Project Managers often tend to hide changes from negative stakeholders, who focus more in creating roadblocks than contributing in the success of the project. An example of this is, in case of organization restructuring, those affected most would likely oppose everything, so you hide all changes initially and the first visibility of it occurs at implementation time. There are people who talk a lot without understanding the actual impact. This kind is interested in making noise so, at times, just to let the things move smoothly, project managers are bound to hide changes from them. But be very careful and ensure that your manager is aware of what you are doing.
You cannot hide change and ever be trusted. You have to think about why people may oppose change. The most likely reason is some kind of fear. It is natural to throw up warning flags in case of environments change, you are fearful of its consequences. The more transparent you can be the more you will be trusted. Listen to those who oppose the change and try to understand their issues first. Then try to deal with those issues directly by making those who oppose the change part of the change process.
People admit that they hide changes because they were afraid of the consequence. But, every time they did this it came back to bite them harder than it would have if they had confronted the issue instead of fearing it. So it is better to explain the issue up front and ensure that communication flows properly. You may not like the response, and the conversation may result into a conflict, but learn to face it.
In case the project manager just add in a change which is opposed by a sponsor, a project manager is just an enabler of the change. And implementing any change without authority is not recommended. Honesty has to be the top attribute of a PM. Confront the problem, one who should meet the opponents and should listen to them and try to understand why they are opposing the change. If they have valid points then it should be taken into consideration if not, the project manager should try to remove their doubts by providing satisfactory clarification or answer to their queries so that they feel satisfied and comfortable. This way one might succeed in gaining their support for the change.
Disadvantages of hiding the change from your stakeholders
- Hiding the change may delay the inevitable moment of confrontation
- People who value clarity / sincerity in communications, tend to become more annoyed when they discover the change was known but hidden.
- You may damage few relationships and burn few bridges by hiding change
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills on “Managing difficult conversations” is required to ease the pain later on.
In the end it is always safe to work out all the possibilities before taking the decision of hiding the change “even in the interest of your organization”. Maybe it was a bad idea in the first place and if it is not a bad idea, then it will likely go forward with those who opposed it, thereby fears can be noted and issues may be sufficiently addressed.
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