We’re going to let you in on a project management secret. The hardest part of any project isn’t achieving the actual outcomes – it’s managing the expectations and needs of the people who are involved. Surprised? Probably not. After all, if you’ve ever worked on a project, you know that one person can easily promote a plan – or derail it. That’s why identifying your stakeholders and determining how best to keep them informed is critical to the success of any project. Stakeholder analysis is a useful tool that helps you understand stakeholders’ expectations throughout the project lifecycle. Once you understand expectations, you can communicate in a way that creates enthusiasm, trust, and excitement. These are the emotional responses you need to build the good will that will help you usher a project to the finish line. As Mannon Deguire put it in “Greatness, A Place Beyond Stakeholders’ Expectations:” “Projects are about hope. They need to be exciting because it is the excitement that energizes the system and gives us the energy to do the work and spend the time and money to accomplish a project.” So, how do you start? First, take a moment to write down everyone who is a potential stakeholder. Then take time to answer these questions for each stakeholder category:
Once you’ve completed the analysis, you’ll be able to build a plan for communication or stakeholder engagement. The plan can include key messages for each stakeholder or stakeholder group and additional details, such as the way those messages will be delivered (email, meeting, report, or phone call) and how often (weekly, daily, or project start and end).
Experience has taught us that projects are about communication, communication and communication. As long as you can inform your stakeholders in a timely, appropriate manner, they’ll remain happy and your project is likely to succeed. - Rachel
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We have some news to share: our team will soon be a little smaller.
Sean Kelly resigned his position at Reach Partners. His last day with us is October 5. Sean joined our team more than a year ago. During that time, he has been a passionate advocate for our work. He connected us to new partners in the community and kept our technical skills sharp. He also constantly filled an office candy jar full of good chocolate. Never underestimate the pick-me-up power of a good piece of chocolate. In all seriousness, we are grateful for the gifts Sean has brought to our team. He shares our values and supported our mission endlessly. We are sad to see him go. Sean is taking his many talents (and chocolate!) to Click Content Studios, a part of Forum Communications Company. There he will oversee a team of videographers and coordinate the creation of video projects. We wish Sean the best as he steps into this role. We know he will do well. Thanks, Sean, for the good memories and the good work. We look forward to connecting for coffee soon! When we moved into our new office space (across the hall from our previous location) last summer, something felt familiar.
I couldn’t exactly put my finger on what or why. I had visited the space when it was inhabited by another company, but I hadn’t spent a lot of time in there. Yet, I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something significant had taken place in the very spot where I now work. And then I had my ah-ha moment: My office used to be Tony’s office. You see, Tony’s work experiences have made me pause and reflect on work life at Reach Partners. Here’s why: Tony was a long-term employee who worked with this other company in our building. Several years ago she requested one day off – July 10. I recognize that granting vacation requests or personal days off can be complicated. But from what I understand about this business’s industry, mid-July wasn’t a busy time of the year. From what I knew about Tony, she was hard working and committed. I don’t know why Tony asked for the day off, but it didn’t matter. Her boss said no. In response, Tony put in her two-weeks’ notice and left the company. I’m sure denying the request for a day off wasn’t the only reason Tony left, but it certainly was the last straw for her. Yes, there are rules and employee handbooks to follow. There are good reasons, as an employer, to have policies in place. There also are situations where employers and employees have to make hard choices. For example, I took off less time after my second child was born than I did when my first child arrived. Rachel once chose to fly from Minneapolis to Bismarck so she could attend a family wedding and fulfill a client obligation over the same weekend. As at any company, Reach Partners always tries to balance the responsibilities of work with the responsibilities of personal life. Sometimes it’s easy; sometimes it’s not. Still, we believe our team is happier, healthier, and more productive when we trust our people to make decisions about their time. Never do I want to run the kind of company that isn’t willing to consider an employee’s request for personal time. Tony’s company lost an experienced employee. I still wonder if her boss regrets his decision to deny her a day off. In honor of Tony, we have observed July 10 as a Reach Partners holiday for several years. This year, Tony’s Day Off will be held a day early because of some scheduling conflicts. That’s okay. What’s important is that we take a day off and recognize that sometimes the best policy is showing a little empathy and trust. – Anita EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an updated version of a post that ran July 7, 2015. There are times when gratitude overwhelms you, when it covers you like a warm, fuzzy blanket.
Last week was one of those times. On Friday, we attended the ChamberChoice Awards for the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber of Commerce. The program recognizes businesses, organizations, and entrepreneurs that make significant contributions to our community. We were one of the candidates for Small Business of the Year. We didn’t win. And yet, we had been encouraged. Somebody (thank you, anonymous angel!) nominated us to become a candidate. A team of enthusiastic clients/vendors/friends encouraged us to fill out the application. They wrote reference letters and helped us navigate the application questions. There’s something both humbling and gratifying about summarizing your work into a few short pages. Applying for the ChamberChoice Award gave us an opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going. So, no, we didn’t win. But we are grateful for the process and for those who served as cheerleaders along the way. We felt valued. Congrats to the organizations and individuals that won in their respective categories: Emergency Food Pantry, Great Plains Food Bank, Prairie Winds Veterinary Center, Eide Bailly, Office Sign Company, Tyrone Leslie, and Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley. Well-deserved! It was fun to celebrate your success. And for everyone else: take a moment to nominate a favorite business or nonprofit next year. It may be the nudge they need to become a candidate. It’s one more way to encourage and support the wonderful business community we have in Fargo-Moorhead. —Anita, Rachel, and Sean When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
We imagined all sorts of professions: lawyer, teacher, nurse. Project management never once entered our minds. Not once. Not surprisingly, none of us knew anybody who had this job. We certainly didn’t realize that our skills could be used to orchestrate a group of people to get a single job complete. Today, we can’t imagine being anywhere else, doing anything else. One benefit of being project managers is that we get to practice our work skills in our home lives, too. The qualities that make us good planners, organizers, and schedulers at work make life better for our friends and families – just ask us. Or ask them. After all, living us means our families get their very own private project managers . . . all the time. Aren’t they lucky?! Maybe says Lloyd, Anita’s husband. “We don’t have big projects to manage, but the fact that she organizes our trips and events is pretty handy. It is nice that she has given thought to it before everyone else has,” he says. On that note, here is what it is like to live with a project manager, from the experience of those who actually do: Maintains Family Calendars If there is more than one person living in your household, you need to keep track of everyone. Somebody needs to know when soccer games fall and when cookies are needed for the church supper. Nobody does this better than a project manager who is already experienced at keeping tabs on everyone involved with a project. Anita is what Lloyd calls a “Google calendar maniac.” She has assigned a calendar for every member of the family. And she successfully juggles them all, keeping everyone in the know as they run off to track meets, evening obligations, and more. The beauty of a project manager is that whether or not the kids and spouse pay attention, the family gets to the right place at the right time with the right shoes, ball, and money for snacks. Yes, the project-manager-mom is the family motivator. Keeps Household Projects on Time There’s a saying that the plumber’s sink is always the last to be fixed. Apparently, that doesn’t fall true for project manager households. When Rachel and her wife, Melissa, hosted their niece’s baby shower, the couple identified several house projects that needed to get done before the event. Rachel went into project manager mode and made sure the resources and time were available to get things done in a timely manner. She also allocated time for the work to be completed. Project management skills for the win! Organizes Holidays, Reunions If you are fortunate enough to have a project manager in your family, you’ve likely tapped him or her to plan a holiday gathering or family reunion. If not – you should! Rachel’s dad, Bruce, asked her to manage all details of a large family gathering. She set the stage for everything from communication to the food, the cemetery tour route, the family fun-run, and fishing tournament. Everyone knew the schedule and expectations for the reunion. As a result, everyone was relaxed and could focus on the time together instead of trying to negotiate activities and meals on the fly. Makes Lists The beauty of any list is not the list itself, as any project manager will tell you. Instead, lists reflect thinking about peoples’ roles and how they can contribute to the objective at hand – whether it’s leaving for vacation, inviting extended relatives to a picnic, or organizing contractors to finish house projects. Anita likes to make a list for everything, which is super helpful when the Hoffarth family plans a trip or weekend getaway. Lloyd observes that there’s always a list ready to go once they start to pack. This ensures that everyone has clean socks and a toothbrush along – and nothing critical gets left behind. Rachel compiles lists and sets them out for big meals and gatherings, says Melissa. This encourages (and enable) others to help get food to the table. The list includes details such as timing and what specific bowl or spoon is needed to serve the dish. Because of Rachel’s planning, others can easily step in and assist. Can’t Turn it Off There are times when a project manager’s take over of family projects isn’t as welcome. Lloyd had created a master document, one of those documents with important personal information on it that could be handy in case of an emergency. He spent years developing that list and knew how to find everything on it. He then shared the document with Anita, so she would have access to it. Within a day she started to rearrange and re-organize the list. This experience made him rethink the benefits of living with a project manager. “An on/off switch – when I want it – would be nice” he says. And maybe that’s the challenge of living with a project manager. Most of us aren’t wired to be off even when we’re away from work. Good thing our families and friends (mostly!) embrace that. In case you hadn’t noticed, we LOVE the color purple.
Since we began, our Reach Partners identity has been represented by shades of the color. We think purple perfectly represents our values of gratitude, integrity, beauty, possibility, and empathy. Plus, it makes a powerful, but accessible statement.
For us, Thanksgiving is more than a once-a-year celebration. It’s something we practice every single day.
Gratitude is an integral part of who we are at Reach Partners. Collectively and individually, we are thankful for the work we do, the clients we partner with, and the communities we serve. The past year has been packed with new opportunities and new relationships. It’s been filled with occasions to deepen the partnerships we’ve already made. In the process, we have been blessed and have had a lot of fun along the way. Here is a sampling of the things we are grateful for in 2017!
What are you grateful for? We have some thrilling news to share: we’re growing!
A couple of weeks ago, we asked Sean Kelly to join our team as a project manager focused on business development and new client relationships. To our great delight, he agreed. He now becomes our third employee, joining co-owners Rachel and Anita. Sean is a perfect addition to our team. He has a strong technical background and knows how to successfully work with clients. Here are a few reasons we’re excited about Sean joining us:
We could go on and on, but we’re super excited about this move because Sean shares our values and will support our mission to do what is right for our clients and our community. We know this because we’ve worked with him on several projects over the years. Every single time he kept our best interests in mind and built the trust that we expect from those we work with. It’s no exaggeration: we’ve enjoyed every minute that we’ve partnered with Sean in the past, and now we get to do it every day. In case you’re wondering, Sean lives in Moorhead with his wife, Amy; their two daughters, Olivia and Audrey; and the family dog, Comet. Please join us in welcoming Sean to Reach Partners. Drop him a note at sean@reachpartnersinc.com or you can find him on Twitter at @ReachSeanK. We never stop planning and setting goals. (We are project managers, after all).
We do it for our clients, our professional selves AND our personal selves. This year, we’re even doing it for our summer. I started running just before I turned 30. After realizing I had never completed a consecutive mile, I wanted to see if I could reduce the amount I sweat (my cooling system is a slick thing to be admired), and if I would ever be transformed into a long-legged, running gazelle (nope).
Still, what I have discovered after years of trotting is there are numerous similarities between running a race (like a half marathon, 13.1 miles) and the project management work I do at Reach Partners (everyday, baby). For both, success starts by committing to do what I say I’ll do.
And, of course, I never forget that the race isn’t over when I step over the finish line. Likewise, the project isn’t done at the deadline. I celebrate the success. I close with stories, a great beverage, and a yummy treat. And then, I start planning for the next race. Trot on, my friends. See you on race day! —Rachel |
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