All levels of stakeholders – from the KUL A-CDM main partners to the other external stakeholders – play important roles in the success of the KUL A-CDM implementation project. Therefore, it is crucial to identify them in the early stages of the project to perform further analysis based on their impact, influence and knowledge of the system and processes involved.
To address this, the first training organised for the Change Agents is focused on Stakeholder Management. The training was conducted by Dr Valerie Jaques, a certified trainer and psychologist with experience in facilitating and developing training programs such as Managing Challenging Stakeholders, Change & Transition Management, Agile Leadership and more.
Taking into consideration the nature of the Change Agents’ work, the Stakeholder Management Training was split into 2 sessions. The first session took place on 7-8 September, while the second session was on 20-21 September.
At the beginning of the training, all Change Agents as well as members of the Project Task Force introduced themselves to the audience. This is followed by a ‘Visual Explorer’ exercise in which the Change Agents were tasked to individually select a picture that reflects what A-CDM will look like when implemented. The change agents, grouped into teams, then gave a presentation of their compiled photos.
After a short coffee break, the Change Agents then went through a ‘Change and Impacts Identification’ exercise. In this exercise, the Change Agents discussed and identified the change and impacts on process, technology, organisation and culture.
The stakeholder identification exercise was conducted after lunch. Based on the guidelines from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), the Change Agents drafted a Stakeholder Register for their respective organisations. In each Stakeholder Register, Change Agents attempted to give scores based on key aspects such as the stakeholder’s knowledge, authority, interest, influence and impact.
During the presentation, the Change Agents from other groups also added their feedback regarding the scores given. The Stakeholder Register then ties in nicely with the Power-Interest Grid, which provides guidance on how to manage the different stakeholders based on their authority and interest.
At the end of the first day, the Change Agents went through a DISC Personality Test. The scores and graphs were calculated and provided to the Change Agents the next morning for the 2nd day of the training.
Through this exercise, the Change Agents learned more about their own personality and explored more into the 4 dimensions of behaviour – namely Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance – as well as the strengths and weaknesses they entail. Besides the personality assessment, a Communication Style assessment was also conducted.
Role-playing sessions further enhance the understanding of learning points, especially in the aspects related to communicating, listening, as well as conflict management.
Each of these exercises helped enhance the stakeholder register further with useful information that the Change Agents can then utilise to affect meaningful change in their respective organisations with regards to adopting A-CDM in their operations.
There will be more training and awareness seminars planned in the next months, so keep watching this space for future updates. Periodic e-Newsletters will also be delivered to the Change Agents as part of the project’s communications plan.
