Speaker 1: Effective communication is the backbone to any project, but especially stakeholder communication. And in this video, we're going to look at the key insights needed to have excellent stakeholder communication so that you can master it. What is stakeholder communication? Well, stakeholder communication is how you communicate with individuals who are invested in your project. And those individuals can range from your project team, to sponsors, to steering committee, to customers, even end users. So these are anybody who has any type of investment in the project. Now some forms of communication, standard ones we see in projects are usually emails and meetings and some form of reporting mechanism, which is all fine. And we're all that probably have, are used to using those types of methods. The key is, are you using them effectively? And that's what we're going to start getting into. Before we get into my tips on mastering stakeholder communication, for you, I have this. These are the six tips that you need to know to keep your projects from struggling. And the good news is you can get it right now underneath this video in the link below. Create a communication plan. What? Adriana, are you serious? You want me to create a project plan and a communication plan? Like how many plans do I have to create? Okay, I get it. Yes, this is really important for effective communications with your stakeholders. You really need to lay out what are those methods that you're going to communicate with them. Get very clear with the purpose of those types of communication, the frequency of those communication, how you plan to disseminate that communication. And then you're going to share it with all the stakeholders when you kick off the project. This gives clarity for everyone so they understand how you're going to be communicating with them, interacting with them. Now the good news is if you're wondering how to create a communication plan, I have you covered in the YouTube search bar. Just type in Adriana Gerdler communication plan and a video will pop up that will show you that detail. Listen as much as you share. Now some people say to me, Adriana, why is communication part of listening or why is listening part of communication? Because it's so easy as project managers. We're constantly leading, we're guiding, we're giving instructions, giving direction. We're constantly talking, let's be honest. We have to. We're always, whether it's talking and giving status updates, directing the team. But one of the most fundamental things you can do with communication generally speaking is listening. But with your stakeholder communication and projects, it's really listening and understanding what they're saying to you so that you can build trust. Because if your team starts communicating with you, you want to be able to pick up on the cues that they're saying to you to make your project better. That's all part of that communication plan. Now why do I even bring this up? Because an example that I want to give you is one that I experienced myself with a client. We were working on a brand launch, marketing was in charge of it, and marketing, they knew their stuff. But we had all these other supporting departments in there as well, and a few of them from a compliance perspective were actually highlighting a few issues that they had concerns with. Marketing was not paying attention. And I could have easily just gone with the flow, and you know how it is, right? Oh, they don't know quality, this, that. We all kind of figure, hey, my department's the best, I know what I'm doing, just let me do what I need to do and get out of my way. But that's not going to be great communication, it's actually going to impact and create risk to your project. That's why communication is so critical. And what I did is I actually had a sidebar meeting, I listened to what their concerns with because they actually didn't feel comfortable to bring it up in the meeting with marketing. And when that occurred, that brought up amazing things that were like, oh my goodness, we really have to consider this. And we had to do some course correction on some deliverables and dates, which was huge because if we did not do that, our risk would have come to fruition, which would have totally impeded the overall deliverable date. So that's why listening is extremely important and needs to be part of the effectiveness when you're looking to have really excellent communication with your stakeholders. Before we get into the rest of the tips, not only do I have this free content here on YouTube, I have this. If you want to go to the next step with me and you want to learn more at a premium level, you can enroll in Slay Project Management. It's the exact process I use for all my clients, including all the tools you'll need. I put the link in the description box below. Keep everyone in the loop. This is about mindset. This is different than the communication plan because mindset is when things are popping up as it happens. Not only are you ticking off your task list and ensuring things are on track, you're also in the front of your mind going, who else do I need to talk to? Who else needs to be aware of this or what's happening? This goes above and beyond the communication plan. Your communication plan that I said originally is just the stuff you need to lay out of the structure, but this is the mindset of keeping everyone in the loop. So there's ways to go about doing this. You can do a mindset by picking up the phone and really connecting with someone on that way to give them, hey, I just want to give you two heads up. This is happening. It's coming down the pike. I'm just dealing with it right now. So when you see it, just so you know, you can do it with a chat. You can do it with email. And in fact, in my Slay Project Management course, my students have these template emails, which is really helpful because then you can just cut and paste and change a few things. So it's not a lot of work on your end to create that in the loop email. It's just those simple little things that takes two seconds, but it's a mindset. Set expectations on how you're going to communicate with each different stakeholder. So even though you have your communication plan, which says, what are you going to do? The methods of communication, how you're going to do that with each stakeholder will be a little bit different. Why? Because your one stakeholder, which is your project team, is so much different. You're with them constantly all the time. They're subject matter experts. So how you're going to communicate with them, the expectation is going to be much different than let's say your steering committee, which is made up of senior executives, which they're there to remove roadblocks. And you probably see them every four to six weeks, depending on your frequency and the types of things you talk to them are more high level and more of a progress status. So what you're going to do and how you communicate and those expectations are so much different. So my expectation for my project team is that I need to have an idea as to what they're doing, how they're doing it. I need to keep them up to date. So I'm constantly talking to them every day, whereas with, let's say, for example, a steering committee, I'm going to kind of gather all my stuff when I need to talk to them. And I'll only really interrupt our frequency and our method of communicating and the sequencing of it, the cadence, if I have a true emergency that needs our attention ASAP. So then they know, oh my goodness, Adrienne has contacted me and she said, this was like a red, we need to talk about it immediately. They will make time for me because of it, because those expectations are set up very clearly based on who they are. So how do we set up those expectations? You're probably asking yourself very simply. It's in your charter. So this is why your planning is going to be really important and you want it in your charter. Not only have your communication plan, but the expectations that you have with everyone as well. And when you do that, as you know, with my S.L.A.Y. project management course, you have them sign the charter. So that's how you're going to get it established at the beginning of the project. Don't forget to grab this guide. The link is underneath the video. I created it just for you. If you still have questions about mastering professional communication, well, don't worry. Check out this video here. Check it out. It's going to give you some additional information. Go click. Go click right now and watch. On that note. Cheers.