Developing your Stakeholder Management Skills

Overview

This practical 3-hour session builds on the fundamentals to strengthen stakeholder engagement skills. Learners explore how relationships shift over time, how to spot and respond to resistance, and how to prioritise competing demands. Practical frameworks and real-world application provide tools to strengthen influence and maintain alignment in changing project environments.

Prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites for this course. An open mindset and willingness to participate in interactive exercises will enhance the learning experience.

Target audience

Professionals with a grounding in stakeholder management — through experience or the Fundamentals workshop — who want to build confidence in handling more complex, shifting relationships across technical and non-technical settings.

Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Identify the limits of static stakeholder tools and why engagement must adapt.
• Reassess stakeholder focus using value, risk, and project context.
• Spot signs of resistance and explore what drives challenging behaviors.
• Apply tools to build a targeted stakeholder plan and engagement approach.

Outline

• Understanding Stakeholders: Why stakeholder relationships shift over time and the importance of updating engagement approaches.
• Refining Priorities: Five strategic lenses — impact, alignment, influence, risk, and timing — for deciding where to focus effort.
• Decoding Conflict and Resistance: How to recognize early signs of disengagement, understand underlying causes, and respond constructively.
• Insights into Action: Practical planning and toolkit-building to strengthen stakeholder engagement in real contexts.

Exams and assessments

There are no formal exams or graded assessments in this course. Learners will participate in practical exercises and reflection tasks to consolidate their understanding.

Hands-on learning

This session includes:

• Interactive activities to reassess priorities as stakeholder needs shift
• Group work to explore hidden influence, resistance, and alignment
• Peer exchange to test approaches and share strategies
• Guided development of a personalized engagement toolkit to strengthen stakeholder planning