Dealing with Opponents to your Project
Sometimes you must deal with someone who opposes your project. Here are tips to handle this uncomfortable and quite common situation:
Don’t ignore it. This issue isn’t going away. It’s crucial to fully understand the opposition to your project and address it. Otherwise, the opposition will intensify and become more difficult to manage. If you need help doing that, ask your sponsor for support. Keep dialogue open with your opposing stakeholder and representatives of their organization, so you can learn as much as you can to resolve their concerns.
Focus on business benefits and risks. Project opposition often comes from misunderstandings or fear of change. Compare the opposition to your project against the benefits. Treat concerns as risks and work on mitigation strategies. Include people who both support and oppose the project as you derive risk and risk response strategies. As your project progresses, ensure your status reports provide detail to inform both project supporters and opponents. Project opponents who aren’t informed are likely to escalate their concerns with your project – so keep the status reports flowing to all interested parties.
Build a solid business case. Ensure the business case provides a view of the benefits for the overall business. Leverage supportive stakeholders to help highlight your business case. Items that benefit some stakeholders can create concerns for others. Ensure your sponsor is aware of any concerns so they can help counter roadblocks created by skeptical stakeholders.
Seek opportunities to support your concerned stakeholder. Understanding your stakeholder’s concerns can surface ideas for future projects that will provide benefits. Helping them build a business case for a follow-on project will help you preserve your relationship and further advance your business. It also demonstrates your ability to see the big picture in your business environment.
For more about managing stakeholders, check out my Project Management Foundations course.
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