Be aware of the environment is which your project is taking place
Project stakeholder management involves gaining an understanding of the social and political environment is which your project is taking place. Now that’s easy to say, but more difficult to find out. Luckily, there are ways to get a good idea about what’s going on in a particular company, region, or country before you embark on your project.
I use Google News and Google Trends to search for the latest trends and news stories affecting people as a good guide to the overall environment, particularly if one of the stakeholders is defined as ‘the general public’ or groups of people. Google Trends tracks the broad pattern of internet searches with reference to relevant news stories.
For example, if you are going to be involved in a project with a company called ABC Ltd, then you could search Google Trends for ‘ABC Ltd’ to see how the interest in that company varies over time, and how that interest links to news stories. This is good for an overall view of what’s going on and saves having to read all the detail in the annual report or the news that the company posts on its own website. The same thing can be done for a country.
Here’s an example of the trend for the technology giant Motorola Inc of USA showing the overall search trend heading downwards - like their share price - and the news volume going upwards - but it’s all bad news!
