Stakeholder Communication Plan: Global Green Books Publishing

Introduction

The Global Green Books case study presents a conflict of interests between the stakeholders, including the important customer and the production team. In such situations, the communication manager’s responsibility is to ensure that both parties come to an agreement by presenting the list of options and potential outcomes to the participants. Ultimately, the current report thoroughly analyzes the existing issues with the project and provides communication strategies to deliver essential information to the stakeholders.

Communication Plan Overview and Stakeholder Participation

Before developing the specific communication strategies, it is crucial to briefly discuss the stakeholders’ interests, priorities, expectations, and preliminary tactics. Table 1 below provides a project overview with a focus on stakeholders’ analysis:

Stakeholders	Expectations and Issues	Priority	Key Points	Preliminary Communication Strategies
Professor	Additional changes to the textbook; Upcoming deadline for the classes; Highest quality of the textbook.	1	Ensuring that the professor’s objectives and requests are reasonable in terms of budget and time.	Direct communication between the customer and the supervisor; Regular reports; Q&A sessions.
Production Team Supervisor	Completing the work on time; Extra costs; The increasing number of requests from the customer despite the upcoming deadline; Communicating the project details to all stakeholders.	1	Ensuring that all members of the project team have sufficient resources to complete the E-book.	Regular meetings with the project team members; Thorough planning of the stakeholders’ direct tasks and objectives.
Publishers Liaison	Obtaining permissions for the textbook; Increasing workload.	1	Providing additional funding for permissions and labor.	Bottom-up approach for determining the particular needs.
Account Manager	Worried about upsetting the customer; Company’s reputation.	2	Maintaining positive communication with the customer and protecting the company’s reputation.	Direct communication with all stakeholders.

Communication Strategies Discussion

Consequently, it is essential to discuss the proposed communication strategies in greater detail to understand their impact on the relationship with the customer and the project’s outcomes (see Table 2):

Communication Strategy	Analysis
Direct Communication	Primary method of maintaining a transparent relationship among the stakeholders (Forbes Coaches Council, 2021). In this case, the supervisor and the communication manager need to assess the necessary resources objectively and provide this information to the customer. Since the professor keeps sending more and more requirements closer to the deadline, it is essential to declare the boundaries of the project in terms of time and money to finish the E-book. In other words, the project manager should deliver the following details to the customer: project’s new costs; expected funding for obtaining permissions; deadline estimates; number of possible changes to the E-book in the terms of the current deadline and finances.
Regular updates	Regular updates (daily or weekly depending on the project development phases) are crucial to maintaining the customer informed about the E-book completion stage. In the current case, this communication strategy is slightly less effective since the project is in a contingency situation (Forbes Coaches Council, 2021). Nevertheless, keeping all stakeholders informed via regular updates is essential to have a clear understanding of objectives and deadlines.
Bottom-up approach	Lastly, it is possible to utilize the bottom-up approach to establish effective communication between all stakeholders. In this scenario, the supervisor acts as a link between the team members and the customer, while the other employees present their requirements, ideas on how to overcome the challenges, and objectives (Kellogg, 2021). For instance, information from the Publishers Liaison about obtaining permissions should guide the consequent financial planning, while the professor’s requests should determine the scheduling. As a result, this approach establishes a communication framework where the stakeholders have a clear understanding of the project’s scope and how their objectives can align with the outcomes.

References

Forbes Coaches Council. (2021). 13 ways to better keep stakeholders in the communications loop. Forbes. Web.

Kellogg, K. C. (2019). How to orchestrate change from the bottom up. Harvard Business Review. Web.