to

fail even if the best services company is working on it. This is a recipe for failure as a key stakeholder, the IT organization, wants the project to fail. This type of scenario is not uncommon. What strategies should you apply when you have a stakeholder (a powerful executive, an organization or an individual) whose intent is to see the program fail? Interest – Intent Model We propose managing stakeholders by expanding the low interest quadrants from the Power - Interest Map in Figure 1 by adding a new dimension - ‘Intent’. We group stakeholders into four categories based on Interest and Intent – High Interest Positive Intent (HIPI), High Interest Negative Intent (HINI), Low Interest Positive Intent (LIPI), and Low Interest Negative Intent (LINI). Intent in this context is defined as what the stakeholder wants to achieve – success or failure and behaviors are their actions and attitude on the program. Figure 2 below depicts the framework to categorize stake holders based on interest and intent and the arrows signify the recommended order of movement between categories. The goal of the program manager is to land majority of their stakeholders in the HIPI quadrant. Interest – Intent Model Management strategies (Figure 3) provides a summary view of the different actions the program manager can take to effectively manage stakeholders within these categories.

High Interest - Positive Intent (HIPI) – This is the best group of stakeholders any program manager can have on the program. We call them HIPI’s. These are the group of stakeholders with the best combination of attributes - a high interest and a positive intent towards the program. The program manager should effectively leverage HIPI’s to effectively convert naysayers and other stakeholders with negative intent or low interest. HIPI’s with high power in the

HIPI HINI

LINI LIPI

Intent

Interest

Negative Positive

High

Low

organization also have the clout and credibility to make an impact on the success of the program and other stakeholders involved in the program. The project manager should explore ways to get direct communication from these senior executives on the importance of collaboration and the reasons why the client organization needs the program to be successful and the impacts of failure (e.g, left behind compared to competition, cannot effectively compete in the evolving marketplace, etc). The project manager should help develop the communications and channel these same communications through the HIPI’s to better influence other stakeholders. However, one must be cautious in their approach on the content and tone of the message. For example, the program manager from the Fortune 100 company example discussed earlier convinced a HIPI C level executive to send a tough message to the uncooperative IT organization to cooperate and collaborate. The executive in this case directed his organization in strong words to get out of the vendors way – in effect telling them to remove any roadblocks. The message got trickled down and interpreted as “don’t talk to the vendor unless approached and only answer the specific question the vendor asks”. This led to further mistrust and degraded relationships between the vendor and the client organization. Another example is a program which effectively leveraged a HIPI stakeholder to turn around the behaviors of a Negative Intent (HINI/LINI groups discussed later) stakeholder organization. The team recruited an executive from the HINI organization to be a full-time liaison for the project team and the HINI organization. The executive was carefully vetted and selected with the criteria that the individual should believe in the program’s cause and is someone who has a tremendous amount of respect, credibility and trust within his organization. With the new executive in the liaison role, the relationship with the organization displaying negative behavior and adding roadblocks in the past converted into a collaborative and positive relationship. HIPI’s with negative behaviors Consider a scenario where, a HIPI with a positive intent towards the program exhibits negative behaviors towards the program. Consider an example where a HIPI is actively engaged in the development of a key deliverable but constantly suggests enhancements delaying sign off or starting the next phase – a classic example of perfection being the enemy of good. In this case the stakeholders have the right interest and intent but their behaviors don’t match the interest and intent. The project manager needs an insatiable curiosity for inquiry and dialogue to work with HIPI’s demonstrating negative behaviors. One of our favorite quotes that comes to mind when dealing with this group is from George Bernard Shaw -- “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” In essence, if you are not working with unreasonable people, you are not making progress. Do not question their intent or interest, but question their actions. The team should take off the table any sense of personal attack and instead focus on facts and outcomes. These stakeholders are unreasonable for a reason --- there is always a story behind the story, and the program manager needs to develop a strong working relationship with the HIPI to get to the underlying rationale for their actions..

Virginia Satir, an American author and psychotherapist, originated a slightly different meaning of the phrase positive intention. She believed that digging deeply into a client's dysfunctional or damaging behavior should reveal that the client is trying to achieve a positive intent through undesirable behavior, unconsciously ineptly and harmfully, and that the dysfunction could often be helped by finding other ways to honor that positive intention. The project manager should find deeper reasons for the client’s frustration, get to know the person at a deeper level, understand what’s really driving them to behave the way they are behaving and turn their anger into constructive actions for the program. High Interest - Negative Intent (HINI) The HINI group – they can be as dangerous as the H1N1 swine flu to the program if not managed proactively. These are individuals in the organization with a high interest in the program and intent to derail the program. The program manager must engage actively with a significant focus to manage HINI’s. Consider an example of a small business that won a contract as a prime vendor on a very large Federal government program. Since the small business doesn’t have the required expertise to manage the program, it hires the incumbent contractor as a sub-contractor. The incumbent is a leading services company vying to be the prime vendor. There is an inherent incentive for the services company to derail the program by not helping the small business be successful. As it turned out, the project became a troubled program within a few months – missing deadlines and did not deliver on committed results to the client. In this example there is a high interest and negative intent for the incumbent contractor to introduce roadblocks. As a Project Manager, acknowledge this and proactively design ways to create a win-win situation instead of treating it as a zero sum game. This will enable HINI’s to be committed and involved. The small business should collaborate with the incumbent contractor to remove the perception of a zero sum game and make them part of the success of the program. Another example is a stakeholder who is one of the key points of contact from the client organization. Given his role, the stakeholder has a high interest in the program but has a negative intent due to perceptions on the hired vendor. After several failed attempts to influence intent, it is obvious that there are deeper motives and none of the options to influence the intent worked. As a last resort, the program manager worked with the stakeholder’s chain of command to identify a replacement. It is always important to identify the HINI stakeholders and take appropriate steps to move them into HIPI quadrant, or if necessary, drive to change out the stakeholders to improve overall chances of program success. Low Interest – Positive Intent (LIPI) Don't let behavior fool you. Sub-optimal stakeholder behaviors can be misleading, because they don't necessarily represent underlying intentions. The program manager should target this group to close the intent-behavior gap and activate their positive intent for driving optimal behaviors and generate high interest. Steps should be taken to

activate stakeholder’s positive intents and drive them into HIPI’s with positive behaviors. It is essential to explore ways to leverage the positive intent of these stakeholders for the program’s advantage, and to actively engage them to influence their interest in the program. One tactic is to devise ways to demonstrate quick wins/outcomes to invigorate interest of the LIPI stakeholders. Consider an example where a quality assurance director within the CIO organization has a positive intent while the CIO organization itself is a HINI stakeholder. The program manager made a conscious effort to activate the director’s positive intent by building trust

Figure -3: Interest – Intent Model Management strategies

Low Interest (LI) High Interest (HI) Negative Intent

(LINI) Positive Intent

(LIPI) Negative Intent

(HINI) Positive Intent

(HIPI) Recommended Action

Transform Intent

Galvanize Intent

Engage Actively with

Significant Focus

Leverage Intent

Recommended Management Strategies

Breaking the status quo by creating a win-win situation

Focus on moving them to LIPI quadrant first, and apply LIPI management strategies

Design incentives that change intent

Devise stakeholder replacement strategies if none of the other options work

Activate stakeholder’s positive intent to drive positive behaviors and high interest

Build a sense of accomplishment, purpose and mutual trust

Recruit them as project ambassadors

Recognize contributions and examples of collaboration openly within the organization

Recognize reasons for low interest and take actions to transform them into positive interest

Needs significant focus from the program manager Create a win-win situation by designing ways to move away from a zero-sum game Actively engage to change intent – get story behind the story Devise replacement strategies if none of the other options work Understand and validate their feelings and perspectives, but point out the positive side of the situation

Actively leverage them to convert others as believers

Keep them highly engaged, involved and informed

Actively work with them to gain grass roots support from their LIPI colleagues

Proactively look for HIPI’s with negative behaviors and have an open, honest conversation about influencing those behaviors. Do not question their intent or interest, but question their actions

Exercise inquiry and dialogue to work with HIPI’s demonstrating negative behaviors.

and mutual respect. The QA director became an ambassador of the program, suggested many creative ways to deliver incremental successes and helped diffuse many tense situations with the broader program team. Another tactic is to recognize LIPI stakeholders who are collaborative and have been openly helpful to the project team through their organizational command, especially if they are in the mid to low level ranks in the organization. This builds a sense of accomplishment, purpose and mutual trust. A primary goal in managing LIPI’s is to recognize the reasons for the low interest, leverage positive intent and create positive interest moving them into the HIPI quadrant. A similar approach to managing HIPI’s with negative behaviors should be taken for LIPI’s exhibiting negative behaviors. Low Interest – Negative Intent (LINI) This group of stakeholders, if not managed effectively, can have a slow poison effect to the program. They can be categorized as stakeholders with a “glass half empty” view. The program manager should be cautious about the spread of this view within the organization. In pure mathematical terms, ½ empty + ½ empty = 1 empty. LINI stakeholders can potentially convert a ½ full person in the organization to be ½ empty having a multiplier effect in the organization. As shown in figure 2 the program manager should focus on moving LINI’s to the LIPI quadrant first and follow the strategies outlined to manage LIPI’s. Take an example where a large scale project was awarded to a leading technology services company. Work under the contract is expected to be performed at a remote geographic location. Since the company didn’t have a significant presence in the area, it hired several contractors as staff augmentation to perform the work. Within a few months, the contractor personnel assumed key responsibilities and roles. They didn’t have either the interest or incentive in completing the project on schedule. Aware of the fact that it is not prudent for the technology services firm to replace them, they worked at their own pace and convenience, negatively impacting productivity and resulting in schedule delays. In this example, the project manager should work actively with the contractors to change the intent and move them to the LIPI quadrant. Breaking the status quo by creating a win-win situation – by designing incentives to meet timelines and creating an environment where meeting project deadlines is incentivized vs just billing hours can change the intent of LINI’s for the better. It is extremely challenging to move LINI’s into the HIPI quadrant. After a careful analysis, if the program manager concludes that neither interest nor intent of LINI stakeholders can be influenced, we recommend devising action plans to replace LINI stakeholders. In the example above, if it wasn’t possible to change interest or intent of LINI’s, the program manager should identify strong resources outside of the program to replace the contractors. This option isn’t easy by any means, but small steps pass a strong message and help influence intent and interest.

It is easy to believe there is less impact on the program from LINI’s compared to other groups as LINI’s have less interest in the program. However, if not managed, they can have a slow and steady negative impact on the project – similar to a slow poison. Conclusion Having mature processes and a talented team doesn’t guarantee success. While we often safely assume all stakeholders are committed to the success of the project; it may not be always the case. Every program manager should aspire to have the program stakeholders in the HIPI quadrant. This is not an easy task without a structured and concerted approach. The Interest – Intent model described in this article helps program managers effectively understand stakeholders, their intents and behaviors and manage them proactively to deliver successful programs. “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. If your goal is to effectively manage the intent, interest and behaviors of the stakeholders you should go beyond stakeholder management and try different approaches with an unwavering commitment and enthusiasm. We hope the discussion serves as a guiding post for program managers to effectively manage stakeholders. The process is not easy. Managing stakeholder interest and intent may be the most complex task of a program manager. It takes time and commitment but the benefits are well worth it. The next time you are leading a program, ask yourself – Do you have enough HIPI’s on your side?