Managing Stakeholder Expectations for Project Success by Ori Schibi

«At the end of the day, project success is not about any one single competing demand, but rather about identifying which success criteria matter for stakeholders and delivering on these areas. The goal is not to deliver the full scope, on time, on budget, or a fully working product, but to meet stakeholders’ and customers’ expectations by delivering what they asked for, what was promised to them, what they needed, and what was agreed upon.»
— Ori Schibi

1 Start before you start – Readiness & Complexity

Quick check	What you’re looking for	Immediate actions
Readiness “gap”	Is the org culturally, procedurally and technologically prepared for this project?	• Run a light-weight checklist covering resources, approvals, domain expertise and competing initiatives. • Flag gaps early; closing one gap now is cheaper than patching ten later.
Complexity scan	How many moving parts and how entangled are they? (technical, organisational, environmental, people)	• Score each dimension 0-5. • Anything ≥ 4 goes straight onto your initial risk register.

Why it matters — You can’t “manage” expectations you never surfaced; readiness & complexity scores give you evidence for every expectation-setting conversation that follows.

2 Map the people, not just the org – Stakeholder Analysis

Identify all voices (power vs. interest grid).
Diagnose their soft rewards (recognition, access, influence) – these are the currencies you’ll trade in every negotiation.
Analyse attitudes (wants vs. underlying needs).
Plan engagement tailored comms, decision-rights and escalation paths.

Treat the analysis file as “must-have/eyes-only”. The candour you write with becomes leverage later.

3 Kick-off that actually kicks off

Hold a pre-kick-off (1-to-1 coffee chats) to:

break the ice, surface political landmines, calibrate success criteria.
Then run the formal session to:
confirm scope / constraints trade-offs;
publish behavioural ground-rules (how we’ll debate, decide, document);
agree “how to say no” mechanism (change control + tolerance bands).

A crisp kick-off buys you trust; a sloppy one costs you months.

4 Communications = 80 % of your job

Rule	What it looks like
Own the channels	One page comms matrix: who needs what, when, how, why.
Default to 1-to-1 first	Side-bar coffee > broadcast email for anything subtle or political.
Translate constraints	Always show impact in stakeholder-specific units (marketing hears “campaign-day risk”, finance hears “CAPEX shift”).

5 Manage the human system

Conflict

Good: Task-focused, time-boxed, ends with a decision.
Bad: Personal, never resolved, resurfaces in meetings.
Use “Verbal Judo”: pause-10-seconds > redirect to issue-not-person > hunt for a win-win trade on underlying needs.

Team Dynamics

Build trust → conflict → commitment → accountability → results (Tuckman + Lencioni mash-up).
Small, regular rituals beat rare, big team-builds (weekly stand-down coffee; celebration Slack channel).

6 Continuous expectation tuning

Visible health metrics (scope burn-up, risk “temperature”, benefit realisation).
Monthly assumption review – every red assumption spawns a risk or change item.
Success acceptance – get written criteria & sign-off before final delivery.

Readiness & Complexity -› Stakeholders & Soft-Rewards -› Pre-Kick-off coffees -› Formal Kick-off -› Tailored Comms & Rapid Conflict loops -› Metrics & Assumption reviews

Run that loop, and the phrase “Whose fault is it?” should vanish from your project vocabulary.

Step	What you do (practical actions)	Why it matters (book concept)	Quick construction example
1 Map the crowd	Draft a stakeholder register: list every actor who can affect or is affected by the build—owner’s rep, city inspector, design team, neighbours, utilities, trades, lenders, union officials, facilities staff.	“Stakeholder identification is one of the first things the PM needs to perform”	Put the local BID (Business Improvement District) on the list before they complain about sidewalk closures.
2 Rate and rank	For each name capture Power / Interest / Attitude and your access to them. Use 1-5 scores or colour codes.	Schibi’s “Stakeholder Analysis Brick-and-Mortar” matrix	The structural steel subcontractor: high power over schedule, high interest, positive attitude—keep them in the “Manage Closely” quadrant.
3 Surface success criteria early	Ask each high-power stakeholder: “What will make you call this project a success on hand-over day?” Capture scope, budget, safety, image, sustainability.	“Defining success through constraints” links expectations to scope-time-cost-quality	Owner cares about day-one leasing revenue, city cares about noise limits—two different ‘success’ yardsticks.
4 Write a lean Engagement Plan	For every critical stakeholder specify: goal, message, frequency, medium, and owner (RACI). Keep it one page; update monthly.	Schibi’s 7-category checklist for stakeholder engagement planning	Weekly coffee-walk with site‐super and clerk of works; fortnightly drone-photo email to investors; ad-hoc text alerts to utility rep.
5 Design communications, don’t “spray e-mail”	Choose the currency each group values (technical detail, dollars, community impact). Use the least-noise channel.	“Not a 50-50 effort”—PM must own the communications and tailor the currency	Architects get 3-D viewer exports; neighbours get a one-page flyer with weekend work hours.
6 Publish ground rules & escalation path	In the Kick-off, agree on: response times, meeting etiquette, how change orders move, who can stop work.	Kick-off should set behavioural norms and remove uncertainty	Rule: RFIs answered within 48 h; if not, GC elevates to owner’s rep on day 3.
7 Anticipate friction with a ‘Heat-Map’	Combine your complexity / readiness hints with the Power-Interest grid to shade “hot” relationships—e.g., high-power negative stakeholders during utility tie-ins. Trigger early 1-on-1s there.	Complexity & readiness assessments flag where politics can bite later	Move the community liaison from quarterly to monthly meetings just before noisy nighttime steel work.
8 Choose a conflict toolkit early	Decide up-front which method you’ll try first: collaborate→compromise→escalate. Document in the Site Comms Plan.	Book’s conflict-resolution ladder (win-win first)	When electrician and drywall crew clash over workspace, you mediate a joint resequence; if that fails, you escalate to subs’ PMs.
9 Close the loop visibly	Track promises in a simple log (date / owner / commitment / proof done). Send “You said – We did” snapshots.	Builds trust and shows reliability—key trust ingredient	After you adjust truck routing per neighbour request, text them a photo of new signage.
10 Capture lessons for the next build	End-of-phase retros: what expectation gaps emerged, why, fix for next project. Feed into your corporate playbook.	“Lessons learned are not only about lessons”—they feed readiness for future work	Note that joint review drawings on tablets cut RFIs 25 %; bake that into bid templates.

Tips that work especially well on construction jobs

Eyes-on beats inbox. A five-minute walk with the building inspector often saves a week of emails.
Use visuals. Line-of-balance charts, drone orthomosaics, cardboard mock-ups translate across disciplines.
Respect boots-on-the-ground hierarchy. Trade foremen may wield more day-to-day power than the owner’s PM—treat them accordingly.
Keep a “stakeholder reserve.” Schedule and cost contingencies specifically for late change requests from high-power players.
Celebrate small milestones together. Topping-out BBQ or simple coffee-truck voucher builds goodwill that pays off during crunch time.