Engaging Stakeholders on Projects by Harrin Elizabeth;

Author:Harrin, Elizabeth; [FAPM, Elizabeth Harrin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Association for Project Management
Published: 2020-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Gamification techniques tap into and influence people’s natural desires for competition, achievement, recognition and self-expression.

There are five principles from game mechanics that you can adopt in your stakeholder engagement to make it easier for people to want to get involved with a task or project.

1.Track your steps. Many games provide a roadmap of levels to show you what you have achieved and where you are going next. You can do the same by creating a visual timeline for the project and using it frequently in communication to highlight which phase of the project you are talking about. Show people where they are in the journey to help them visualise progress, achievements and the plan.

2.Take small actions. Online games and social networks ask participants for small actions before big ones. You’ll be asked to leave a review, share a status on a social network, like something or click something before being asked for larger engagements such as paying for access to a special game level. Get small engagements from stakeholders like asking them a yes/no question. Make it easy for them to take quick action with solutions like templated answers. Then ask for larger commitment.

3.Create feedback loops. Games tell you how you are doing. You have instant feedback on whether you’ve succeeded at a level or not, often with visual clues such as how many points you’ve earned. Give stakeholders the opportunity to provide immediate feedback (or as immediate as possible). Use surveys, forms, quizzes, lessons learned, retrospectives, stop/start/continue (see Appendix B), forums and chat channels and even pair people up to work on tasks together.

4.Keep it simple. The first few levels of a gaming app often walk you through core game features, perhaps creating your avatar or learning the controls. Keep things simple for your stakeholders. Stick to one message at a time, asking for one action at a time. Don’t assume prior knowledge about your project or the situation. Meet them where they are and provide what they need to know in order to progress. Checklists are great for this.

A project to rollout a new computer system to 9,000 staff across more than 35 office locations was producing a lot of information about what the project meant to individuals, but it was hard to reach every member of staff. The project manager created a virtual scavenger hunt on the project’s intranet site. She ‘hid’ a logo on 12 of the key intranet pages and set up a competition to find them via the project newsletter.

The challenge created a talking point for teams and also the opportunity for a photo call for the winner. The project manager bought a box of chocolates for the winner, who was drawn at random from the entries. While the contest didn’t get hundreds of entries, it did encourage people who had not previously engaged with any of the communications to at least browse the intranet site.

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